Nuevas Perspectivas Desde/Sobre América Latina: El Desafío de Los Estudios Culturales

This volume is presented as an addition to the reading of some of the most representative contributions of cultural studies currently produced from/on Latin America. Developed in different academic contexts and from diverse cultural and ideological perspectives, the articles gathered here present a variety of themes and methods that expose the interdisciplinary crossings that are characteristic of this field of study today. Additionally, these works are also the result of various theoretical appropriations about the complex relationships between culture, politics and history, as they are glimpsed from the horizon of current debates and in the face of the crisis of the great paradigms that guided, until several decades ago, the critique of culture within the field of Latin Americanism. Most of the articles that make up this book were presented in their preliminary version at the international symposium held at the University of Pittsburgh in March 1998. Other invited contributions were added later to take part in this editorial project. The main objective of this symposium was to convene researchers and scholars of Latin American culture for a collective reflection on many key issues that have been debated, particularly since the late eighties. Highlighted among these issues are those that refer to the relationship between globality and regionalization, the redefinition of the public sphere and the place of intellectuals in the processes of institutionalization and cultural recentralization, multiculturalism, and the placement of 'local knowledge' with respect to cultural models of knowledge generated in 'central', regional or international spaces.