Abstract

ARPINI, Adriana María. Another conception of history: the critical views of R. E. Betances and J.-A. Firmin. Latinoamérica [online]. 2017, n.65, pp.171-194. ISSN 2448-6914.  https://doi.org/10.22201/cialc.24486914e.2017.65.56895.

In order to critically appraise aspects of the revolutionary process of the Caribbean island of the nineteenth century, this article deals with texts of Ramón E. Betances (1827-1898) and Joseph-Anténor Firmin (1850-1911), who dialogue with the ideas prevailing in its epoch in respect to the sense of history, the relations of recognition and subordination, and the diversity of races. It examines the European and modern construction of the notion of “universal history” and of the place of the concept of “race”; then, the practice of relating “singular histories”, as proposed by Betances; finally, Firmin’s disruptive response, which questions Gobineau’s thesis on racial inequality, and introduces a criterion of historical interpretation that anticipates the notion of “event.”

Keywords : History; Race; Occurrence; Biographic writing; J-A. Firmin; R. E. Betances.

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