Cervantine Blackness

There is no shortage of Black characters in Miguel de Cervantes¿s works, yet there has been a profound silence about the Spanish author¿s compelling literary construction and cultural codification of Black Africans and sub-Saharan Africa. In Cervantine Blackness, Nicholas R. Jones reconsiders in what sense Black subjects possess an inherent value within Cervantes¿s cultural purview and literary corpus. In this unflinching critique, Jones charts important new methodological and theoretical terrain, problematizing the ways emphasis on agency has stifled and truncated the study of Black Africans and their descendants in early modern Spanish cultural and literary production. Through the lens of what he calls ¿Cervantine Blackness,¿ Jones challenges the reader to think about the blind faith that has been lent to the idea of agency¿and its analogues ¿presence¿ and ¿resistance¿¿as a primary motivation for examining the lives of Black people during this period. Offering a well-crafted and shar