While contemporary scholars have taken a great interest in diversity or heterogeneity, this model is relatively new and literature of the past is still crying out for its place in the diversity model. This book models five different decolonizing methods to examine both indigenous writing and representations of indigenous peoples by learned elites.

Thomas Ward is professor of Spanish and director of the Latin American and Latino Studies Program at Loyola University Maryland.

Introduction: The Coloniality of Literary Practice
Chapter 1: Colonial Force: Word Choices, the Denial of Nationness, and the Coloniality of Mind
Chapter 2: The Popol Wuj and the Birth of Mayan Literature
Chapter 3: Coloniality of mind in Zárate's Historia del descubrimiento y conquista del Perú
Chapter 4: Alva Ixtlilxochitl, Civilization, and the Quest for Coevalness
Chapter 5: González Prada and Menchú: Indigenism and Indigenous Expression
Final Thoughts: Overcoming Coloniality in Literature and History