‘Latin American Modernity, and Yet …’1

Adam Sharman

doi:10.1111/j.1470-9856.2011.00528.x

Abstract

The article examines two ‘postmodern’ critiques of modernity: a general history that argues that it was never solely Western, and a work of Latin American cultural criticism that petitions for the region to leave behind a modernity seen as Eurocentric. It argues that to understand the modern elements of Latin America entails keeping present the European, and in part pre-nineteenth-century, genealogy of modernity. This is in order to grasp that both the pitfalls of claiming modernity is a common project (colonialism vanishes) and the difficulty of going beyond it (European modernity bequeathed the language of breaks and dialectical incorporations). The piece identifies the rhetorical choreography involved when the limits of the critique of Western modernity become apparent.

Highlights

The article examines two ‘postmodern’ critiques of modernity: a general history which argues that it was never solely Western, and a work of Latin American cultural criticism which wishes to leave a modernity seen as eurocentric
I shall digress through various first-generation practitioners of Latin American cultural studies, but will take as my primary example of this tendency Néstor García Canclini’s (2001) Culturas híbridas
A modernity again closely identified with the nineteenth century presents a largely negative face, provoking the denunciation of its Eurocentrism but the desire to supersede it altogether

Summary

Introduction

The article examines two ‘postmodern’ critiques of modernity: a general history which argues that it was never solely Western, and a work of Latin American cultural criticism which wishes to leave a modernity seen as eurocentric.

Results

Conclusion