The travel narratives, diaries, and letters of Alexander von Humboldt on the eve of independence.

Abstract

The published travel narratives, numerous letters, and unedited diaries of Alexander von Humboldt constitute a paradigmatic shift in the form of travel narratives from the 18th century Enlightenment to the 19th century Romanticism. In these works we find elements of new styles of writing which emerged on the eve of American independence and which stay as a contradictory spectator to the changes in Europe, which affected Spain with the Napoleonic invasion. The form of presenting results (his Humboldtian writing, in the words of Ette) indicated the modernity of Humboldt in creating a innovative discourse about the New World and a unique perspective which leds to an interesting discussion about the possible existence of new modernities other than the European one.