Maximilian, Mexico, and the invention of empire
By: Kristine Ibsen.
Publisher: Vanderbilt University Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Nashville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 210
ISBN-13: 9780826516886
Subjects: Maximilian, -- Emperor of Mexico, -- 1832-1867 -- Historiography; Carlota, -- Empress, consort of Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, -- 1840-1927 -- Historiography; Manet, Édouard, -- 1832-1883; Paso, Fernando del, -- 1935-; Juárez (Motion picture); Mexico -- History -- European intervention, 1861-1867 -- Historiography
Description: "In Maximilian, Mexico, and the Invention of Empire, the cultural legacy of the Second Mexican Empire is examined as essential to modern understandings of empire and nation. The Second Empire refers to the brief period (1864-1867) during which Napoleon III sought to consolidate his control in Mexico by installing an Austrian archduke as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico. Far from fading into obscurity upon Maximilian's fall and execution, however, the episode has continued to resonate in the cultural imaginary." "That resonance becomes the theme in this book, as the author skillfully crafts a cross-disciplinary analysis that demonstrates how resistance to the Empire helped consolidate Mexican political and cultural identity, as well as how this episode was appropriated outside Mexico as a symbol of popular triumph over autocratic rule. The book begins with a discussion of empire and nation in visual culture and the opposition press during the occupation, and subsequent chapters are dedicated to Edouard Manet's Execution of Maximilian series (1867-1869), the antifascist film Juarez (USA, 1939), and Mexican Fernando del Paso's novel Naticias del Imperio (1987). By examining the multiple modes through which history may be narrated, this book elucidates how creative works create meaning and effect political change."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Inventing an empire and imagining the nation : visual culture in occupied Mexico; title: The view from Paris : spectacle and spectator in Edouard Manet's Execution of Maximilian; title: Showing the invisible : the cinematic use of the past in Juárez (1939); title: Eyes to see otherwise : Fernando del Paso's Noticias del imperio on the edge of empire.