Ezer Vierba
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226342313
- eISBN:
- 9780226342597
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226342597.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
The Singer’s Needle looks at the relationship between form, subject-formation and power in three historical settings in twentieth century Panama. It analyzes the Liberal reform and its aftermath ...
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The Singer’s Needle looks at the relationship between form, subject-formation and power in three historical settings in twentieth century Panama. It analyzes the Liberal reform and its aftermath (1912-1935) by looking at the flagship of its punitive apparatus: the penal colony on the Island of Coiba. It then examines the rule of José Antonio Remón and the judicial drama that followed his assassination (1947-58). Finally, it explores the “disappearance” of Father Héctor Gallego, a radical who transformed the mountainous region of Santa Fe (1966-72). The book argues that in these three historical settings, forms of writing and symbolic social behavior were crucial for the maintenance of power relations or their undoing. Extending Michel Foucault’s notion that power and knowledge are tied, the book grapples with the question of how to write about power formations without becoming complicit in their functioning. Written as a pastiche of traditional history and prose fiction, the book juxtaposes various interpretative and aesthetic frameworks and brings to the surface of the text various layers of historical meaning. This approach offers new insights into the nature of subjectivity and the role that historical narratives themselves play in perpetuating regimes of knowledge and power, while deconstructing the role of authorship in the text itself.Less
The Singer’s Needle looks at the relationship between form, subject-formation and power in three historical settings in twentieth century Panama. It analyzes the Liberal reform and its aftermath (1912-1935) by looking at the flagship of its punitive apparatus: the penal colony on the Island of Coiba. It then examines the rule of José Antonio Remón and the judicial drama that followed his assassination (1947-58). Finally, it explores the “disappearance” of Father Héctor Gallego, a radical who transformed the mountainous region of Santa Fe (1966-72). The book argues that in these three historical settings, forms of writing and symbolic social behavior were crucial for the maintenance of power relations or their undoing. Extending Michel Foucault’s notion that power and knowledge are tied, the book grapples with the question of how to write about power formations without becoming complicit in their functioning. Written as a pastiche of traditional history and prose fiction, the book juxtaposes various interpretative and aesthetic frameworks and brings to the surface of the text various layers of historical meaning. This approach offers new insights into the nature of subjectivity and the role that historical narratives themselves play in perpetuating regimes of knowledge and power, while deconstructing the role of authorship in the text itself.
Ezer Vierba
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780226342313
- eISBN:
- 9780226342597
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226342597.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Latin American History
The chapter deals with the period of state-building under the Liberal Belisario Porras through a discussion of the construction of the penal colony in the Island of Coiba. While modern criminology ...
More
The chapter deals with the period of state-building under the Liberal Belisario Porras through a discussion of the construction of the penal colony in the Island of Coiba. While modern criminology prescribed the construction of urban penitentiaries, the penal colony can be understood within the larger liberal state-building project. It was supposed to boost modern agricultural production, to rehabilitate the prisoner while teaching him to work, to colonize the “savage” interior of the country, and to connect its resources with the urban center. It is argued that Coiba was appealing to the liberals because it encapsulated the notion that in order for Panama to gain sovereignty, it had to be strong enough to “stand on its own”; in order to do so the government had to colonize the interior and civilize its lower classes.Less
The chapter deals with the period of state-building under the Liberal Belisario Porras through a discussion of the construction of the penal colony in the Island of Coiba. While modern criminology prescribed the construction of urban penitentiaries, the penal colony can be understood within the larger liberal state-building project. It was supposed to boost modern agricultural production, to rehabilitate the prisoner while teaching him to work, to colonize the “savage” interior of the country, and to connect its resources with the urban center. It is argued that Coiba was appealing to the liberals because it encapsulated the notion that in order for Panama to gain sovereignty, it had to be strong enough to “stand on its own”; in order to do so the government had to colonize the interior and civilize its lower classes.
