Latin America Writes Back
Postmodernity in the Periphery. An Interdisciplinary Cultural Perspective
Ed. Emil Volek
After years of marginalization in the international debate on global change, Latin American scholars present their own response to the theories and practices of postmodernity in this collection of essays. The editor of this volume has assembled contributions across a range of interdisciplinary perspectives that illuminate contemporary Latin American culture by high-lighting from within many changes scarcely noticed in Europe and the U.S. Issues discussed in light of these recent changes include the notorious Latin American conflicts with modernity, the vexing problems of cultural identity, strategies of resistance to global trends, and the pervasive misconceptions about Latin American culture perpetuated within the United States and Europe. Together the essays clarify that Latin America is neither what is used to be nor what it is expected to be, but rather a new reality long overlooked by the world beyond.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Is Changing Reality, Changing Paradigm: Who Is Afraid of Postmodernity?
Emil Volek
Part I. Macondo or Death, But Not Exactly: The Case of Unrequited Modernity That Does Not Go Away
Chapter 1
Traditionalism and Modernity in Latin American Culture
José Joaquín Brunner
Chapter 2
Modernity and Postmodernity in the Periphery
Jesús Martín Barbero
Chapter 3
Communications: Decentering Modernity
Jesús Martín Barbero
Part II. Changing Identities, or “Where do we come from” and “Where we are going?”
Chapter 4
The Challenges of Postmodernity and Globalization: Multiple or Fragmented Identities?
Fernando Ainsa
Chapter 5
Postmodernism and Latin American Identity
Jorge Larraín
Chapter 6
Latin American Identity—Dramatized
José Joaquín Brunner
Part III. Changing Realities, Politics, Arts: Strategies of/for Resistance
Chapter 7
Autochthonous Cultures and the Global Market
Mario Roberto Morales
Chapter 8
Post-Cities and Politics: New Urban Movements in the Two Americas
Armando Silva
Chapter 9
Modern and Postmodern Aesthetics in Contemporary Argentine Theater (1985–1997)
Osvaldo Pelletieri
Chapter 10
Polarized Modernity: Latin America at the Postmodern Juncture
Raúl Bueno
Chapter 11
The Latin American Writer in These Postmodern Times
Abelardo Castillo
Part IV. Changing Cultural Dossier: Some Classic Texts from the 1990s
Chapter 12
Variations on Postmodernity, or, What Does the Latin American Postboom Mean?
Mempo Giardinelli
Chapter 13
Latin America and Postmodernity
Nelly Richards
Chapter 14
Critique of Global Philosophy, Five Hundred Years Later
Rafael Ángel Herra
Chapter 15
Cultural Topologies
Daniel Altamiranda and Hernán Thomas
Afterword
Postmodernity in the Periphery Is Not What You Think
Horacio Machín