The “paratopía” of the american jesuit’ exile: Natural history and literary narrative in Juan Ignacio Molina, Francisco Javier Clavijero and Juan de Velasco

Abstract

In Historical-Naturalists texts of J. I. Molina (1987 [1810], 2000 [1788]), F. J. Clavijero (1991 [1780]) and J. de Velasco (1946 [1789]) appreciates the complexity of the subject that he enunciates from a paratopía (Maingueneau, 2004) which we recognize as that of “American Jesuit exile”, using literary forms and discursive strategies that reveal a system of symbolic-literary appropriation of the American space, been founded on the experience and “the justice vocation that encourages to the narration” (Oyarzún, 2008:9). It is a question of a complex speech that together with being “scientist”, incorporates elements that will contribute to prefiguraciones of the nation “criolla” (Brading, 1991), linked to nature (Molina), to ancient history (Clavijero) and mith (Velasco). My approach to these natural histories is oriented to give account how the experience of the space “criollo” influenced in the forms of representation of the American reality from a subject in the exile that is institued narratively like agent of “truth” on the New World.