​Karen-Margrethe Simonsen is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Aarhus University, Denmark.

• Chapter 1: Introduction: Slavery and the Forensic Theatricality of Human Rights in the Spanish Empire.- Part I: Slavery, Theatricality and Human Rights in the Spanish Empire.- Chapter 2:Slavery and Human Rights in the Spanish Empire.- Chapter 3: Allegorical Theatricality: Horror and Human Rights in Bartolomé de las Casas’ Atrocity Story A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.- Part II: Comic Modes of Theatricality and Human Rights in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth Century Spain .- Chapter 4: Carnivalesque Theatricality: Defeat, Revenge and Collective Rights in Micael de Carvajal’s Court of Death and the Tragedy of Atawallpa’s Death.- Chapter 5: Tragicomic Theatricality: Forensic Presentism and a Dual Vision of Rights in Lope de Vega’s The New World Discovered by Christopher Columbus.- Part III: Tragic Modes of Theatricality and Human Rights in Nineteenth Century Cuba.- Chapter 6: Melodramatic Theatricality: Tableaux of Natural Rightsand Interracial Solidarity in Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s Sab.- Chapter 7: Tragic Theatricality: Vulnerability and Rights in Juan Francisco Manzano’s Autobiography of a Slave and Zafira.- Chapter 8: Epilogue: Forensic Theatricality and Human rights