Postcolonial theory and its Impact upon modern historical-anthropological research of Latin America

The object of this research is the postcolonial theory, while the subject is its impact upon the historical, and namely, historical-anthropological research of Latin America. The author examines such peculiarities of post-colonialism as the problem of identification, the “oppressed”, the importance of linguistic component of scientific description, as well as the political bias of this direction. Attention is turned to the process of adaptation of postcolonial theory to Latin American scientific foundation; emphasis is placed on the fact that the region has its own tradition of interpretation of the colonial past that results in occurrence of the so-called phenomenon of decolonial turn within the Latin American humanities. Based on the comparative method and qualitative content analysis of the works dedicated to postcolonial theory, the author demonstrates the presence of a wide range of opinions of Latin American researchers on such concepts as “colonialism: and “Latin Americanism”. The conclusion is made that the intense discussion on the theoretical aspects of colonial and decolonial theory may underlie the new vector in the historical studies of Latin America.  At the same time, decolonial turn alongside postcolonial theory, raise a number of questions, the solution of which is vital for the development of accurate methodology for further scientific research. For the Russian Latin American scholars, the new trends turn into a special challenge that should be considered in carrying out historical and anthropological research.

Introduction

This introduction presents the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM) at the intersecton of the three key themes in the book Elite Art Worlds. First, understanding how local and international philanthropy providing funding for CLAEM articulated foreign policy, private interests, and cultural diplomacy. Second, how diverse models of musical avant-gardism were followed, consumed, and rearticulated and then embodied, resignified and institutionalized in Latin America, problematizing the idea of a single homogenous avant-garde. And third, the ways in which participants of CLAEM navigated a regional discourse about identity and professional positioning labeled Latin Americanism. The chapter concludes with a discussion and problematization of the idea of elites and art worlds.

From Musical Pan Americanism to Latin Americanism

This chapter demonstrates that a significant shift in identity politics took place at CLAEM when a younger generation of composers advantageously adopted a regional identification as “Latin American avant-garde composers” in an art world that was largely European and U.S.-centric. The discourse of musical Latin Americanism that emerged among these composers shared ideas with earlier proponents of hemispheric solidarity but with a renewed, critical, and much more strategic regional identification, solidified by the social networks nurtured at CLAEM. This chapter explores the emergence of a shared discourse of Latin Americanism as a professional strategy and as musical style among the graduates of the Center and the short and long-term consequences that this had for the contemporary music scene in the region.

Elite Art Worlds

Between 1962 and 1971, the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM) of the Di Tella Institute in Buenos Aires became the central hub of Latin American avant-garde music. With the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the wealthy Di Tella family, CLAEM offered two-year fellowships to some of the most recognized young composers of the region to undertake graduate studies in a unique privileged setting under the direction of Alberto Ginastera and with permanent and visiting faculty that included Gerardo Gandini, Francisco Kröpfl, Mario Davidovsky, Iannis Xenakis, Luigi Nono, Aaron Copland, Luigi Dallapiccola, Bruno Maderna, Riccardo Malipiero, Olivier Messiaen, Roger Sessions, and Earle Brown. This book combines oral histories, ethnographic research, and archival sources to reveal CLAEM as a meeting point of US and Argentine philanthropy, local experiences in transnational currents of artistic experimentation and innovation, and regional discourses of musical Latin Americanism. The story of CLAEM shows how musical avant-gardes were articulated, embodied, resignified, and institutionalized in Latin America; how composers during the 1960s engaged with discourses of Latin Americanism as professional strategy, identification marker, and musical style; and sheds light into the role of art in the legitimation and construction of elite status and identity. By looking at CLAEM as both an artistic and a philanthropic project, the book illuminates the relationships among foreign policy, corporate interests, and funding for the arts concerning Latin America and the United States in the mid-twentieth century.

Latin/Pan-American Music

This chapter explains the pan-American absorption of Latin Americanism during World War II and the inception of the “world music” discourse that led to the creation of UNESCO. It focuses on the work of Charles Seeger as director of the Pan American Union’s Music Division from the years leading to the United States entry into the war to the immediate postwar years. The chapter analyzes a host of actors and initiatives, by the Pan American Union and other music-related associations, that influenced the consolidation of Latin American music and inter-Americanism as fields of musicological and educational practice. It illuminates the place of Latin American music in the convergence of nationalist traditions, hemispheric rhetoric, and global horizons among musicological and diplomatic actors as World War II came to an end.