Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Dispositio/n
ofMichigan
andLiteratures,
ofRomance
2005Department
University
Languages
THESES
AND
THE
ON
HYBRIDITY,
ANTAGONISM,
AMERICA*
IN LATIN
SUBALTERN
Bruno Bosteels
Cornell University
1
atin American subalternstudies emerge out of two related but
apparentlyheterogeneoussources. The firstsource,which is primarilyof a historico-politicalnature,comes in response to the
last successful revolutionaryexperience on the continent,with the rise to
power and the subsequentelectoral defeatof the Sandinistasin Nicaragua.
More generally,the strandof subalternthinkingthat correspondsto this
of most,if not all,
firstsource is forcedto registerthe loss of referentiality
to
the rationalcore
related
political projectsthatwere directlyor indirectly
of Marxism.
* Thispaperwasfirst
LanoftheModern
atthe2001Annual
Meeting
presented
I hadhopedtoexpand
whichwasheldinNewOrleans.
guagesAssociation,
that
tothetexts
a muchmorepainstaking
eachthesisso as toincorporate
reply
forthisdebate:John
interlocutors
serveas theconstant
Subalternity
Beverley,
DukeUniversity
inCultural
andRepresentation:
(Durham:
Theory
Arguments
of
ThePolitics
ofDifference:
TheExhaustion
Moreiras,
Press,1999),Alberto
Studies(Durham:Duke University
Cultural
LatinAmerican
Press,2001),
andSubalterNeoliberalism
TheOtherSideofthePopular:
Gareth
Williams,
andthetwo
Duke
in
America
Latin
Press,
2002),
University
(Durham:
nity
TheLatinAmerican
andintroduced
editions
byIleanaRodrguez,
prepared
DukeUniversity
Reader(Durham:
Studies
Subaltern
Press,2001)andConverlatinoamericanos
subalternos/contextos
Estudios
de
estado,
gencia tiempos:
andonly
subalternidad
cultura,
Rodopi,2001).Maythisfirst
(Amsterdam:
to
indebtedness
ofmytremendous
however
be a token,
footnote
insufficient,
forfuture
as wellas anearnest
thiscollective
work,
repayment.
148
BRUNO BOSTEELS
2
These two sources are of unequal weightforthe various groups and
subgroups that give shape to the field of subalternstudies in and about
Latin America. Thus, JohnBeverley and Ileana Rodriguez can easily be
150
BRUNO BOSTEELS
152
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154
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8
156
BRUNO BOSTEELS
11
Latin American cultural studies, in theirvarious subalternorientations,stillhave to come to gripswithan even deeper problem,namely,with
the veryrelationbetween artand politics,and by extension,between literary criticismand political theory,which seems to underlie an ill-defined
notionof cultureas such.
For much of thetwentiethcentury,the most importanttrendsof critical and dialectical reason have tendedto sutureartonto politics,and to delegate the capacities for thought to the twin operations of either
aestheticizingpolitics or politicizingartand literature.Subalternstudiesare
perhaps no exception in this regard. In fact,the critical insistenceon the
158
BRUNO BOSTEELS