Blue Atlantic: Gilroy and Galicia

Abstract

Starting from recent interpretations of the work of Paul Gilroy in the field of Galician Studies, and continuing through the reconstruction of the intellectual roots of his work, this chapter poses the following question: To what extent are the uses of Gilroy’s work in fact working against the intention, and the critical project, of The Black Atlantic? I contend that Gilroy’s work has been understood as a plain refutation of any attempt to use the category of identity in the current cultural and political debate. Recovering the concept of ethnicity, an elaborated articulation of post-essential identity, opposed to race, and connecting it with the work of Stuart Hall, the chapter proposes an Atlantic reading of some foundational Galician texts by Castelao and Luis Seoane. It further claims that Gilroy’s work opens the possibility of a new interpretation of the ways in which Galician intellectuals in the diaspora rearticulated and reshaped Galician national narrative as a strategy for galvanizing collective action.