• Coloniality and the Rise of Liberation Thinking during the Sixteenth Century

    Author(s):
    Thomas Robert Ward (see profile)
    Date:
    2021
    Group(s):
    LLC Colonial Latin American, TC Postcolonial Studies
    Subject(s):
    Postcolonialism, Humanism, Latin American literature, Sixteenth century, Liberation theology
    Item Type:
    Monograph
    Tag(s):
    Peruvian literature, Las Casas, guaman poma de ayala, Thomas More, Erasmus, Decolonial theory, 16th-century Latin American literature, Indigenous critical thought
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/gq5x-qp62
    Abstract:
    This book delves into the inadequately explored, liberative side of Humanism during the late Renaissance. While some long-sixteenth-century thinking anticipates twentieth-century Liberation Theology, a broader description is simply “liberation thinking,” which embraces its diverse, timeless, and sometimes nontheological aspects. Two moments frame the treatment of American colonialism’s physical and mental pathways and the liberative response to them, known as liberation thinking. These are St. Thomas More’s Utopia, published in 1516, and the demise of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala in 1616, who had just completed his thousand-page Nueva crónica y buen gobierno. These works and others by Erasmus and Bartolomé de las Casas trace the development of the antihegemonic idea of human liberation in the face of degrading chattel and encomienda slavery as well as the peonage that gave rise to the hacienda system in the Americas. Catholic humanists such as More, Erasmus, Las Casas, and Guaman Poma developed arguments, theories, and even theology that attempted to deconstruct those subordinating structures.
    Notes:
    This books reviews Spanish colonialism in the Americas, with special attention to slavery and peonage, and then present four Renaissance scholars who deconstructed hegemonic thought (Erasmus, Thomas More, Bartolomé de las Casas, and Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala. The latter two could also be viewed as decolonial theorists.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Book section    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    3 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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