Bandit Nation - Book Report/Review Example

Frazer showcases how various varieties of texts have the capacity to develop a multidirectional construction of the meaning of banditry. Through this, Frazer arrives at a more negotiated and historically dynamic understanding of the aspect of national identity through discourse with regards to banditry than allowed in previous theories (Frazer 91). This paper will analyze Bandit Nation in terms of its thesis, describing Frazer’s objective for writing the book. Bandit Nation is an impressive literary work that explores banditry and barbarity in Mexico.

By placing banditry with both its domestic and international discourses at the core of both the elite and popular class, Frazer tries to visualize and construct the up-and-coming Mexican nation-state. In essence, Frazer’s book Bandit Nation performs two distinct tasks by challenging superficial perceptions of atavistic peasant outlaws, while at the same time contributing to pertinent discussions of the historical establishment of the juridical and social characterization of Mexicanidad. Frazer’s bandit critically explains and interprets the juridical balances that existed between materialistic and cultural definitions of the turbulent century subsequent to Mexico’s independence from Spain. . Such studies, such as Frazer’s are viable as they investigate the connection between popular and elite ideologies, as well as politics in the establishment of a non-unitary country or state.

Frazer’s portray of Mexican banditry in the cultural and political sense is evidenced through the dialogue between three distinct perspectives that consistently center on the description of Mexican identity in the course of different historical moments. These factors or organizing concepts are class, gender and ethnicity. Frazer effectively captures the aspects of banditry through these concepts by sufficiently attending to all the categories throughout the discourse analyses. Frazer typically acknowledges that these three groups enhance a rather patriarchal, as well as the anti-indigenous foundation for Mexican identity.

In terms of race, within the elite literature, race materializes in the form of Anglo-Saxon racial superiority. Within the Mexican elite, and popular discourses show nationalism that rather centers on mestizo thus ignores, marginalizes and assimilates the indigenous. With regard to gender, on the other hand, all three cases imply familial and social structures, which privilege respectable male authority figures over male-dependent females who are non-existent within the society (Christon 79).

The subject of class is challenged as Frazer argues that both elite literatures showcase progress, as well as modernity as solution trends to remedy the backwardness of the popular classes. However, contrary to this, the lower classes articulate a resistance to modernity. Frazer successfully in captures the essence of differences in class, race and gender within the Mexican