Eva Lencina
En este artículo, interesa abordar The Purple Land (1885), una de las obras más conocidas del naturalista y escritor angloargentino William Henry Hudson, a partir de su doble y contradictoria recepción crítica, sucedida tanto en el campo literario inglés que la vio nacer como en el argentino que la leyó ya en el siglo XX. Ambas valoraciones críticas, de signos e intereses opuestos, mediatizan y condicionan la recepción de la obra. Buscamos ese “otro” Hudson, cautivo e invisibilizado entre dos grandes apropiaciones culturales: el pastoralista victoriano y el gaucho exiliado.
In this article, our interest is to address The Purple Land (1885), one of the better-known works by Anglo-Argentine naturalist and writer William Henry Hudson, from its double and contradictory critical reception, which takes place both in the English literary field where it is conceived, and in the Argentinian one, that reads it already in the 20th century. Both critical assessments, which have opposed interests and gestures, mediate and determine the reception of the work. We look for that “other” Hudson, captive and unseen between two important cultural appropriations: the Victorian pastoralist and the exiled gaucho.