The Representation of Popular Canonization in the Discourse of Contemporary Urban Space

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Romance Languages - Spanish Studies, grade: 1,3, Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel (Romanistik), language: English, abstract: The topic and aim of this paper is to have a closer look at different aspects of the so-called "popular canonization", especially in Argentina. First of all there will be a delineation between official canonization and the concept of popular "canonization". The focus will then be on the dynamism of this type of veneration in Argentina, i.e. its expansion from rural areas to profane urban spaces. The selected examples of folk saints will be Gauchito Gil and San La Muerte, which are both figures, whose popularity was continuously increasing over the past decades. Additionally, the situation in Europe will be taken into consideration to demonstrate if popular "canonization" is also expanding throughout this continent.