Caribbean Confederations as Relationalities

In this essay, I connect my work on Archipelago studies with Édouard Glissant’s notions of relationality and Caribbean confederations to formulate what I denominate as the erotics of archipelagic thinking. My main goal is to share my process of thinking with and through Glissant’s work to focus on...

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Main Author: Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University Library System, University of Pittsburgh 2024-11-01
Series:Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.jffp.org/ojs/jffp/article/view/1068
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author Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel
author_facet Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel
author_sort Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel
collection DOAJ
description In this essay, I connect my work on Archipelago studies with Édouard Glissant’s notions of relationality and Caribbean confederations to formulate what I denominate as the erotics of archipelagic thinking. My main goal is to share my process of thinking with and through Glissant’s work to focus on a series of theoretical gestures that have allowed me to propose modes of reading literary depictions of Caribbean con/federations that go beyond the binary opposition between colonialism and nationalism. I am performing an exercise that I assign to my students when I teach the “Introduction to Critical Theory” course at the University of Miami. Instead of writing an essay with a short theoretical introduction followed by a detailed close reading of literary and cultural texts that illustrate a keyword or a theoretical insight, I conduct a methodological meditation in which I theorize the archipelagic as a form of relationality that configures an erotic imaginary beyond the nuclear family and towards affective networks. To think about the Caribbean as an archipelagic formation, I use my comparative work on the Antillean Confederation in the Hispanic Caribbean (1860-1898) and the West Indies Federation in the English Caribbean (1958-1962) as a historical context in which the region congealed as a network of locations “act[ing] in concert."
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spelling doaj-art-56d493b4c1ba4a11b2b3b68cd7af8fc22025-08-20T02:26:37ZengUniversity Library System, University of PittsburghJournal of French and Francophone Philosophy2155-11622024-11-01321/210.5195/jffp.2024.1068Caribbean Confederations as RelationalitiesYolanda Martínez-San Miguel0University of Miami In this essay, I connect my work on Archipelago studies with Édouard Glissant’s notions of relationality and Caribbean confederations to formulate what I denominate as the erotics of archipelagic thinking. My main goal is to share my process of thinking with and through Glissant’s work to focus on a series of theoretical gestures that have allowed me to propose modes of reading literary depictions of Caribbean con/federations that go beyond the binary opposition between colonialism and nationalism. I am performing an exercise that I assign to my students when I teach the “Introduction to Critical Theory” course at the University of Miami. Instead of writing an essay with a short theoretical introduction followed by a detailed close reading of literary and cultural texts that illustrate a keyword or a theoretical insight, I conduct a methodological meditation in which I theorize the archipelagic as a form of relationality that configures an erotic imaginary beyond the nuclear family and towards affective networks. To think about the Caribbean as an archipelagic formation, I use my comparative work on the Antillean Confederation in the Hispanic Caribbean (1860-1898) and the West Indies Federation in the English Caribbean (1958-1962) as a historical context in which the region congealed as a network of locations “act[ing] in concert." http://www.jffp.org/ojs/jffp/article/view/1068GlissantCaribbean
spellingShingle Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel
Caribbean Confederations as Relationalities
Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy
Glissant
Caribbean
title Caribbean Confederations as Relationalities
title_full Caribbean Confederations as Relationalities
title_fullStr Caribbean Confederations as Relationalities
title_full_unstemmed Caribbean Confederations as Relationalities
title_short Caribbean Confederations as Relationalities
title_sort caribbean confederations as relationalities
topic Glissant
Caribbean
url http://www.jffp.org/ojs/jffp/article/view/1068
work_keys_str_mv AT yolandamartinezsanmiguel caribbeanconfederationsasrelationalities