The Chilean Body Politic

This monograph explores how Chilean urban workers translated nineteenth-century European political philosophy according to their conditions, locality, and colonial history. The research is grounded on a systematic analysis of local archival materialprimarily, newspapers aimed at the working class from 1870 to the 1920sfrom a theoretical perspective informed by contemporary feminist critiques and inspired by Jacques Derrida's deconstruction. This provides a new understanding of late-nineteenth-century Chilean popular culture which shows that the origin of capitalism was commonly interpreted as a loss of virility on the part of Chilean men, who emerged into a modern European like city as degenerative people dispossessed of their traditional dominion over Chilean women, land, and culture. The book proposes that the experience of early industrial modernity was posited by Chilean men as equivalent to the loss of an essential masculinity rooted in an economy of patriarchal sexual difference. Consequently, it also reveals that the notion of revolution was translated in Chilean culture as the return of an ideal male subject who would re-establish the natural distribution of the sexes displaced by a foreign form of capitalist modernity. This research shows the centrality of questions of gender to working-class political thought and criticizes the points of complicity between politics, philosophy, and patriarchy in the Chilean political tradition. It will appeal to students and researchers in political theory, gender studies, feminism, and Latin American studies.

Centers gender in Marxism and working-class political theory Provides a systematic, feminist analysis of 19th and 20th-century Marxist political theory in Chile Reveals the points of complicity between politics, philosophy and patriarchy in the Chilean political tradition

Autorentext

Joaquín Montalva Armanet received a PhD in Critical Theory at the University of Nottingham and is currently a lecturer in the Philosophy Department at the Catholic University of Temuco, Chile. His transdisciplinary research focuses on Chilean late-nineteenth century and early-twenty century popular press, Latin American Philosophy and contemporary French Philosophy, particularly the work of Jacques Derrida.

Klappentext

This is a brilliant book about the way working-class men configure themselves in print, not only in relation to capitalism but in relation to women. It is ground-breaking work which challenges the commonplaces of labour history.
Adan Sharman , Associate Professor, University of Nottingham, UK

A necessary read to rethink the terms of the 'unhappy marriage' between the left and feminism.
Nicole Darat , Assistant Professor, Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, Chile

"An important and unique analysis of working-class press written by Chilean men and women. Montalva has opened up a new area of study for Chilean and Latin American History."
Hillary Hiner , Associate Professor, University of Chile

This is a fascinating book by a brilliant young scholar. He brings together sophisticated gender analysis with important social history.
Judith Still , Vice-President (Humanities) of the British Academy

This monograph explores how Chilean urban workers translated European political philosophy according to their conditions, locality, and colonial history. The research is grounded on a systematic analysis of local archival materialprimarily, working-class periodicals from a theoretical perspective informed by contemporary feminist critiques and Derrida's deconstruction. It provides a new understanding of late-nineteenth-century Chilean popular culture which shows that the origin of capitalism was commonly interpreted as a loss of virility on the part of Chilean men, who emerged into a modern European like city as degenerative people dispossessed of their traditional dominion over Chilean women, land, and culture. This research shows the centrality of questions of gender to working-class political thought and criticizes the points of complicity between politics and patriarchy in the Chilean political tradition. It will appeal to students and researchers in political theory, gender studies, feminism, and Latin American studies.

Joaquín Montalva**Armanet** received a PhD in Critical Theory at the University of Nottingham and is currently a lecturer in the Philosophy Department at the Catholic University of Temuco, Chile. His transdisciplinary research focuses on Chilean late-nineteenth century and early-twenty century popular press, Latin American Philosophy and contemporary French Philosophy, particularly the work of Jacques Derrida.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Introduction.- **** Chapter 2. I work, Therefore We Are.- Chapter 3. Degeneration and Regeneration Revolutionary Collective Self-Affection.- Chapter 4. When We Used to (Be)Love(D).- Chapter 5. The Market Economy of the Hyperbolic Brothel.- Chapter 6. Only Huachos Remain.- Chapter 7. They Love Us So Much That They Kill Us.