Troped out of history: Women, gender and nation in the poetry of Andres Bello (La 'Agricultura de la Zona Torrida', 'Alocucion a la Poesia')

The article examines the symbolic representation of gender in Andres Bello's two most celebrated 'silvas', 'Alocucion a la poesia' (1823) and 'La agricultura de la zona torrida' (1826). The aim is to explore the myths and tropes of sexual difference underpinning these founding texts and the resulting ideological and political implications. Bello's poems perpetuate a conservative gender ideology, legitimated by a neoclassical and republican appropriation of the rhetoric of classical antiquity. As a consequence, women are troped out of nation building in historical time.