Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Covino, William A.

Abstract

The role of the Intellectual in Latin America has been marked by his/her political activism. Whether engaging in nation-building like Sarmiento or Marti; or fighting against corruption and tyranny, like Vargas Llosa or the group of Chilean intellectuals who helped bring democracy back to Chile, intellectuals in Latin America leave the relative isolation of the academic world to enter the political arena. This doctoral work, divided in two parts (an academic essay and a novel), explores the struggle of intellectuals, in particular writers, who are required to function as high level politicians due to structural weaknesses in the political systems of their countries. I argue that Latin American intellectuals feel compelled to serve as politicians to fill in the void left by traditional political parties. Among the reasons I cite to support my claim are inefficient political institutions; government corruption; a weak state unable to support the necessary requirements for democracy; and popular demand, all of which call for public intellectuals to step up to the plate and amend the "perceived" prevailing political chaos. The first part of the dissertation, Public Intellectuals in Latin America: Writers and Politics, compares the achievements of intellectuals in Europe, China and the United States with that of their Latin American counterparts. The second contains an in-depth analysis of Latin American intellectuals focusing on three case studies: Sarmiento, Vargas Llosa and the group of Chilean intellectuals who were key in the transition to democracy in Chile. To round up the discussion, I include an interview with two modern day intellectuals: Dr. Eduardo Gamarra, a political analyst and Dr. Victor Bulmer-Thomas, director of the Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs. The second part, Quetzalcoatl's Feathers, is a satirical work of fiction conceived as a mordant attack on stereotypes. Set in a fictional community of English-speaking Ixil Indians (inhabiting a remote area of the Guatemalan Highlands) the novel addresses issues of ethnicity, cultural imperialism and bilingualism, as it illustrates the misadventures of two misguided, if well intentioned, fictional intellectuals bent on bringing prosperity (with careless disregard for the human cost) to their marginalized community.

Extent

311 p.

Comments

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2004.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters

Identifier

FADT12098

Format

pdf

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