Coloniality and Structural Othering in European Thought

A Racialized Canon

This book provides a historical and conceptual analysis of patterns of racialized otherness in European thought, across primary sources, historical periods, and national archives, to show that the longue durée of structural othering is essential to making sense of epistemic violence and structural coloniality in the European canon.

This book provides a historical and conceptual analysis of patterns of racialized otherness in European thought, traversing primary sources, historical periods, and national archives, to show that the longue durée of structural othering beyond individual disciplinary canons is essential to making sense of epistemic violence and structural coloniality in the European canon.

Through the analysis of published texts and personal letters, the book brings to light racializing tropes and patterns of othering in four canonical authors each representing a different Western European country: Italian father of humanism Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch), Charles Darwin, Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault. The chapters on Italian humanism begin by highlighting how one of the founding myths of European modernity was shaped by a protocolonial mentality and the violent excision of Arabic sources, whilst the chapter on Darwin analyses the importance of shooting and frontier wars in the Beagle voyage and the vicissitudes of the term ‘extermination’ in Darwin’s thought. Elias’s civilizing narrative is unpacked to highlight his omission of colonial violence in parallel to the development of court etiquette in the metropoles. Finally, Foucault’s belief in the uniqueness of the Greek experience goes in parallel with his deletion of Islamic presence in the genealogy of modern governmentality. The initial and final chapters offer an ethnography of forgotten ethnic violence and racialized monuments in Italy linked with the distinctive history of Italian colonialism and ‘eternal fascism’.

It will appeal to scholars, researchers and students with interests in social theory, sociology, political theory, cultural studies, history, history of science, and postcolonial and ethnic studies.

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