Mapping cultural/political debates in Latin American studies

The theorization of postmodernism as the cultural logic of late capitalism has generated a number of debates among Latinos in the US and among Latin A merican critics in particular. This article examines a number of writings p ublished between 1989 and 1994 by Latin American critics focusing on the vi ability of seeing Latin America as postmodern. We argue that in the rush to accept First World theoretical frameworks, there has been much confusion a nd a collapsing of economic, political and cultural categories. Conflating market growth and shifts with social change and the availability of a plura lity of consumer goods with the distribution of goods and services, some cr itics have been quick to label cultural production in Latin America as 'pos tmodern'. What is needed is a delimitation of the categories used, an exami nation of the cultural debate in relation to other debates on development, social movements, democratization and alliance politics, as well as an exam ination of local intellectual debates within the global context of restruct uring and transnational capital.