COLONIAL TROPES AND POSTCOLONIAL TRICKS: REWRITING THE TROPICS IN THE NOVELA DE LA SELVA.

The article focuses on novela de la selva, a genre of poem, and argues that the derivative proclivities of the genre are parodic, instantiating the novelists' attempt to reclaim their environmental and narrative terrain and to reinscribe them from an indigenous perspective. The poem "Adocución a la Poesia," was composed by the Venezuelan poet and statesman by Andrés Bello in 1823. The poem instantiates a classic colonial encounter between the Latin American writer and the chequered legacy of the imperial past. Novela de la selva flourished almost a century after this poem, but nevertheless perpetuated its discourse of tropical excess and alterity. The paper demonstrates how Europe's colonial legacy in Latin America was not suppressed, but became a catalyst for the self-imaginings of the postcolonial nation.