Critical theories in Latin America

Kozlarek, Oliver

Critical Theory (with a capital 'C' and a capital 'T') emerged at a specific place and a specific time. It was the expression of a group of young German academics who reacted to the dehumanizing experiences provoked by the crisis that Europe went through during the first decades of the 20th century.

Critical Theorists believed that their experiences and critique of modern societies were representative for all modern societies regardless of the experiences that people in other societies may have gone through. Adorno even thought that nobody who had not made the same experiences that he and his European collegues have made were qualified to get involved in the important enterprise of Kritik. He was especially concerned about the "nonoccidental pleople", because he did not trust their critical faculties. Critical Theory was reserved for a selected group of Europeans.[1]

Today, however, we are realizing that beyond many affinities experiences in and within global modernity vary. For instance: post-colonial critique has not only argued convincingly that colonialism has been a constitutive element in the formation of global modernity, but it has also shown that in formerly colonized societies problématiques emerged that critical theories from the 'North' were simply not aware of.

Since Latin American societies gained official independence some 200 years ago, post-colonial experiences accumulated and reflected about in this part of the world are particularly rich. In this paper I will try to show what kind of critical theories emerged in this part of the world.

[1] Adorno, Theodor W. 1997: Gesammelte Schriften 4. Minima Moralia. Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben (Ed.. Rolf Tiedemann), Frankfurt/M.: Suhrkamp, p. 59.

658.1 Critical theories in Latin America