TY  - CHAP
AB  - In this chapter I argue that the search for a sociological postcolonial critique of modernity should not restrict itself to academic sociology. In Latin America a strong tradition of essayists has at times assumed genuinely sociological tasks. As I have argued elsewhere (Kozlarek, 2009) the Mexican poet and essayist Octavio Paz should be read in this fashion.In what follows I try to show that what could be termed Paz's sociological critique of modernity is essentially related to his critique of the teleological understanding of modernity that expresses itself in modernization theory. In a second step I argue that Paz's alternative sociology resembles a comparative sociology in which different experiences in the processes of modernizations are compared. Finally, I mention Paz's historical reconstruction of colonial and postcolonial experiences, and close with his description of pathological forms of social interaction that colonialism inscribed in the cultural fabric of everyday life.
VL  - 24
SN  - 978-1-78190-603-3, 978-1-78190-604-0/0198-8719
DO  - 10.1108/S0198-8719(2013)0000024013
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-8719(2013)0000024013
AU  - Kozlarek Oliver
ED  - Julian Go
PY  - 2013
Y1  - 2013/01/01
TI  - Toward a Postcolonial Sociology in the Work of Octavio Paz
T2  - Postcolonial Sociology
T3  - Political Power and Social Theory
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 177
EP  - 195
Y2  - 2024/04/25
ER  -