Regional literature as relational autonomy and internal mediations

Abstract

This paper proposes a revision of the term “regional literature” from two perspectives in the Mexican context. The first draws attention to the consequences of essentializing and polarizing the regional vs. the national, since one can build a vision of the regional equally hierar-chical and with the same vices from an idea of “local” identity. Se-condly, it raises the limits of critical exercises which either interpret the regional in contrast to the central canon or propose approaches disconnected from a larger context, without recognizing that the ex-change with nearby cultural areas can illuminate the approach to works or proposals. In other words, emphasis is placed on the need to recognize the many mediations that are negotiated within the re-gions, but also those that take place with contact zones on the basis of a relational autonomy which makes them open to cultural exchanges without losing their distinctive features.