Fiona Clark

(Dr. Clark conducted research at the Bakken in July 2003)     

My trip to the Bakken Library was a continuation of the research undertaken for my doctoral thesis on the Gazeta de Literatura de México, 1788-1795, edited by José Antonio Alzate y Ramírez.   During attendance at the Bakken conference on the History of the lightning rod in November 2002 it had come to my attention that the library held a nearly full collection of Abbé Rozier’s Journal de Physique published in Paris from 1771.   A quick investigation into a couple of the volumes during my November visit was sufficient to alert me to the transfer of information between the French Journal and the Mexican Gazeta .   Such a use of information falls well into the well-known miscegenation of texts during the eighteenth century, especially in periodical publications.   It is, however, an area that has remained completely untouched in studies on Mexican periodicals.   My primary focus was, therefore, to find as many of these cross-textual occurrences as possible.   By tracing these articles and references it will be possible to study the use of translation between the French and the Spanish, and even English to French to Spanish.   It will also become apparent how the author used textual layout, commentaries, footnotes etc. to develop the reader’s focus in a certain direction.   Such an analysis will hopefully also allow for further comparison with other French periodicals where similar articles were reprinted, or even first printed.   This investigation will highlight the interplay between the eighteenth-century periodical press on a trans-Atlantic level.   It further shows that the Spanish domains were not experiencing as long a delay in the appropriation and adaptation of European ideas, specifically in science and technology, as has often been maintained.   I hope to publish my findings on this particular project as an article on the use of translation of language and ideas in the Gazeta de Literatura de México.

General description of research:

The Gazeta de Literatura de México, 1788 – 1795 , edited by José Antonio Alzate y Ramírez, is an innovative and singular example of a scientific periodical published in New Spain in the late eighteenth century.   This study examines the means by which the Gazeta addresses the ideas and concerns of both an individual and wider society in the local and international setting. The first chapter presents the periodical within the context of the history of the periodical press in Europe and Spanish America , specifically the scientific press. The second chapter presents the biographical details of the editor within the social context of the enlightened elite in Mexico City , highlighting the close links between the material in the Gazeta and Alzate’s role as a priest, patriot and scientist in the universal community of science and the Republic of Letters . The analysis of the Gazeta in the third chapter provides a wider picture of the form and function of the periodical. This is achieved by examining the editor’s comments, a statistical breakdown of the content and publication details, and the nature of the Gazeta’ s relationship with contemporary periodicals.   The fourth and final chapter is a study of discourse on the four main areas investigated by Alzate y Ramírez: the Natural World; Technology and Commerce; City and Society; and History and Nationhood.   It is argued that these individual discourses are united under the overall discourse of Identity for the Mexican reader, as envisioned by Alzate. The Gazeta serves as an instrument of enlightenment in New Spain but this transmission of ideas does not signify passive adoption. Instead, it evidences a critical analysis and adaptation to serve the local situation becoming a didactic tool through which Alzate imparts a pragmatic understanding of science to his contemporaries, and defends the Americas against European misconceptions.

Fiona Clark
Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland
Email: fio_uk@yahoo.com

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