https://doi.org/10.25058/20112742.n29.05
Gustavo Verdesio
University of Michigan, USA
verdesio@umich.edu
Abstract:
Post-colonial theory and the decolonial option have been getting more and more followers throughout Latin America in the last few years. In both cases, the idea of the colonial, coloniality, and colonialism seems to adopt several ways. Despite that protean fluctuation of utterances, with “colony” as a semantic root, its flowing is significant both in scholarly circles, as in the sphere of social movements. Without wanting to underestimate that phenomenon, but rather intending to try to enrich the dialogue between decolonizing-oriented theoretical frameworks, I will put forward, firstly, to analyze the different types of colonialism addressed by those currents, and secondly, to critically revisit a couple of theoretical frameworks and scholarly practices that are not welcomed today like the former ones are. One of them is the way of scholarly production that was hegemonic in colonial studies in the 80s, which originated in the departments of Language and Literature at universities in the United States, whose most representative referents were Walter Mignolo and Rolena Adorno. The other one is the theoretical and pragmatic proposal of the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group, a collective for the most part made up by scholars of Latin American literature based in the United States (John Beverley, Ileana Rodríguez, and others), whose relatively short lifespan (about a decade) opened paths not completely explored yet. Toward the end, I will devote some space to outline a proposal to deepen the approaches set forth by those two scholarly currents.
Keywords: colonial studies, subaltern studies, decolonial option, post-colonial theory.
