Regional geographies in Argentine. Image and valorization of territory during the first half of 19th century

Abstract

As in other Western nations, regional geographies written in Argentina in the early 20th century offered ways of seeing and ordering the growing differences and the assymetrical social relations within the nation building process. The Argentine case enables us to revise many historiographical and conceptual problems involved in regional narratives as a writing method capable of conveying a country as a whole. First, I shall propose some general reflections about regionalization practice and the notion of regionality. Second, I will examine a particular regional division that became a canonical scheme to represent the Argentine territory in the school system: the Geographical Regions of Argentina. Finally, I will discuss some likely connections between the emergence of the regional topic in the political arena and the elaboration of the first specialized geographical narratives in Argentina in the early decades of the 20th century.