In his literary and artistic criticism José Carlos Mariátegui puts at the centre of the debate the articulation between art’s inscription in history and its internal and creative political power. This chapter intends to put forward the usefulness of a Marxist poetics based on Mariátegui’s conceptions in order to examine the ways in which they could go beyond certain limitation of decolonial literary criticism. Indeed, by tying art’s emancipatory power to its internal creative forces a Marxist poetics, based on Mariátegui’s criticism, rethinks the relation between artistic creation and the defence of local particularities. Moreover, Mariátegui’s works point towards a more complex definition of the interaction between local creation and cosmopolitism. Therefore, a critique based on the author’s critical works broadens the approach to aesthetics’ emancipatory potential.