The Postmodernism Debate in Latin America

by Beverley, John; Oviedo, Jose´; Aronna, Michael; Brunner, Jose Joaquin (CON)

• ISBN13: 9780822316145
• ISBN10: 0822316145
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-05-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Postmodernism may seem a particularly inappropriate term when used in conjunction with a region that is usually thought of as having only recently, and then unevenly, acceded to modernity. Yet in the last several years the concept has risen to the top of the agenda of cultural and political debate in Latin America. This collection explores the Latin American engagement with postmodernism, less to present a regional variant of the concept than to situate it in a transnational framework. Recognizing that postmodernism in Latin America can only inaccurately be thought of as having traveled from an advanced capitalist "center" to arrive at a still dependent neocolonial "periphery," the contributors share the assumption that postmodernism is itself about the dynamics of interaction between local and metropolitan cultures in a global system in which the center-periphery model has begun to break down. These essays examine the ways in which postmodernism not only designates the effects of this transnationalism in Latin America, but also registers the cultural and political impact on an increasingly simultaneous global culture of a Latin America struggling with its own set of postcolonial contingencies, particularly the crisis of its political left, the dominance of neoliberal economic models, and the new challenges and possibilities opened by democratization. With new essays on the dynamics of Brazilian culture, the relationship between postmodernism and Latin American feminism, postmodernism and imperialism, and the implications of postmodernist theory for social policy, as well as the text of the Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle of the Zapatatista National Liberation Army, this expanded edition ofboundary 2will interest not only Latin Americanists, but scholars in all disciplines concerned with theories of the postmodern.Contributors. Xavier Alboacute;, Joseacute; Joaquiacute;n Brunner, Fernando Calderoacute;n, Enrique Dussel, Neacute;stor Garciacute;a Canclini, Martiacute;n Hopenhayn, Neil Larsen, the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group, Norbert Lechner, Mariacute;a Milagros Loacute;pez, Raquel Olea, Aniacute;bal Quijano, Nelly Richard, Carlos Rincoacute;n, Silviano Santiago, Beatriz Sarlo, Roberto Schwarz, and Hernaacute;n Vidal

Table of Contents

Note to This Edition	vii
Introduction	1	(17)
John Beverley
Jose Oviedo
Our Identity Starting from Pluralism in the Base	18	(16)
Xavier Albo
Notes on Modernity and Postmodernity in Latin American Culture	34	(21)
Jose Joaquin Brunner
Latin American Identity and Mixed Temporalities; or, How to be Postmodern and Indian at the Same Time	55	(10)
Fernando Calderon
Eurocentrism and Modernity (Introduction to the Frankfurt Lectures)	65	(12)
Enrique Dussel
The Hybrid: A Conversation with Margarita Zires, Raymundo Mier, and Mabel Piccini	77	(16)
Nestor Garcia Canclini
Postmodernism and Neoliberalism in Latin America	93	(17)
Martin Hopenhayn
Postmodernism and Imperialism: Theory and Politics in Latin America	110	(25)
Neil Larsen
Latin American Subaltern Studies Group / Founding Statement	135	(12)
A Disenchantment Called Postmodernism	147	(18)
Norbert Lechner
Postwork Society and Postmodern Subjectivities	165	(27)
Maria Milagros Lopez
Feminism: Modern or Postmodern?	192	(9)
Raquel Olea
Modernity, Identity, and Utopia in Latin America	201	(16)
Anibal Quijano
Cultural Peripheries: Latin America and Postmodernist De-centering	217	(6)
Nelly Richard
The Peripheral Center of Postmodernism: On Borges, Garcia Marquez, and Alterity	223	(18)
Carlos Rincon
Reading and Discursive Intensities: On the Situation of Postmodern Reception in Brazil	241	(9)
Silviano Santiago
Aesthetics and Post-Politics: From Fujimori to the Gulf War	250	(14)
Beatriz Sarlo
National by Imitation	264	(18)
Roberto Schwarz
Postmodernism, Postleftism, and Neo-Avant-Gardism: The Case of Chile's Revista de Critica Cultural	282	(25)
Hernan Vidal
Reply to Vidal (from Chile)	307	(4)
Nelly Richard
Zapatista National Liberation Army / Declaration from the Lacandon Jungle	311	(3)
Contributors	314	(4)
Index	318