The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, & Colonization, 2nd Edition

Abstract

The Darker Side of the Renaissance focuses on coloniality rather than on Europe’s witch and alchemist hunt. Today I would dare to say also that this expression refers us to the historical foundation of coloniality. At the same time, coloniality statement is called into question, as well as the distinction between the known object and the knowing subject, an assumption on which the Eurocentric project of “modernity” and “modernization” disciplines lie. The preface marks the enunciation with which the statement is stated. That is, it rejects the "point zero epistemology" denounced by Santiago Castro-Gómez. This means the reader should be always pay attention to the ennunciation s/he states him/herself, to the hand drawing the hand. Those of us dwelling at Abya-Yala/America are surrounded by the historical foundation of modernity/coloniality, we are a living part of that process, which only “scientific” alignment can make us believe we are looking at something (e.g., colonization) touching what we are today