Monarchical discourse in the «Loa al virrey Fernando de Abascal y Sousa» and other poems by José Joaquín de Olmedo

Abstract

Political poetry written during the crisis of the monarchical system and the subsequent independence has not received sufficient attention from literary critics. For this reason, this study examines one of the last examples of poems of circumstances on the occasion of the accession of Viceroy Fernando de Abascal. The use of classical mythology and the festive apparatus that celebrates the king as the centerpiece of the empire are the motifs that stand out in the first production of the Guayaquil poet José Joaquín de Olmedo. It should be noted, however, that before the political crisis produced in the peninsula in 1808, due to the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the first revolutionary ideals officially appeared on the scene. Therefore, this paper argues that these productions attempt to legitimize the defense of imperial space and the sustainability of the regime in the early years of the nineteenth century. The construction of the monarchical discourse in Olmedo’s poetry consolidates the role of the literate city and the intellectual as agents of the monarchical discourse.