The Darker Side of the Renaissance
Literacy, Territoriality, and Colonization
- 494 pages
- 18 hours of reading
An exploration of the role of the book, the map, and the European concept of literacy in the conquest of the New World
Walter D. Mignolo Book order (chronological)
Walter D. Mignolo is a renowned Argentine semiotician and professor whose work critically examines the modern and colonial world. He delves into concepts such as global coloniality, the geopolitics of knowledge, transmodernity, border thinking, and pluriversality. His rigorous analysis offers profound insights into the power structures and epistemologies that have shaped global histories, inviting readers to reconsider established worldviews.
The Latin American Subaltern Studies Reader
- 472 pages
- 17 hours of reading
This comprehensive collection of writing on subalternity in Latin America links politics, culture, and literature, reflecting a postrevolutionary sympathy for the struggles of the poor. Emerging from a decade of work by the Latin American Studies Group, the volume emphasizes the subaltern category over class, focusing on historical investigation from below. Contributors explore various topics, including nineteenth-century hygiene practices, Rigoberta Menchú's legacy post-Nobel, and issues in Haiti and Argentina. The essays also examine the interplay of gender and race in Bolivia and themes of ungovernability and tragedy in Peru. This work provides a radical critique of elite culture and challenges liberal, bourgeois, and modern epistemologies, demonstrating that Latin American Subaltern Studies transcends the mere adaptation of South Asian subaltern studies. The collection features contributions from notable scholars, including Marcelo Bergman, John Beverley, Robert Carr, Sara Castro-Klarén, and many others, each adding depth to the discourse on subalternity in the region.