Trop(Icaliz)ing the Enlightenment

Melancholia, Slavery, and Racial Pathology in Eighteenth-Century Cuba

“…These passages in particular came from the same incendiary section of the Histoire that called for a black Spartacus to lead Haitian slaves into a definitive battle for their freedom. Although he ignored that it was actually written by Denis Diderot and credited with having exerted a profound influence upon Toussaint L'Overture (Aravamudan 1993), Barrera was probably aware of the controversial nature of the passage and decided to paraphrase it using a less heretical tone.…”

What the Haitian Revolution Might Tell Us about Development, Security, and the Politics of Race

“… 39 The sources of slave thought on freedom are a heavily contested topic. On the African sources, see for example Thornton 1993; on the circulation and appropriation of enlightenment ideas amongst slaves see, for example, Dubois 2006; and for the same amongst elites, see Aravamudan 1993. My use of syncretism best approximates the spirit of Dubois' 2003 discussion of the meaning of Royalism.…”

Nostalgia y esclavitud en la era de las revoluciones

“…Aunque esta obra incendiaria se asocia con la figura de Guillaume-Thomas-François Raynal, sabemos que en realidad fue el resultado de un proceso de creación colectiva. Colaboraciones originales o textos reciclados de una docena de autores, incluyendo a Diderot, D'Holbach y Buffon, vinieron a formar parte de la Histoire (Aravamudan, 1993). Podemos decir que Barrera forma parte del mismo universo en el cual se mueven todos los autores a los cuales "copia", precisamente porque el cirujano español no sólo repite sus palabras sino que participa, como un "copista" más, en la creación colectiva del lenguaje mismo de la ilustración.…”