Small-scale sovereignty: Latin American fiction about plantations

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Jan-Henrik Witthaus
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 505161841

The project follows on from research into small-scale sovereignty in Latin American literature. Following two genres (prose literature about organized drug crime and bureaucracy, respectively), the presence of this theme will be examined in a third area: in novels about plantations that have been published since the beginning of the 20th century. An analysis will show that the power relations depicted in these socio-critical texts reflect on personal forms of exercising power. The working hypothesis is that these forms of domination are based on local dynamics which, aimed at disciplining and/or disenfranchising the people working there, go beyond state-organized regulation. However, in order to enforce measures, state resources of violence may be used alongside forms of parastatal violence. Approaching these texts through the concept of small-scale sovereignty, Latin American plantation literature promises access to a phenomenon that, analogous to the office and the criminal organization, is condensed as a dynamic, not always stable context of power. Here, gradual forms of hierarchy can be identified that produce dominant subjects, which, in turn, interact with various external and internal factors and often also refer to international economic actors. The analyses to be yet undertaken, together with the outcome of the first project phase, will lead to a thorough study of male-dominated patronage systems, which represent a recurring phenomenon in Latin American literature and provide indications of political cultures. The results thereof promise methodological perspectives about literary potential in the context of reflecting on and condensing sociocultural patterns and, in this specific case, relating back to ecofeminist theorizing in particular.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants