Awards

• Winner of ASWAD Outstanding First Book Prize 2020
• Winner of Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize 2021

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9780271083469

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Reviews

A bold intervention that contributes significantly to the ongoing expansion of early modern race studies beyond the Anglosphere. -Noemie Ndiaye, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies This compelling study offers many fresh insights into the literary reception of African-Iberian speech performance and recovers depictions that previous scholarship derided as hopelessly biased or monologic. It utilizes these depictions to read not just the formation of early modern black subjectivities but also the role they played in defining the hegemonic order under which these were crafted and codified. Jones directs critical attention to multiple stagings of subaltern performance by Blacks, Africans, and Ibero-Africans as well as their instrumental roles in the formation of early modern global empires. -Israel Burshatin, Haverford College Nicholas Jones makes a necessary and nuanced argument that black folks will always hack the systems of oppression and eagerly make use of whatever agency they can acquire to subvert and chip away at anti-blackness. Jones uses the theories of Audre Lorde, Zora Neale Hurston, and Daphne Brooks to demonstrate how heretofore undertheorized characters in habla de negros texts revel in black joy through artful expressions and speech acts steeped in an Africaneity that Iberian Studies can no longer deny. -Kinitra D. Brooks, author of Searching for Sycorax: Black Women's Hauntings of Contemporary Horror Nicholas R. Jones reveals new worlds in this exploration of the black African diaspora in early modern Iberia. Deftly combining literary analysis, performance studies, and diaspora studies, Jones demonstrates how representations of 'black speech' document African voices of agency, presence, and resistance as African identities were boldly formed at the heart of Iberian culture. These lively and critically imaginative arguments are destined to become standard points of reference for years to come. -Josiah Blackmore, author of Moorings: Portuguese Expansion and the Writing of Africa A crucial intervention in discussions about black Africans in Renaissance Europe. Focusing specifically on early modern Spain, Jones offers insightful and nuanced readings of the ways in which (mostly) white Spanish writers appropriated black speech in staged performances and poetry, arguing that such appropriations actually encode black African agency. Importantly, he decenters the author and asks readers to approach these literary forms from the margin to understand how forces beyond the author influence text formation. Jones's careful, against-the-grain readings open up to readers new archives (and re-present familiar ones from fresh, intriguing perspectives) for the study of black cultural experiences in the Renaissance era. -Cassander L. Smith, author of Black Africans in the British Imagination: English Narratives of the Early Atlantic World

A crucial intervention in discussions about Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. Focusing specifically on early modern Spain, Jones offers insightful and nuanced readings of the ways in which (mostly) white, Spanish writers appropriated black speech in staged performances and poetry, arguing that such appropriations actually encode Black African agency. Importantly, he de-centers the author and asks readers to approach these literary forms from the margin to understand how forces beyond the author influence text formation. Jones's careful, against-the-grain readings open up to readers new archives (and re-present familiar ones from fresh, intriguing perspectives) for the study of black cultural experiences in the Renaissance era. -Cassander L. Smith, author of Black Africans in the British Imagination

A crucial intervention in discussions about Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. Focusing specifically on early modern Spain, Jones offers insightful and nuanced readings of the ways in which (mostly) white, Spanish writers appropriated black speech in staged performances and poetry, arguing that such appropriations actually encode Black African agency. Importantly, he de-centers the author and asks readers to approach these literary forms from the margin to understand how forces beyond the author influence text formation. Jones's careful, against-the-grain readings open up to readers new archives (and re-present familiar ones from fresh, intriguing perspectives) for the study of black cultural experiences in the Renaissance era. --Cassander L. Smith, author of Black Africans in the British Imagination

Nicholas R. Jones reveals new worlds in this exploration of the black African diaspora in early modern Iberia. Deftly combining literary analysis, performance studies, and diaspora studies, Jones demonstrates how representations of 'black speech' document African voices of agency, presence, and resistance as African identities were boldly formed at the heart of Iberian culture. These lively and critically imaginative arguments are destined to become standard points of reference for years to come. --Josiah Blackmore, author of Moorings: Portuguese Expansion and the Writing of Africa Nicholas Jones makes a necessary and nuanced argument that Black folks will always hack the systems of oppression and eagerly make use of whatever agency they can acquire to subvert and chip away at anti-Blackness. Jones uses the theories of Audre Lorde, Zora Neale Hurston, and Daphne Brooks to demonstrate how heretofore undertheorized characters in habla de negros texts revel in Black joy through artful expressions and speech acts steeped in an Africaneity Iberian Studies can no longer deny through Jones's careful and loving reading of early modern Black folks and Black women in particular. --Kinitra D. Brooks, author of Searching for Sycorax: Black Women's Hauntings of Contemporary Horror A crucial intervention in discussions about Black Africans in Renaissance Europe. Focusing specifically on early modern Spain, Jones offers insightful and nuanced readings of the ways in which (mostly) white, Spanish writers appropriated black speech in staged performances and poetry, arguing that such appropriations actually encode Black African agency. Importantly, he de-centers the author and asks readers to approach these literary forms from the margin to understand how forces beyond the author influence text formation. Jones's careful, against-the-grain readings open up to readers new archives (and re-present familiar ones from fresh, intriguing perspectives) for the study of black cultural experiences in the Renaissance era. --Cassander L. Smith, author of Black Africans in the British Imagination

Author Information

Nicholas R. Jones is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Bucknell University.

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