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Latin American postcolonial theoriesSantiago Castro-Gmezaa Universidad Javeriana, Bogot, Colombia

To cite this Article Castro-Gmez, Santiago(1998) 'Latin American postcolonial theories', Peace Review, 10: 1, 27 33To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/10402659808426118URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10402659808426118

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Peace Review 10:1 (1998), 27-33

Latin American Postcolonial TheoriesSantiago Castro-Gmez

During the late 1970s a new field of investigation called "postcolonial studies"began to consolidate itself in Western universities, especially those in Britain andthe United States. The discourses emerged from influential university chairs heldby refugees or sons and daughters of foreigners and immigrants. These individ-uals were socialized in two worlds differing in language, religion, traditions, andsocio-political organization. They were acquainted with both the world ofcolonized nations, which they or their parents abandoned for some reason oranother, and the world of industrialized countries in which they live and worktoday as intellectuals or academics. At a time when postmodern, structuralist,and feminist theory enjoyed a privileged position in the intellectual Anglo-Saxonworld, these people considered themselves to be "Third World intellectuals of theFirst World," thus defining the form in which they began to reflect on problemsrelating to colonialism.

Departing from institutionally accepted studies such as anthropology, literarycriticism, ethnology, and historiography, postcolonial theorists articulated acritique of colonialism which substantially differs from anticolonial narratives ofthe 1960s and 1970s. During that period academic circles popularized a type ofdiscourse which emphasized the revolutionary rupture from the capitalist systemof colonial domination. Working within the geopolitical spaces opened by theCold War, as well as the environments created by Asian and African indepen-dence movements, this discourse focused on the fortification of national identitiesof colonized countries and the construction of a society free from class antago-nism. The critique of colonialism was understood as a rupture from thestructures of oppression which had impeded the "Third World" from realizingthe European project of modernity. However, anticolonialist narratives neverpondered the epistemological status of their own discourse. Such criticism arosefrom methodologies pertaining to the social sciences, the humanities, andphilosophyfields of study that had been developed by European modernismsince the 19th century. Economic dependence, the destruction of culturalidentity, the growing poverty of the majority of the population, and thediscrimination of minorities were all phenomena considered to be "deviations"from modernity. All of these maladies, it was thought, could be rectified throughrevolution and the popular sector's seizure of power. These popular sectors, notthe bourgeoisie, would be the true "subjects of history," those who would carryout the project of "humanizing humanity," which in turn would be realizedwithin colonized nations themselves.

What postcolonial theorists began to realize is that the very language of1040-2659/98/010027-07 1998 Carfax Publishing Ltd

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2 8 Santiago Castro-Gomez

modernity, with which anticolonialists expressed themselves, is essentially locatedwithin the totalizing practices of European colonialism. Third World critiques ofcolonialism, narratives theoretically based on sociology, economics, and thepolitical sciences, could not leave behind the space in which these disciplinesreiterated the hegemonic language of modernity in colonized countries. Follow-ing the thesis of Jacq ue s Derrid a, the In dian philosopher G ayatri Spivak affirmsthat no socially diagnostic discourse can transcend the homogenizing structuresof modern rationality. This means that no sociological theory can "represent"objects found outside the totality of signs that configure the institutionality ofknowledge in modern societies. It is always anticipated that scientific knowledgeis codified within the interior of a fabric of signs that regulate the production of"meaning," such as in the creation of objects and subjects of knowledge. It isfrom a certain "politics of interpretation," then, (actualized in universities,publishing houses, centers of investigation, etc.) that a theory's "effects of truth"are produced. Furthermore, the politics of interpretation define the frontiers thatseparate one scientific discipline from another and assign determined parcels ofknowledge.

Anticolonialist narratives discursively generated a "marginalized,""exteriorized" space which agreed with the reconfiguration of intellectualstrongholds experienced by institutions responsible for creating new knowledge.In many metropolitan universities "marginality," "alterity," and "Third World-ism" were even converted into new fields of academic investigation capable ofmobilizing a considerable amount of financial assistance. The institutionalimplementation of these new objects of knowledge/investigation demanded theimportation of "practical examples" from the "Third World," such as magicalrealism, liberation theology, and any other subjects that could be classified withinthe space of "otherness." From this point of view, the emphasis of anticolonialnarratives on opposition, such as the divisions between the oppressors and theoppressed, the powerful and the meek, center and periphery, civilization andbarbarism, succeeded in strengthening the binary system of classification in-herent to metropolitan apparatuses that produce knowledge.The Indian philosopher Homi Bhabha, another central figure in postcolonialdiscourse, also criticized the institutional mechanisms that produced representa-tions of the "other" and projected it as an entity easily obscured by modernity'sethnological, anthropological, geographic, historiographic, and linguistic dis-courses. In order to legitimate itself, the European project of colonial expansionneeded to create the metaphysical self-image of conqueror: that of "Man" asgod, mak er of the world, owner and master of his own historic destiny. Th e oncesacred space of the world, considered to be vestigia Dei, is replaced by vestigiahominis, in reality object of and subject to technical manipulation.It is perhaps Edward Said who has had the most impact in postcolonialdiscourse. In studying the diverse textual formats with which Europe producesand codifies knowledge about the "Orient," Said emphasizes the connectionsbetween imperialism and the human sciences, thereby following the line ofthought delineated in the 1970s by European theorists like Michel Foucault. ThisFrench philosopher had studied the rules that outlined the truth of a discourse,showing where truth was constructed a nd ho w it circulated a nd was adm inisteredby determined instances of power. Said elaborates on this and explores the way

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Latin American Postcolonial Theories 2 9

in which European colonialist societies discursively constructed an image ofnon-metropolitan cultures, especially those found under their territorial control.The limitless power European imperialist forces exercised upon every aspect ofa locality, from its territorial boundaries to its traditional culture, warranted theproduction of a series of historical, archaeological, sociological, and ethnologicaldiscourses about the "other."

During the early 1980s a group of Indian intellectuals, identified with thehistorian Ranajid Guha, noticed Said's critical study. The works of thisgroup, later compiled under the name "subaltern studies," critiqued the anti-colonial, nationalist discourse of the Indian political class and the officialhistoriography of the independence movement. Ranajid Guha, Partha Chatter-jee, Dipesh Chakrabarty, and other authors considered such narratives to becolonialist constructions projected on to the Indian people by social scientists,historians, and political elites. India's fight for independence amidst the threat ofBritish domination was presented in the narratives as a process rooted in the"universal ethic" fleeced by the colonizers, but efficaciously recuperated byGandhi, Nehru, and other nationalist leaders. According to the subalternists, thisreliance on a supposed "moral exteriority" contained the Christian rhetoric ofvictimization, which made the masses, by dint of their oppression, morallysuperior to the colonizers. One may then conclude that the narration of theindependence movement mirrored the Christianhumanist project of universalredemption. In other words, the movement used the exact same discursivefigures tha t had succeeded in legitimating Euro pean overseas colonialism.The demystification of anticolonialist nationalism also includes a ha rsh critiqueof the imperial rhetoric of English Marxism, which employed distant examplesof anti-imperialist struggles of the "T hird W orld" in o rder to politically legitimateitself "at home." Rural insurrections, such as demonstrations, written agendas,and well advised programs of political action, were understood as manifestationsof a recently acquired (social and moral) "consciousness." Since the Indianmasses lacked the socio-historical literacy in which to base their politicallysubversive activities, the homogenizing schemes of sociological and historio-graphic discourses ignored and subsequently left their protagonist positionunwritten. According to Guha, all humanistic studies, including literature andhistoriography, functioned as strategies of subalternization in the hands of theeducated elites of India. T he y are , as Spivak would say, essentialist narratives stillsubject to colonial epistemologies which obscure cultural hybridizations, variedspaces, and contrasting identities.The postcolonial criticism of Said, Guha, Bhabha, and Spivak stresses thepersistence of colonial legacies within modern systems, as evidenced by represen-tations of the "other" generated by the social sciences which bureaucraticrationality politically administers. In the early 1990s, thinkers in the UnitedStates like Walter M ignolo, Jo hn Beverley, Alberto M oreiras, Ileana Rodriguez,and Norma Alarcon began to reflect upon the political function of LatinAmerican studies in the North American university and society. They adoptedIndian criticism and established a postcolonial restoration aptly named "LatinAmerican Studies." According to the aforementioned authors, "Area Studies,"and "Latin American Studies" in particular, have traditionally functioned as

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Latin American Postcolonial Theories 3 1

discursively "produced," from which his/her interests are represented. Thesubaltern is thus assigned a place in the temporal succession of history, and isshown the "correct" path from which he/she should base his/her politicalrevindications.Jo hn Beverley seeks to break from the hum anistic view concern ing intellectualsin order to arrive at post-representational forms of theory. In Literature and Politics(1990) he advanced that literary theory is not a mere superstructural reflectionof the economic sphere, but rather a discourse involved in social formationthrough its presence within the educational apparatus. Later, in Against Literature(1993), he presents the university as an institution in which almost all hegemonicand counter-hegemonic societal struggles occur. Beverley understands struggle asa deconstruction of the humanistic discourses that formed the patriarchal subjectand the modern bourgeois. The struggle signals another type of extra-academic,non-literary practice that resists representation in the "critical discourse" ofintellectuals. These are differentiated voices capable of representing themselves,as is the case with Rigoberta Menchu and the Zapatista Army of Liberation.Beverley considers criticism of humanistic discourses that deal with LatinAmerica as liberating therapy, a "psychoanalysis of literature," which shouldraise the intellectual's consciousness regarding what Spivak calls the "epistemicviolence" attached to his/her heroic fantasies. Liberated from his/her "will ofrepresentation," the literary critic may be capable of efficaciously acting withinthe bound aries that M ichel de Certau calls a "micropolitics of the m undan e," thesite where social conflicts more closely affect his/her own life, the university.

Walter Mignolo also comments on the authority of the canon in NorthAmerican universities, which defines the true territories of knowledgeabout "Latin America." Some members of the Latin American Group ofSubaltern Studies adopt the Indian model of postcolonial theorization and use itto assess Latin American colonial situations. Mignolo, however, thinks that thismodel corresponds to a very specific locus rooted in India's British colonial legacy.Instead of converting Indian postcolonial theory into a model exportable to otherperipheral zones, Mignolo tries to investigate the "local sensitivities" that accom-modated the emergence of postcolonial theories in Latin America.When Mignolo talks about "postcolonial theories" he refers to, like Bhabhaand Spivak, a critique of the epistemological legacies of colonialism, as they arereproduced by North American academia. The critique of the "teaching ma-chine" is politically relevant because it annuls the legitimacy of modernity'suniversalizing paradigms. The paradigms rendered European colonialist prac-tices as irrelevant in modern processes responsible for organizing knowledge.Basing his assertions on the theory developed by Carl Pletsch concerning thegeopolitical division within intellectual projects, Mignolo advances that between1950 and 1975 (the "third phase of capitalism's global expansion") the enuncia-tion and production of theoretical discourses were localized within the "FirstWorld," in technologically and economically developed countries. "ThirdWorld" countries were recognized only as receptors of such scientific knowledge.Mignolo wishes to investigate fully the relationship between imperialism andknowledge, how it manifests itself in the scientific practices of imperialistcountries. In his magnificent book The Darker Side of the Renaissance, this Argentine

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3 2 Santiago Castro-Gomez

thinker proposed to dem onstrate th at during the 16th century, historiographical,linguistic, and geographical knowledge was directly linked to the beginning ofEuropean expansion. In this work, as well as in previous writings, Mignoloreveals that modern science produces objects of knowledge, like "America,""The West Indies," "Latin America," or "the Third World," which functionedas colonialist strategies of subalternization. T hese strategies cannot b e interpre tedas mere "pathologies," but rather as palpable proof that modernity was anintrinsically colonialist and genocidal project. In fact, modern science has beenaccomplice to what Mignolo, after Dussel, calls the "three big genocides ofmodernity:" the destruction of Amerindian cultures, the slavery of blacks fromAfrica, and the massacre of Jew s in Europ e.But, what occurs once the old European colonialist agenda is dissolved and thebalance of the world order established during the Cold War falters? Mignoloposits that three types of theory stemming from different loci of enunciation willemerge and epistemologically exceed the colonial legacies of modernity. Theyare: postmodernity, postcolonialism, and postoccidentalism. While postmoderntheories express the crisis of modernity's project within Europe (Foucault,Lyotard, Derrida) and the United States (Jameson), postcolonial theories dealwith the crisis from the colonial perspective of countries that had attained theirindependence after the Second World War, like India (Guha, Bhabha, Spivak)and the Middle East (Said). Latin America, with its long tradition of failedmodernizing projects, is "naturally" the origin of postoccidental theories. Whatthese three theoretical constructions have in common is their dissatisfaction withthe globalization of new technological developments after 1945 and theirprofound skepticism about what Habermas calls "the unfinished project ofmodernity."According to Mignolo's research, postoccidental theories began to emerge inLatin America after 1918, the time when Europ e began to lose hegemony overglobal power. Theorists like Jose Carlos M ariategui, Edm undo O 'G orm an n,Fernando Ortiz, Leopoldo Zea, Rodolfo Kusch, Enrique Dussel, Raul Prebisch,Darcy Ribeiro, and Roberto Fernandez Retamar succeeded in epistemologicallydismantling the colonialist and hegemonic discourse of modernity, which in turnmotivated Latin America to move toward a technologically modernized society.The theoretical knowledge of these authors is "postoccidental" because theyexpressed a critical response to what Jam eson refers to as the social and scientificproject of modernity in its new stage of imperialist globalization. Latin Americahad already produced theories that, ipsofacto, broke with the privileges of colonialdiscourse long before Guha established his Indian Group of subaltern studies andbefore Europe and United States began to discuss postmodernism.Naturally, the following question may be posed: What guarantees that theepistemologies of Latin American social science and philosophy (treated by theaforementioned authors) did not also play a subversive/subalternizing role, likethose from the United States and Europe? Mignolo wonders if an interpretationof texts produced in pluricultural spaces, involved in colonialist relations ofpower, is possible. Hermeneutics is an exercise that facilitates the comprehensionof colonial situations or legacies, for the subject who interprets, as well as forthe texts that are interpreted. When the social scientist (or philosopher) bio-graphically or ethnically identifies himself/herself with a determinate excluded

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Latin American Poskolonial Theories 3 3community, then what Gadamer called a "fusion of horizons" is produced: theinterpreter does not approach his/her object as a disinterested observer, ratherhe/she brings along all the prejudices (ethical, theoretical, political) that bindhim/her to his/her own lifestyle, in this case, to a lifestyle underpinned by theexperience of colonial marginalization. Colonialism functions as a globallyidentified pre-philosophical space, a "cultural tradition" from which an interpret-ation of Latin American perspectives is possible. In contrast to events in Europeand the U.S., Mignolo posits that a major part of social science and philosophyin Latin America has manifested itself as a "pluritopic hermeneutics" whichbreaks away from the objectifying epistemologies of colonial science.I think it is unquestionable that subaltern studies have discovered importantaspects of the ways in which colonial legacies of modernity continue to bereproduced in First World academic settings. However, I am not very convincedby the way in which postcolonial theorists relate the sociological knowledge ofexperts (in the human and social sciences) with the rationality of abstract systems(capitalist economy and the bureaucraticadministrative apparatus). It appearsthat knowledge has a purely instrumental function, being directly tied to thehomogenizing imperatives of the technical, as Max Weber demonstrates. Imperi-alism's politico-economic interests permeate the social sciences, and their institu-tional role is reduced to the subalternization of the "other." Yet, if this were so,it remains unclear how Mignolo's hermeneutics escapes the straitjacket imposedby colonial epistemologies to mysteriously become reflexive knowledges.Subaltern studies appear to read globalization, modernity, and the develop-ment of expertise systems in a mystifying form. Subaltern studies treat theseprocesses as if they were agents invested in an omnipresent "imperial reason."This amounts to removing the social foundation upon which the critique of thesystem is based. It is for this reason that the weakest point of subaltern studies,much to its chagrin, is its incapacity to represent its own locus enuntiationis.

Translated by Christina Lloyd

RECOMMENDED READINGS

Beverley, J . 1996. "Posliteratura? Sujeto suba lterno e impasse de las hum anid ade s."in B. Gonzlez Stephan (ed.), Cultural y Tercer Mundo. Caracas: Editorial Nueva Sociedad.Beverley, J . 1993. Against Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.Bhabha, H. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge.Guha, R. 1988. "On Some Aspects of the Historiography of Colonial India." in R. Guhan andG. Spivak (ed.), Selected Subaltern Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.Mignolo, W. 1995. TheDarker Side of the Renaissance. Literacy,Territorialityand Colonization. Ann Arbor:University of Michigan Press.Mignolo, W. 1996. "Posoccidentalismo: las epistemologas fronterizas y el dilema de los estudios(latinoamericanos) de rea." in M. Moraa (ed.), Crtica Culturaly Teora Literaria Latinoamericana.Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh.Said, E. 1978. Orientalism. Western Conceptions of theOrient. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Spivak, G. Ch. 1994. "Can the Subaltern Speak?" in P. Williams and L. Chrisman (eds.), ColonialDiscourse and Post-Colonial Theory. New York: Columbia University Press.Santiago C astro-Gmez teaches at the Universidad Jav erian a in Bogot, Colomb ia. He recentlypublished a book enti t led Crtka de la Razn Latinoamericana. Correspondence: Stoecklestrasse 22-A,72070 Tuebingen, Germany.

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