ABSTRACT
This article examines the way in which different narratives spread the discourses of “modern” and “progress” that created the imaginary of Venezuela as a “modern oil nation” during the Marcos Pérez Jiménez dictatorship (1952-1958). It analyses how politics and cultures played a main role organizing cultural representations that favored the creation of the myth of progress associated with oil in Venezuela. From a cultural and historical perspective, it also explores how this myth was boosted on a global scale by the power generated by oil, as a result of the new geopolitics that emerged after the Second World War; the intense transnational exchange that boosted the oil industry; and the global flows of literature, film, and mass media culture.
