Between arts and culture: Josefina Plá and the essay El Barroco Hispano Guaraní

Abstract

This work is originally part of the PhD thesis defended in 2018, in the Post-graduation Program in Neo-Latin Letters, at UFRJ. The objective is an analysis of the essay El barroco hispano guarani, authored by Josefina Plá. In this way, we think of the artistic universe of Josefina Plá as a complex synthesis of Paraguayan culture, which, by the way, also represents Latin American culture. We look for critical aspects about the local socio-cultural formation, developed in her essay works that are found in all or her intellectual project. Likewise, we demonstrate the convergence between the Guarani and Spanish cultures in the Paraguayan cultural formation, exploring its hybrid character. With this, we explore an autonomous modernity on the part of Latin America, a modernity that would pass through the recognition given that it is proper to this region, without measuring as superior or inferior whatever faith it possesses in terms of the local cultural fabric. We also think that it is the intellectual project of Josefina Plá in respect to the appreciation of the Guarani percentage of Paraguayan culture. For this, we will use the ideas of two studies by Severo Sarduy (1972) Bella Jozef (2005), Stuar Hall (2016), Coser (2006), Chiampi (2010) and Tìcio Escobar (2014).