Silviano Santiago has been a pioneer in the development of concepts crucial to the discourse of contemporary critical and cultural theory, especially postcolonial theory. The notions of "hybridity" and the "space in-between" have been so completely absorbed into current theory that few scholars even realise these terms began with Santiago. He was the first to introduce poststructuralist thought to Brazil - via his publication of the Glossario de Derrida and via his role as a prominent teacher and member of numerous federal commissions. The Space In-Between translates into English for the first time many of his seminal essays and, in the process, introduces the thought of one of Brazil's foremost critics and theorists of the late twentieth century.
Transcending the study of a specific national literature, Santiago's work creates a theoretical field that defines the problematics of cultural difference and goes beyond the traditional perspectives of comparative literature. In "Why and For What Purpose Does the European Travel?," for example, he examines the pedagogical and modernising mission of Western voyagers from the conquistadors to the present. In another essay he deconstructs the ideas of original and copy, and unpacks their implications for the notions of so-called dominant and dominated cultures. Santiago also confronts questions of cultural dependency in this volume and analyses the problems involved in the imposition of an alien European history, the cultural displacements experienced by the Indians through their religious conversion, and the hierarchical suppression of native and Negro values.
Written and translated in lucid, elegant, and non-technical language, The Space In-Between will provide insights and perspectives that will interest cultural and literary theorists, postcolonial scholars, and other students of contemporary culture.