The future of postcolonial approaches to medieval Iberian studies

This article delineates some of the historical characteristics of medieval Iberia that make postcolonial studies especially appealing for a renovation of this multi-disciplinary field, and it suggests specific openings for future research inflected by postcolonial studies. By discussing in particular the concepts of mimicry and transculturation, this piece exemplifies avenues for nuancing the notion of cultural contact, for rethinking the overused reliance on medieval Iberia’s “three cultures,” and it redirects attention to the fields of Latin American and colonial studies as sources of crucial theoretical debates.