The galleys of history: Mirages and madness of a journey

Abstract

The term galleys crosses various semantic fields: nautical (a type of vessel used for centuries), culinary (the space in a boat or plane where food is prepared), and print (the printer’s proof of a publication along with the metal plate displaying the composed type). This multiplicity of meanings is also appropriate to use with the metaphor galleys of history given that it conveys the symbols of taking a trip and the means of doing so in the first two fields, while conveying writing in the third. A dynamic image of history cannot be conceived without referring to a movement toward the past, and from there, toward the present and the future. Regarding this navigation and reflection, Nietzsche states: Thus, the person of experience and reflection writes history. Anyone who has not lived through something greater and higher than everyone else will not know how to interpret anything great and lofty from the past. The utterance of the past is always an oracular pronouncement. You will understand it only as a master builder of the future and as a person who knows about the present. (On the Use and Abuse of History for Life).

Publication Title

Redefining Latin American Historical Fiction: The Impact of Feminism and Postcolonialism

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