
Slavery and the Forensic Theatricality of Human Rights in the Spanish Empire
Man or Citizen?
Karen-Margrethe Simonsen(Author)
Palgrave Macmillan (Publisher)
Published on 25. June 2023
Book
Hardback
XI, 309 pages
978-3-031-31530-5 (ISBN)
Description
This book is a study of the forensic theatricality of human rights claims in literary texts about slavery in the sixteenth and the nineteenth century in the Spanish Empire. The book centers on the question: how do literary texts use theatrical, multisensorial strategies to denunciate the violence against enslaved people and make a claim for their rights? The Spanish context is particularly interesting because of its early tradition of human rights thinking in the Salamanca School (especially Bartolomé de Las Casas), developed in relation to slavery and colonialism. Taking its point of departure in forensic aesthetics, the book analyzes five forms of non-narrative theatricality: allegorical, carnivalesque, tragicomic, melodramatic and tragic.
Reviews / Votes
"Karen-Margrethe Simonsen's work is a much-needed and significant contribution to understanding the long arc of writing from below within the Spanish American empire. It reveals an engagement with human rights from the 16th century writing of Bartolemé de las Casas through to the anti-slavery literature of Cuba in the 19th as a complex and vigorous dialogue with natural rights and natural law. The forensic quality of this literature, its 'endeavour to speak with the dead', as Simonsen so lucidly shows, is a means by which the crimes of slavery and empire may be exposed and the need for justice made visible."- Fionnghuala Sweeney, University of Newcastle, UK"Karen-Margrethe Simonsen deploys her new concept of forensic theatricality to devastating effect in this exciting development in the field of theatrical jurisprudence. A must-read for anyone wanting to understand just how legal and human rights injustices are never past but continue to wreak harm now. This is an important and wonderful book that should be on the shelves of lawyers, literary scholars, historians and theatre practitioners alike."-Marett Leiboff, Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Wollongong
"Simonsen's book functions to de-anglicize and decolonize the history of human rights discourse. A unique and much-needed contribution to human rights and literature."- Greta Olson, Professor of English and American Literary and Cultural Studies, University of Giesse
More details
Series
Edition
2023 ed.
Language
English
Place of publication
Cham
Switzerland
Publishing group
Springer International Publishing
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
XI, 309 p.
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
533 gr
ISBN-13
978-3-031-31530-5 (9783031315305)
DOI
10.1007/978-3-031-31531-2
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Karen-Margrethe Simonsen
Slavery and the Forensic Theatricality of Human Rights in the Spanish Empire
Book
06/2024
Palgrave Macmillan
€128.39
Shipment within 15-20 days

Karen-Margrethe Simonsen
Slavery and the Forensic Theatricality of Human Rights in the Spanish Empire
E-Book
06/2023
1st Edition
Palgrave Macmillan
€128.39
Available for download
Person
Karen-Margrethe Simonsen
is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Aarhus University, Denmark.
Content
Chapter 1: Introduction: Slavery and the Forensic Theatricality of Human Rights in the Spanish Empire.- Part I: Slavery, Theatricality and Human Rights in the Spanish Empire.- Chapter 2:Slavery and Human Rights in the Spanish Empire.- Chapter 3: Allegorical Theatricality: Horror and Human Rights in Bartolomé de las Casas' Atrocity Story A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.- Part II: Comic Modes of Theatricality and Human Rights in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth Century Spain .- Chapter 4: Carnivalesque Theatricality: Defeat, Revenge and Collective Rights in Micael de Carvajal's Court of Death and the Tragedy of Atawallpa's Death.- Chapter 5: Tragicomic Theatricality: Forensic Presentism and a Dual Vision of Rights in Lope de Vega's The New World Discovered by Christopher Columbus.- Part III: Tragic Modes of Theatricality and Human Rights in Nineteenth Century Cuba.- Chapter 6: Melodramatic Theatricality: Tableaux of Natural Rightsand Interracial Solidarity in Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda's Sab.- Chapter 7: Tragic Theatricality: Vulnerability and Rights in Juan Francisco Manzano's Autobiography of a Slave and Zafira.- Chapter 8: Epilogue: Forensic Theatricality and Human rights