Postnational Theories

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace was the judicial mechanism chosen by the negotiating parties in Havana to overcome the Colombian armed conflict that lasted for more than five decades and split this country into violence. The universalist nature of this peace accord, and the open structure of the Colombian constitution, compel the judges and the prosecutors of this special jurisdiction to apply international law on a regular base. This Transitional Jurisdiction relates to international law in the same way that most hybrid criminal tribunals do, and binds the domestic application of the law to the universal values of human rights. The unique legal nature of the SJP forces us to rethink the rigidity of the traditional system of law to favor a more dynamic and pluralist understanding of justice, often framed as postnational. This research highlights the necessity to understand the hermeneutics of transitional justice beyond the context of State sovereignty, and from the broader vision of the progressive internationalization of constitutional law.

Rochester, NY: Tamesis Books, 2019.

This is a collection of essays written between 1994 and 2002, and originally published in Basque (2006). It is also the first book to deploy systematically contemporary theory (poststructuralism, feminism, queer theory…) to analyze Basque literature and to give a historical thesis (based on the ideas of national allegory, double consciousness, and globalization), rather than random philological data, about the way Basque literature has developed. It also contains an epilogue on recent literature (2002-2017). The introduction written specifically for the book (2004) represents the most detailed elaboration of postnationalism in Hispanic studies, which also criticizes Habermas and shows how Deleuze and Guattari’s definition of minor literature is hegemonic-majoritary (Eurocentric). It also contains a critique of postcolonial theory’s disregard for minority languages. The book still contains the only critical analysis of the work of Bernardo Atxaga and his calculated program (will to power) to situate himself at the center of the Basque canon. This book was the first to raise issues such as the canon, masculinity (masochism), hegemony, queerness, hybridity, desire, motherhood and female exile, historical memory, national allegory, neoliberalism, etc. The field was mainly dominated by philological and sociological analysis when this book came out and stirred much controversy. Some of the authors I study are Itxaro Borda, Lourdes Oñederra, Jaione Osoro, Bernardo Atxaga, Ramon Saizarbitoria, Andu Lertxundi, Joxean Sagastizabal, Gabriel Aresti, Arantxa Urretabizkaia, Arantxa Iturbe, Laura Mintegi, Aingeru Epaltza, etc.

This book is a study into how immigration is transforming the EU and its member-states. Kostas Maronitis contends that immigration creates utopian and dystopian visions of the European project. These visions can be found in the immigration detention centers and the fences between member-states, the dead bodies on Europe’s shores, the electoral success of far-Right parties, and in the way migrants and refugees view Europe as a land of rights and equality. Maronitis locates the transformative power of immigration at the intersection of sentiments regarding national and ethnic hierarchies with a policy framework constructed around the presence of migrants and refugees in Europe. By examining the utopian and dystopian transformation of the EU and of Greece as its borderland, the author challenges established notions of integration, citizenship and nationality on new intellectual and political terms. The book will be of use to students and scholars specializing in migration, EU policy and Greece, and will have a wider appeal for those interested in the ongoing debate surrounding the EU and immigration.

This article charts the movement towards what might be called, following from Richard Kearney’s 1995 book, a post-nationalist approach to representing gaelic games in film, particularly since the late 1960s through an examination of two films, Rocky Road to Dublin (1968) and Clash of the Ash (1987). However much gaelic games were part of the construction of Irish identity before and immediately after independence, the depiction of these games in films such as Rocky Road and Clash of the Ash, films which reflected the emergence of a critically engaged indigenous cinema in Ireland since the late 1960s, would also be part of the deconstruction of such an identity and critique of the failures of the state. Significantly, both these films use gaelic games as a means to interrogate and critically engage with certain mythologised and narrow-minded understandings of Irishness associated with the promotion of these games, including the issues of nationalism and masculinity.

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace was the judicial mechanism chosen by the negotiating parties in Havana to overcome the Colombian armed conflict that lasted for more than five decades and split this country into violence. The universalist nature of this peace accord, and the open structure of the Colombian Constitution, compel the judges and the prosecutors of this special jurisdiction to apply international law on a regular base. This Transitional Jurisdiction relates to international law in the same way that most hybrid criminal tribunals do, and binds the domestic application of the law to the universal values of human rights. The unique legal nature of the SJP forces us to rethink the rigidity of the traditional system of law to favor a more dynamic and pluralist understanding of justice, often framed as postnational. This research highlights the necessity to understand the hermeneutics of transitional justice beyond the context of State sovereignty, and from the broader vision of the progressive internationalization of constitutional law.