Martí, Retamar, Caliban, an post-West think to the Century XXI

Abstract

In these brief pages is presented the thesis that Roberto Fernández Retamar´s conceptual character Caliban should assume a post-Western theoretical approach. This interpretation is elaborated linking concepts and argumentative lines proposed by the Cuban thinker. The objective is to show that the parallelism between Caliban-Latin America and Prosperous-West can be a key to anchoring the post-Western approach, even beyond the colonizer-colonized relationship. To justify this approach, the origins of the West are investigated in anthropological researches about wild men and in the genealogy of Christianity, and contributions of Michelle Duchet, Sofía Reding, Roger Bartra, Herbert Frey. It is concluded that Caliban, as long as he has been part of the genealogy of the“wild men” that the West has used to define its civilizational identity, can assume a post-Western approach that allows him to understand and overcome the West.