Debates on postmodernity and postmodernism: Latin America (1987--1991)

摘要

This dissertation examines the "travel" of the concepts of postmodernity and postmodernism from their place(s) of origin in Europe and the United States to the Latin American cultural context. These concepts arrived in Latin America in the second half of the 1980's, and from the middle of the 1990's to the present they have become a prominent part of the critical work of intellectuals in the field of Latin American Studies.;The first chapter addresses the corpus of works that formed the principal point of reference for the origins of the debate on postmodernity and postmodernism in Latin America. The second and third chapters explore when, where and under what circumstances the concepts of postmodernity and postmodernism began to be used in the field of Latin American Studies; who promoted the use of these concepts, who resisted, and what reasons were given for doing one or the other (or a combination of both). To answer these questions, these chapters are devoted to an analysis of a selection of articles included in five key anthologies dealing with the debate on postmodernity and postmodernism in Latin America published in Argentina, Chile and the United States between 1987 and 1991.;This dissertation ultimately argues that, given the subordinate place of Latin America in the "geopolitics of knowledge," the analysis of theory that "travels" to Latin America is crucial when considering the present and future possibilities of critical thought within the field of Latin American Studies. These possibilities are not only epistemological in nature. The redefinition of a field of study is a political issue (using this term in a wide sense) that implies power conflicts and ideological confrontations. It is in this precise context that ideas and theories have always traveled and will continue to travel.;The dissertation suggests that there should be further critical studies of the history of criticism, specifically focused on the theoretical displacements produced by the appropriation of the concepts of "postmodernity" and "postmodernism" in Latin America. In sum, the core question that remains open for future research is what the extensive use of postmodern conceptualization has done to and for Latin American cultural and literary criticism.