Possible Spaces: Postcolonial Theory in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

This paper presents the possible modulations of postcolonial theory in Latin America and the Caribbean, taking the current problem of culture as its focus of discussion. To this end, it examines the interweaving of "culture" and "difference" within the framework of colonial power relations and the cultural representations of Western modernity. Arguing that one of the main elements of postcolonial criticism is to dismantle dichotomous representations of modern identities, the paper proposes an intersection between the notion of in-between (Bhabha) and the Caribbean neologism of transculturation (Ortiz), in order to reflect on the spaces of postcolonial hybridization. Hybridization is reflected upon in a heuristic, interstitial, and strategic sense. It then establishes a counterpoint between different moments of Walter Mignolo's elaborations on postcolonial criticism, as a possible Latin American reading of colonial legacies, to finally focus on the relational proposal of Édouard Glissant, highlighting the harmony of his philosophical poetics with some problems detected by postcoloniality.