Critique of Planned Obsolescence: Marx and Freud in Latin America

This essay argues that, upon reaching the Americas, two key theoretical frameworks of western culture—Marxism and Freudism—resulted in “disencounter,” as coined by Rancière. Bosteels posits an exploration of these “disencounters” in literature and works of art—while advancing a reconsideration of “art” as a complex web of confluences amid diverse creative practices. Ultimately, he avers, subjectivity, power, and struggle among unequal forces continue to sustain the concerns of critical theory in Latin America. Bosteels suggests a reconsideration of theories of subjectivity in order to apprehend social phenomena—a polemic that urges a revision of traditional lines of thought.