The theory of hegemony and its colonial retro-action: Theoretical, historical and literary implications

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the possible implications of understanding the Ibero-American colonial period in terms of a political hegemony. This concern arises from the book edited by Pedro Cardim, Tamar Herzog, José Javier Ruiz and Gaetano Sabatini Polycentric Monarchies. How Did Early Modern Spain and Portugal Achieve and Maintain a Global Hegemony? (2012), in which the Spanish and Portuguese governments of the 16th to 18th centuries are defined as hegemonies. This designation is not capricious, but is theoretically based on the Gramscian dynamic of consensus and coercion. Based on this notion, the paper proposes that this hegemonic approach has or can have important effects in at least three areas: at a theoretical level, as it extends temporally and spatially the notion of hegemony; at a historical level, insofar as it questions the category of “colonial” and resumes the debate around it, which especially concerns historiography and Latin American critical thinking; and at a literary level, an area in which it is proposed to address colonial texts not only as exercises of domination or resistance, but also as negotiating resources.