Luis Castellví Laukamp, (PI), The Philippines in the Making: Spanish Transpacific Chronicles (1590-1621).

This project has been generously funded by a Pilot Grant for research at the John Rylands Library and by a British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant.

Anchored in the emerging field of Pacific Rim Studies, The Philippines in the Making: Spanish Transpacific Chronicles (1590-1621) will argue that literature in Spanish from Asia reconfigures the alleged peripheries and centres of the early modern world. Through archival research and comparative readings, this project will build on the understanding of Renaissance and Baroque Spanish literature as having not only a transatlantic but also a transpacific dimension. It will challenge a dominant narrative that links globalisation with the ‘new imperialism’ of the late 19^th / early 20th century, by saying that the roots of it should be sought in the early modern period. The resulting monograph, which will draw on postcolonial and critical race theory, will also analyse the political use of history in the late Spanish colonial era of the Philippines. Its implications will extend beyond Spain’s former empire to inform broader discussions about the location of colonial literature, circulation of people and ideas within the Spanish empire, and the postcolonial legacies of the early modern Hispanic world. This project will be a crucial step to reach my long-term goal: to pioneer a truly global history of Spanish literature by building bridges between two previously unrelated fields of Hispanic studies (Atlantic and Pacific) and scholars working in them.

Despite the wealth of Spanish colonial material about Southeast Asia in the John Rylands Library, these resources have not been studied as extensively as they deserve. The Philippines in the Making aims to fill this gap by examining different sources such as chronicles, maps, grammar books, and dictionaries, shedding light on Spain’s imperial expansion in the early modern period. This project will provide answers to crucial questions about Spanish colonial endeavours, their promoters, the literature they inspired, and ultimately their role in shaping the identity of an emerging nation, the Philippines.