Composite marginal cultures speak a baroque that replaces the intolerance of classicisms

Evidence

But the baroque no longer constitutes a derangement, since it has turned into a “natural” expression of whatever scatters and cornes together. The age of classicisms (of deepening an internaI unity, raised to the dimensions of a universaI itself postulated) is past, no doubt, for aIl cultures. It remains to make the network of their convergences work, or to untangle it. It remains ta study those cultures that have not had time, before coming into planetary contact (or conflict), ta realize “their own” classicism. Are their powers not impeded as they come to the meeting? Then again, what shaH we say about composite cultures, whose composition did not result from a union of “norms” but, rather, was buiIt in the margins with aIl kinds of materials that by their very nature were exceptions to the patience of the rule, ta be thrust headlong into the world by necessity, oppression, anguish, greed, or an appetite for adventure? … The baroque is the favored speech of these cultures, even if henceforth it belongs to aIl. We calI it baroque, because we know that confluences always partake of marginality, that classicisms partake of intolerance, and that, for us, the substitute for the hidden violence of these intolerant exclusions is the manifest and integrating violence of contaminations. — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 466

Categorization

• DEFINE: Glissant redefines the baroque as the natural speech of composite, marginal cultures — built from exceptions to the rule — rather than a historical European style.
• XREF: Contaminating violence as substitute for classical exclusion resonates with the reader’s question about whether an identity held ironically can evade literal residence — Glissant champions open contamination over closed essences. — connects to: Latin American religious art naturalized the baroque by intermingling autochthonous elements into it — Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation, 430; A cultural tradition can substitute for a weak tradition of national political unity; Cultures are unequally displaced practices, not just fragmented ones — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular:…, 739
• SEED: Angle: baroque as political ontology — what composition from margins rather than norms implies for how cultures hold identity when they meet planetary contact.

Broader Connections

• A cultural tradition can substitute for a weak tradition of national political unity #expands (0.82)
• Cultures are unequally displaced practices, not just fragmented ones #expands (0.80) — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 739