Temas and Anathemas: Depoliticization and 'Newspeak' in Cuba's Social Sciences and Humanities
| Autor | Yvon Grenier |
| Páginas | 155-182 |
Revista Mexicana de Análisis Político y Administración Pública
Departamento de Gestión Pública y Departamento de Estudios Políticos y de Gobierno
Volumen V, número , julio-diciembre
Pp. -
Revista Mexicana de Análisis Político y Administración Pública. Universidad de Guanajuato.
155
Fecha de recepción: ma rzo
Fecha de aceptación: de nov iembre
TEMAS AND ANATHEMAS: DEPOLITICIZATION AND “NEWSPEAK”
IN CUBA'S SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES *
Temas y anatemas: despolitización y “Nueva Lengua”
en las ciencias sociales y humanidades cubanas
Yvon Grenier
Resumen
Desde el triunfo de la revolución, el gobier-
no cubano se han esforzado para despolitiz ar
la sociedad, “achicando” el lenguaje utiliza-
do para hablar de política. La intuición nos
viene de la novela de Orwell 1984, en la que
la “ neolengua “ se explica como un proyec-
to a largo plazo de reducción del lenguaje y
de disminución del alcance del pensamiento
. El artículo examina una fuente estratégi-
ca de la producción del lenguaje , el ámbito
académico, y analisa un ejemplo evidente de
“reducción”: la terminación de la ciencia polí-
tica como disciplina en Cuba bajo el régimen
de Castro. Como sustituto a la ciencia políti-
ca, lo que encontramos en Cuba son blanda s
ciencias sociales y humanidades que hablan
de política y de administración pública, pero
no de poder. Este artículo examina con dete-
nimiento el trabajo del cientista social Rafael
Hernández y de la revist a Tema s (- ), de la
que es director.
Palabras clave: Cuba, intelectuales, univer-
sidades, ciencias sociales, dictadura.
Summar y
Since the triumph of the revolution, the Cu-
ban government has striven to depoliticize
society, namely by “shrinking” the language
used to talk about politics. e intuition for
this article comes from Orwell's novel 1984,
in which “Newspeak” is explained as a long-
term, problematical project to “shrink ” lan-
guage and na rrow the range of thoughts. I look
at one strategic source of lang uage production,
the academic eld, and ex amine one glaring
example of “shrinki ng”: the actua l dismissal of
political science as a discipline under the Cas-
tro regime. e case i s made that in lieu of po-
litical science, one nds la rgely defanged social
sciences and humanities that talk about poli-
tics and policies without act ually talki ng about
power. Illustrations are found in t he work of
social scientist Rafael Hernández and in the
journal Te m as , of which he is the di rector.
Keywords: Cuba, intelectuals, universities,
social sciences, dictatorship.
* A n earlier version of this art icle was presented at the Annual Mee ting of the Association for the Study
of the Cuban Economy, Miami ( July ). I would like to thank José A ntonio Aguilar, Marlene A zor
Hernández, Rog er Betancourt, Arma ndo Chaguaceda, René C ostales, Alfred Cu zán, Arch Ritter, Ra-
fael Rojas, Brenda Ro se and Soren Tri for their usefu l comments. I would also lik e to thank St. Francis
Xavier University's Universit y Council for Research for its suppor t.
Revista Mexicana de Análisis Político y Administración Pública. Universid ad de Guanajuato. Volumen V, número 2, ju lio-diciembre 20 16
156
,
Cuando una sociedad se corrompe, lo primero que se gangrena es
el lenguaje. La crítica de la sociedad, en consecuencia, comienza
con la gramática y c on el restablecimiento de los signicados.
Octavio Paz, Postdata [], :
Since the triumph of the revolution, the Cuban government have striven to depoliticize
society, namely by “shrinking” the language used to talk about politics. e intuition
for this chapter comes from Orwell's novel 1984, in particular its appendix, in which
“Newspeak” is explained as a long-term, thorny project to “shrink” language and nar-
rowing the range of thoughts, eli minating words that could threaten the utopian master
plan (adding new ones too), and erasing some memories. Incidentally, Orwell's master-
piece is no longer censured in Cuba, at least ocially (it was not available in Havana's
bookstores in November of ), since the Feria Internacional del Libro of February
. In this article I look at one strategic source of language production, the academic
eld, and examine one glaring example of “shrinking”: the actual dismissal of politi-
cal science as a discipline. In lieu of political science, one nds largely defanged social
sciences and humanities that talk about politics and policies without actually talking
about power. Illustrations are found in the work of social scientist Rafael Hernández
and in the journal Te mas , of which he is the director.
e appendix to the novel 1984 (), entitled “e principles of Newspeak,” ex-
plores in some details Orwell's most compelling insight on the inner-working and fu-
ture prospects of totalitaria n regimes: their use and abuse of language. is appendix is
very much a part of the novel, though it is often unnoticed. In it, the narrator explains
how the new language works and, in a futurist prediction post- (the novel was
published in ), the narrator speculates: “e nal adoption of Newspeak had been
xed for so late a date as .” It turns out that “Oldspeak” (old English) is oering
a formidable resistance, as it is being kept alive, one presumes, by writers such as the
author of 1984 and Animal Farm ( ).
Newspeak, we are told, “was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of
thought, and this purpose was indirectly assisted by cutting the choice of words down
to a minimum.” Furthermore, “it was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted
once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretica l thought
—
that is, a thought diverging
from the principles of Ingsoc
—
should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought
is dependent on words.” e appendix explains that words come in three categories: the
A vocabulary, the B vocabulary (also called compound words), and the C vocabulary.
e A vocabulary consists of the “words needed for the business of everyday life.” e B
vocabulary consists of “words which had been deliberately constructed for political pur-
poses.” No word in the B vocabulary is ideologically neutral and a “great many” are eu-
phemisms. “e C vocabulary was supplementary to the others and consisted entirely of
scientic and technical terms.” e case of Socia l Sciences and Humanities () in Cuba
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