Abstract

In this paper, there will be an exposition of the theoretical bases on the Adornian position of After Auschwitz, whose analysis focuses on what it establishes about modernity, Western rationality and the Enlightenment, as well as the interpretation of the implications of Auschwitz. Based on these approaches, a contrast of ideas is proposed through an exposition of the critical perspective of modernity and Western rationality produced by two important Afro-Caribbean authors in the 1950s: Aimé Césaire and C. R. L. James. Both authors, in their respective critiques, address the problem of Nazism. However, unlike the Adornian position of After Auschwitz, the starting point of Afro-Caribbean thinkers is not Nazism, nor Auschwitz, but slavery and colonialism that European nations undertook throughout the world, and which, according to them, implied the beginning of the deployment of modern violence.

Keywords nazism; colonialism; slavery