The last Inca : hegemony and abjection in an Andean poetics of discrimination
Pigott, Charles (2018) The last Inca : hegemony and abjection in an Andean poetics of discrimination. Modern Languages Open, 1 (11). pp. 1-35. ISSN 2052-5397 (https://doi.org/10.3828/mlo.v0i0.146)
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Abstract
Popular dramatizations of the Incas’ defeat by the Spaniards remain widespread across the central Andes. Most studies assume such dramatizations to be a form of resisting hegemony from “dominant” sectors of Peruvian society. This article proposes an alternative interpretation: Andean poetic “resistance” actually perpetuates the hegemonic discourse it attempts to resist. In order to prove this point, I advance one theoretical and one methodological innovation. The first innovation is to integrate Laclau & Mouffe’s political theory of hegemony with Kristeva’s psychological theory of abjection. The resulting framework is a powerful tool for exploring how hegemonic articulations acquire deep emotional and cognitive resonance at the psychological level. The second innovation is to apply this framework to the case of folk literature. Given its often ritualistic context, with the heightened emotional and aesthetic dimensions that this entails, folk literature is ideally placed to reveal underlying worldviews that inform social attitudes. Taking one Quechua epic as a case study, I trace the intellectual lineage of the genre to two main philosophical traditions: Augustinian and pre-Hispanic. By exploring how the Andean poetics of resistance combines and reshapes philosophical concepts from both traditions, I illustrate how cultural syncretism is not random but instead a highly specific, ideologized, process.
ORCID iDs
Pigott, Charles ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2512-2576;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 80966 Dates: DateEvent22 March 2018Published1 March 2018AcceptedSubjects: Language and Literature Department: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) > Humanities > Spanish Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 09 Jun 2022 08:25 Last modified: 01 Sep 2024 01:35 URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/80966