Historical studies of the present

a dialogue between colonialism and coloniality

Abstract

The present article aims to subsidize new studies about the Brazilian colonial period and the decolonial thinking through an association of colonialism and coloniality. For such, I resort as a referential to colonialism the work Formação do Brasil Contemporâneo by Prado Júnior. As for coloniality in its variety, I utilize Quijano, Mignolo, Sousa Santos and other authors that address the financialization of life and the current moment of neoliberalism. As historiographic contributions, the concept of practical past comes from the considerations of Arthur Ávila and Hayden White. I conclude that the coloniality and colonialism hold several connections illustrated by the dehumanization of life, and that, therefore, as a theoretical strengthening, the studies of the decolonial turn must problematize the "colonial" as a given category, historicize the present and resort to the practical past in order to potentialize their studies and amplify epistemic, methodological and theoretical possibilities, also engendering internal consequences to disciplined History.