Another old journal I am going to clear out is the 1986 Social Text that has in it Jameson’s article “Third World Literature and the West.” Here he uses the term national allegory – not quite for the first time, but it is still new here. He reveals how much he likes Balzac. And he relates national allegory and love: the nation and the individual are conscious about the allegorization of politics and “libidinal dynamics” in third world works, in a way they are not in first world works (where they are unconscious).
Laura Kipnis wrote in this issue and she is interesting, but I am most interested of all in Retamar’s piece (I’ve stolen its title as the title of this post). It’s dated too, of course, but it’s a good review of many things. I, meanwhile, seem to be more decolonial than I had realized, and at the same time need to find out more about what decolonial really is.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 