The ads corner in costumbrista literature

Abstract

The ads corner, an informative and advertising format, simbolyzes the processes of commercialization of public opinion and society which took place in the 19th century’s second half. An intermedial and multimodal space benefitting from the perceptive conditions of public space, this means of communication allows us to acknowledge some of the economic, social and cultural changes taking place in Spain and Latin America during the 19th century. Visual culture (paintings, illustrations), as well as different genres of «costumbrista» or Panoramic writings, represented and interpreted this semiotic space on several occasions. We will focus our analysis on two Costumbrista articles, «Esquina de Avisos» (1865), from the Colombian author José María Vergara y Vergara, and «La conquista de la esquina» (1896), from the Mexican writer Ángel de Campo Valle. 19th century cultural tensions, as well as the competition for attracting attention in a public space, characterized by message proliferation, are two processes identified and represented in Costumbrista writings.