The representation of national identity in Mexican architecture: Two case studies (1680 and 1889).

详细信息   

• 作者：Fernandez ; Maria Auxiliadora.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：1993
• 导师：Pasztory,Esther,eadvisor
• 毕业院校：Columbia University
• CBH：9333760
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：16808011
• Pages：435

文摘

This dissertation examines the representation of national identity in Mexican architecture,a subject which until now had not been studied systematically. Two buildings are used as case studies: a triumphal arch designed by Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora in 1680 for the ceremonial entry of a new Spanish viceroy to Mexico City,and the Pavilion of Mexico in the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris. Both buildings were government commissions. Informed by theories of identity,nation and representation in a variety of disciplines,this study argues that colonies and dependent countries are subject to foreign influence in the definition and representation of national identity. The dissertation establishes that the designs of both the arch and the pavilion were responses to social and economic imperatives rooted in a dialectic between the nation and the outside. Each building is analyzed in the context of Mexicos social and political history. Contrary to the conventional view that ethnic and national identity are represented through artistic style,this dissertation proposes that Mexican national identity has been represented primarily through decorative themes and motifs based on Pre-Columbian antiquity. It argues that these representations unite the local and the international both formally and conceptually. Furthermore,it proposes that in each of the buildings studied representations of the local were differently formulated and met different objectives. In Siguenzas arch images of the local were developed internally and signified cultural resistance to Spanish domination； in the pavilion the representations of the local were constructed abroad,adopted locally,and simultaneously signaled difference and seduction. This change is attributed to the commercialization of difference already evident in nineteenth-century world fairs. As no images of Siguenzas arch survive,the dissertation includes a series of contemporary illustrations based on a textual description of the building by the designer. In contrast to the notion that reconstructions are objective constructs,this study argues that reconstructions have subjective aspects. Reconstruction is discussed in relation to theories of imagining and visual representation in both the visual arts and scientific illustration.