Feminist Republicanism from 19th Century Latin America

print culture as a form of occupation of the public sphere

Abstract

Traditional English and Anglo-Saxon republican theory has been described by Jacqueline Broad (2021) and Lena Halldenius (2015) as historically centered on male public experiences and as excluding women’s philosophical and political contributions. Arguing in favor of the Atlantic Enlightenment as a theoretical horizon (Pugliese 2026), this article argues for a geopolitical expansion of republican theory, aiming to show how examples drawn from nineteenth-century Latin American pre-republican movements allow for a critical deepening of the tensions between the concepts of positive and negative liberty while also introducing new normative elements—most notably, the centrality of equality. Examining the mode of production of the political philosophy of Brazilian women and the writings of nineteenth-century Argentine and Mexican women (Duarte, 2017; Souto, 2022; Ramirez, 2023 and Rodríguez, 2025), I argue that print culture constitutes an emerging public sphere (Morel; 2005) in Latin America actively occupied by these thinkers and should be recognized as a fundamental dimension of their political agency and philosophical-theoretical expression.