The Darker Side of the Renaissance

The Darker Side of the Renaissance draws from literature, semiotics, history, historiography, cartography, and cultural theory as it examines the role of language in the colonization of the New World. Charting the connections between writing, social organization, and political control, this broad and ambitious book argues that European forms of literacy were at the heart of New World colonization and examines both the process and the implications of conquest and destruction through language. Winner of the Modern Language Association's Katherine Singer Kovacs prize for 1996, the book continues to challenge commonplace understandings of New World history and to stimulate new colonial and postcolonial scholarship.