Abstract

MEJIA, Edgar. Nation, Collecting and Visual Technologies in Manuel Payno's Journey to Veracruz. Lit. mex [online]. 2012, vol.23, n.2, pp.5-29. ISSN 2448-8216.

This article examines the travel account "Un viaje a Veracruz en el invierno de 1843" (1844) by Manuel Payno in the context of growing political tensions between the United States and Mexico for territorial disputes. Also I discuss the way in which the account negotiates the role of writing vis-à-vis the emergence of a new visual culture that promoted not only images (i.e. lithographs, dioramas, panoramas), but also the institutions devoted to its exhibition (i.e. magazines, museums, world's fairs). I argue that by modeling itself after various central nineteenth-century institutions and practices, such as the museum, visual technologies, and collecting, the text becomes a metaphorical repository of images which are intended to provide the framework for the building-nation process.

Keywords : travel writing; visual technologies; museum; collecting; nation.

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