Publication
Title
Shifting representations, ambiguous bodies : African colonial subjects in nineteenth-century Spain
Author
Abstract
This article explores the racial politics around African colonial subjects in Spain during the second half of the nineteenth century. Between the 1840s and the 1880s, colonial authorities brought to the metropole small groups of Africans from the Gulf of Guinea with the goal of turning them into hispanicized agents of colonization upon return to their communities. Drawing on official documents, newspapers and travel narratives I examine how the representations of the first groups reveal how Spain was moving from a model of social categorization based on monogenetic theories to a new paradigm influenced by the rise of scientific racism, albeit ideas from both would frequently converge. I will also argue that the mutable and unstable representations of African bodies correlate with the politicization of race, sometimes eluding depictions of physical features, while at other times showcasing them to construct an idea of racial difference.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Ethnic and racial studies. - London
Publication
Abingdon : Routledge journals, taylor & francis ltd , 2024
ISSN
0141-9870 [print]
1466-4356 [online]
DOI
10.1080/01419870.2023.2289151
Volume/pages
47 :7 (2024) , p. 1365-1381
ISI
001125311100001
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 09.01.2024
Last edited 28.08.2024
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