VISIONS OF THE END: TIME FOR REVOLT, TIME FOR INTERRUPTION

Abstract

This dissertation is a critical examination of the temporalities that posit a profound radical cut in the present as the precondition for the emergence of a new era of sociality and politics in Latin America, in particular, in Cuba, Colombia, and Mexico. This is an immanent critique of these articulations of time that I label under the name of messianic temporalities. In particular, I contend that the messianic organization of time in Latin America demands a serious study as an analytical concept useful for addressing the question of the future of struggles for freedom. I advance the notion of messianic temporalities as a means to interrogate and reactivate the logics of a radical transformation of the present. In this dissertation, I provide a critical mapping of the shape and effects of the messianic within Latin American political structure through its aesthetic production that ranges from literary materials to contemporary art and experimental video. Ultimately, I assert the importance of distancing ourselves from this concept in order to address new temporalities of revolt that break with a present order that does not seem to end.