Resumen

MATURO, Graciela. Phenomenology and Hermeneutics: from the Viewpoint of Latin American Transmodernity. Utopìa y Praxis Latinoamericana [online]. 2007, vol.12, n.37, pp.35-50. ISSN 1315-5216.

This article states the contribution of phenomenology to a renovation of the human sciences, particularly in the field of literary studies in Latin America. First, it postulates the legitimacy of the Latin American scholar’s assuming a thought that is situated, geocultural and historically located in America. Inherent to this statement is the recognition that Iberoamerican culture is a mixed culture in which dissimilar elements coming from two great ethnic and cultural branches are present: a culture of image and rite and a culture of concept and book. Secondly, an attempt is made to delineate some basic concepts of phenomenology and its method, considering phenomenology as the inflection point for European thought about non-western cultures. Third, attention is called to cultural reading as practiced first by the American writer and later thematized from the phenomenological viewpoint by Rodolfo Kusch in his works on Andean man and American geoculture. Finally, the study points out the distance that has resulted between the last stage of Euro-Atlantic cultural and literary theory, marked by the atmosphere of deconstructivism and post modernity, and the process of Americ can transmodernity, heading toward its stage of cultural self-awareness. Consequently, the historical, philosophical and political need of South American nations to reaffirm constituting and integrating tools is produced. Within this framework, we postulate the incorporation of phenomenology into Latin American hermeneutics, from the viewpoint of situated thought.

Palabras clave : phenomenology; hermeneutics; transmodernity; Latin America.