The Politics of Theory: Postcolonialism, Cultural Studies, and their Aftermath: Session 2
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
No booking required
Masterclass: The Politics of Theory: Postcolonialism, Cultural Studies, and their Aftermath
Session 2: Cultural Studies / Subaltern Studies
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 2: In the second session, we will look at two of the major products of the politics of theory in the academy. In the 1980s and 1990s, Cultural Studies and Subaltern Studies (a subset of postcolonial studies). We will see that both involve a critique of academic knowledge from the position of "excluded," and the basis for a new kind of politics of the left, based in the social movements. However, both in turn are re-institutionalized in the academy, in a kind of paradoxically syntonic coincidence with neoliberal globalization (especially the case in cultural studies).
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).
- Fredric Jameson, 'The Cultural logic of Late Capitalism' (the essay, not the book with the same title, although the book has a version of the essay; it appeared originally in New Left Review)
- John Beverley, 'Rigoberta Menchú, Cultural Authority, and the Problem of Subaltern Agency' and 'Hybrid or Binary? The Category of the 'People' in Subaltern and Cultural Studies', in his Subalternity and Representation, Duke U. P., 1999.
- Latin American Subaltern Studies group, 'Founding Statement', in J. Beverley et al eds. The Postmodernism Debate in Latin America, Duke U. P., 1995.
- Ranajit Guha, 'Preface,' in R. Guha and G. Spivak eds. Selected Subaltern Studies, Oxford U. P., 1989.
- Gayatri Spivak, section towards the end of her famous essay 'Can the Subaltern Speak?' on the story of Bhubaneswari Bhaduri in Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg (eds). Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, U. of Illinois P., 1988.
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.