Visions and visualizations: The nation in South American postcards in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century

The article deals with the visual representation of South American nations in postcards in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Despite research being broad on nation and nationality, quite often these works are limited to textual media. And although some works do analyze visual media, there is a research gap as far as postcards and their role in the representation of nation and nationality and in the process of the construction of national identity are concerned. The article aims at closing this gap, a task which is essential because the images transmitted in the form of postcards circulated very widely: transnationally, transculturally, and overcoming class limits. Five groups of motives that (re-) present the South American nations in postcards are to be distinguished, examined and interpreted in this article.