The Politics of Printing and Knowledge Production in Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

In this review essay I examine how recent books about print culture and knowledge production in Latin America and the Caribbean have addressed the relationship between printing and power, and in doing so have contributed to global discussions about the hierarchies of knowledge production. The study of print culture in a broader social framework shows how printed materials matter beyond the realm of culture. I explore how these new works have understood printing as political and have unravelled its contentious politics; how they have grappled with the global circulation and mobility of printers, prints, and paper; and how they have examined the relation between printing, reading, and writing and the production of urban space.