The uses of myth: José Carlos Mariátegui's confrontation with fascism

Abstract

The objective of this article is to address, through a conceptual analysis, the uses of the myth present in the work of the Peruvian thinker, José Carlos Mariátegui. Typically, this term appears in relation to socialism; however, it can also be observed as being utilized multiple times to refer to the phenomenon of fascism. It is demonstrated that this scope of the term is already evident in the formulation proposed by Georges Sorel, which Mariátegui directly inherited. The problem, however, is that this would imply a conceptual ambivalence that would ultimately obliterate the boundaries between socialism and fascism by subsuming both tendencies as critiques of liberal rationality. In this sense, to overcome this ambiguity, the article proposes the hypothesis of establishing a distinction between a descriptive and a prescriptive use of myth in Mariátegui's work: while the former corresponds to a tool for interpreting political phenomena, the latter is related instead to the heroic sense that Mariátegui reserves for socialism.