Latin American and Caribbean Imaginaries about the Conquest and the Colonial Past

This course discusses commonly held beliefs about the Conquest and the colonial past, as well as the persistence of these ideas in the present. Classes will survey a diversity of colonial literary, historical, and visual artifacts, around which we will anchor our discussions. We will introduce critical perspectives on the Spanish and Portuguese conquests and the ensuing colonial processes, from the Latin American and Caribbean postcolonial and decolonial fields. The course's main goal is to develop incisive questions and to productivey challenge our own modern/colonial epistemological frameworks in relation with these ideas and imaginaries.