The concepts "americanidad," "americanite" and "americanidade": Peripheral perspectives

Abstract

The thesis aims at discussing one of the most influential and dominant current discourses about the Americas and their identity: the concept of americanidad. Fully developed in Hispanic Latin America in the first half of the 20th century, the concept gained great popularity in Quebec in the 1980s and 1990s (americanite), and has started to attain a certain level of recognition in Brazilian academe (americanidade). However, in its journey the concept americanidad changed, undergoing significant metamorphosis, acquiring new meanings and nuances. The thesis attempts to show the differences, similarities and parallelisms among the sister concepts americanidad, americanite and americanidade. In our attempt to map the concept and its diverse uses throughout the continent, we will also try to understand an important omission: why the analogous concept (americanity) has not been developed in the English-speaking portion of North Americas?