The Rule of Impurity: Decolonial Theory and the Question of Literature

Abstract

Legrás’s chapter reviews the general lines that define decolonial theory in the works of some its main proponents (Escobar, Dussel, Mignolo, Castro-Gómez, and Quijano). He points to two shortcomings of decolonial theory: its reliance on identity as a building block for its arguments and the absence of a discussion about the notion of subject in the theoretical work of decolonization. In the final section, Legrás argues that Latin American literature, especially those works dealing with indigenous subjects, may offer decolonial theory a model to address these two shortcomings.