Detotalization and Subject: On Zapatismo and Critical Theory

This article establishes a field of dialogue regarding the idea of the revolutionary and rebel subject between the Zapatista movement (EZLN) and critical theory thinkers, particularly Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno. It highlights the notions of the antihegemonic subject of Zapatismo, Benjamin’s thesis on the category of constellation and the critique of linear and homogeneous temporality, and the critique of the categories of identity and synthesis formulated by Adorno. The argument proposes detotalization as a convergence point of the constellation of concepts that are displayed very tightly around the idea of the anticapitalist subject.