ABSTRACT

Foundational narratives are formative stories that constitute core elements of a nation’s imaginary. They are narratives of relatedness that help construct national identity in setting up the idea of the nation as an imagined community bound to a particular place. The narrative construction of the nation was also pointed out by Homi Bhabha who describes the “nation’s ‘coming to being’ as a system of cultural signification” that constitutes the nation only as a political unit but also as a social one. The production of foundational narratives for American nations has been inseparably linked to the figure of Columbus. Columbus as the “discoverer” of the American continent has been crucial in both Americas, where he has been appropriated for different historical narratives and underwent changing interpretations. Critical reinterpretations of Columbus and the discourse of newness began to appear more frequently in the second half of the 20th century.