John Beverley: The Politics of Theory: Postcolonialism, Cultural Studies, and their Aftermath
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
No booking required
Masterclass: The Politics of Theory: Postcolonialism, Cultural Studies, and their Aftermath
Session 1: Structuralism and Postcolonialism
Speaker: John Beverley, Distinguished Professor of Hispanic Languages and Literatures, Adjunct Professor, Department of English and Communication, University of Pittsburgh.
General Description: That the conjunction of postcolonial struggle and structuralism in the 1960s produces a kind of earthquake in academic knowledge and institutions, particularly in the domain of what the French call the human sciences. The shock effect of that earthquake may be named for sake of convenience "theory," and the disciplinary outcome of theory 'studies" (cultural, postcolonial, queer, women's, Africana, Atlantic, global, global Pacific, etc.). The core issue is the relation of culture and politics, or to use Raymond Williams' term "cultural materialism". As the revolutionary vanguardist political formations of the 1960s, epitomized by the armed struggle in Latin America, collapse or are defeated, theory and studies nourish and in turn are nourished by new forms of politics, based on the principle of multicultural hegemonic articulation. One compelling form of this possibility are the new governments of the so-called Pink Tide in that emerged in Latin America in the first decade of the new century, which incorporated into their strategy elements of both poststructuralist and postcolonial thinking.
However, the tremors of the earthquake of "theory" have subsided. The politics of theory are resisted from both the right--in the form of a kind of "left neo-conservatism"-- and the left--in the form of deconstructive or libertarian ultraleftism. New theories of cultural agency emerge, often with a Deleuzian inspiration or provenance. (e.g. Hardt and Negri on the "multitude," "affect" theory. "posthegemony") and new, less overtly political forms of "studies" (media, visual culture, digital humanities, neo-philology etc., etc.).
Session 1: The first session will focus on the conjuncture that produces of the "earthquake"--the coincidence of postcolonial military and political struggle and the advent of Structuralist theory of the sign. We will spend a moment recalling in particular the radical character of Saussure's theory of the linguistic sign and its consequences for thought and political practice.
Suggested readings: (they are supplementary rather than required or necessary for following the sessions; the main issues in them will be part of the presentation).
Some reading that explains the notion of signifying system in Saussure: e.g. in Roland Barthes, Elements of Semiology, Atlantic Books, 1997 (the discussion of semiotic value), or Jonathan Culler, 'Saussure's Philosophy of Language' in his Ferdinand de Saussure, Cornell U.P., 1986.
- Frantz Fanon, 'On Violence,' in his the Wretched of the Earth, Grove Press, 1963.
- Robert J. C. Young, 'Derrida in Algeria,' in his Postcolonialism, Blackwell, 2001.
- Louis Althusser, 'Notes on ideology' (various versions and sources).
- Walter Mignolo, 'The Americas, Christian Expansion, and Racism,' in his The Idea of Latin America, Blackwell, 2005
Free event open to all: Book your place here.
John Beverley is Distinguished Professor of Hispanic Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh, where he teaches critical theory and literature. He is the author or editor of some twenty books, including Essays on the Baroque, Against Literature, Subalternity and Representation, The Postmodernism Debate in Latin America, Testimonio and the Politics of Truth, and Latinamericanism after 9/11. He was part of the group, including Gayatri Spivak, and Paul Bove, that created the Graduate Program in Cultural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1980s, one of the first such programs in the US academy. He was a founding member of the Latin American Subaltern Studies Group. He now co-edits the University of Pittsburgh Press series, Illuminations. Cultural Formations of the Americas. He serves on the editorial boards of boundary 2 and the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, among others. His most recent seminar was on Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666, and he is working currently on a collection of essays about what might be called the "post" of postcolonialism.
Hosted by Birkbeck's Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies, this event is part of Birkbeck Arts Week 2017 - see the full programme here.