ABSTRACT
Since the 1940s, and especially since the 1960s, several emerging social identities have questioned the western schema used to understand and dominate the world. There are numerous symptoms of the ensuing crisis: the ever-growing importance of the feminist movement, especially in France and the United States; the recrudescence of national liberation movements in colonized countries, notably in Africa; the triumph of the Cuban revolutionary movement and its impact on the Latin American universe of discourse; campus manifestations by students in the major cities of Japan, Europe, North America, and Latin America; the civil rights movement, tied to the vindication of minorities, and mass opposition to the war in Vietnam.
