Cultural Modernism and Anti-imperialist Solidarity in Latin American International Thought, 1880-1933

JUAN PABLO SCARFI

Houston, Texas

Seminario; Invited speaker, School of Humanities, Rice University; 2016

Rice University, School of Humanities

Throughout this talk I will explore the emergence of modern international imaginings in Latin America about the United States, the continent (the Americas) and the region (Latin America) in the context of the rise of a common intellectual life in the region, one based on regional cultural exchanges and networks of solidarity. The consolidation of cultural modernism as a broader intellectual movement and the formation of anti-imperialist networks of solidarity in Latin America went side by side with the rise of the United States as a hegemonic power on the continent. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu´s distinction between the intellectual field and the field of power, this talk will focus on the emergence of two traditions in Latin American international thought, which became particularly prominent since the outbreak of the First World War, and offered contending responses to the anxieties posed by the rise of US hegemony. While one adopted a hemispheric scope and elitist attitude and was linked to Pan-American institutions and the diplomatic and legal fields and the field of power, the other tradition advocated instead a defensive and anti-imperialist regional approach and was closely connected to the intellectual field, the public sphere and the people.