Intellectuals adopted Benjamin and Foucault as substitutes for Marxism in Argentina

Translators and intellectuals in Argentina introduced the works of Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault to the country during the late 1960s.

In 1967, Murena translated selected essays by Benjamin for Editorial Sur as part of the Colección Estudios Alemanes. This work marked the first time Benjamin was translated into Spanish. During this same period, Murena also translated Dialéctica del iluminismo by Adorno and Horkheimer.

In 1968, Elsa Frost translated Foucault’s Las palabras y las cosas for Editorial Siglo XXI, just two years after its French release. Despite these early translations, Benjamin and Foucault only became central figures in Argentina during the mid-1980s and 1990s. The author suggests that these thinkers filled a void left by the crisis of Marxism. Intellectuals sought a way to maintain left-wing identities without following Marx, choosing Benjamin and Foucault as immediate replacements.

However, these thinkers did not provide the global philosophy of history that Marx offered. Benjamin provided fragmentary essays and sensitivities, while Foucault focused on disciplinary devices rather than a comprehensive world view. The author argues that these figures functioned as a life raft for the intellectual community rather than a catalyst for local critical production. Instead of generating incisive new writings, the popularity of these authors led to a culture of reproduction and repeated citations.

The author notes that while many other authors were flooded into the cultural industry, these two specific essayists became uniquely central because of their role as ideological substitutes.