Literary Sociabilities in 19th-Century Bolivia.

A Methodological Proposal

Abstract

This article proposes a methodological approach to the study of associative practices among 19th-century Bolivian writers, understanding literature not as an isolated individual endeavor but as the result of concrete intellectual networks. Drawing on the concept of sociability developed by historians such as Maurice Agulhon and Roger Chartier, it examines forms of cultural association in dialogue with the press and the political context of the time, to show how they structured and consolidated the emerging public sphere. After a brief overview of theoretical and regional precedents, the text focuses on the Bolivian case through documented examples of associations and periodicals, highlighting the relevance of these spaces for literary and scientific production, as well as for symbolic modernization processes. The article argues that these literary sociabilities were fundamental to the construction of a national intellectual identity in the absence of a consolidated state institutional framework.