Bodies, Texts, and Ghosts: Writing on Literature and Law in Colonial Latin America

by Raúl Marrero-Fente

Overview

Bodies, Texts, and Ghosts aims to promote the dialogue between Hispanic Atlantic cultures by exploring legal and literary texts from a cross-cultural perspective, while also taking into account the theoretical contributions of spectral criticism. Marrero-Fente argues that a transatlantic approach provides a broader framework to rethink the ways in which literature and law have been formulated. According to Marrero-Fente, adopting a transatlantic perspective offers a method of thinking across geographical borders, which allows readers to examine in-depth the reciprocal cultural exchange between Spain and Spanish America during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the author studies how the different discursive formations of the colonial period represent racial, gender, and cultural differences on both sides of the Atlantic. This innovative approach to Hispanic studies creates new possibilities of interpretation, including the adoption of a global perspective in the field of colonial Latin American studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761852353
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	09/02/2010
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	6.07(w) x 9.16(h) x 0.33(d)

About the Author

Raúl Marrero-Fente is associate professor of Spanish and law at the University of Minnesota. His research focuses on colonial Latin America, transatlantic studies, and human rights. He is the author of Epic, Empire, and Community in the Atlantic World: Silvestre de Balboa's Espejo de Paciencia.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Preface
Chapter 2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 1. Spectral Agency: Epic, Loss and the Work of Mourning in Colonial Latin American Literature
Chapter 4 2. Phantom Texts, Scientific Knowledge, and Cultural Geography in La Conquista del Perú (1538)
Chapter 5 3. Epic, Haunting, and Violence in Los actos y hazañas valerosas del capitán Diego Hernández de Serpa (1564) by Pedro de la Cadena
Chapter 6 4. Female Agency and Araucanian Ghosts: The Work of Mourning in La Araucana (1569) by Alonso de Ercilla
Chapter 7 5. Phantom Authorship, Amerindian Bodies, and Slavery in Nuevo mundo y conquista (1580) by Francisco de Terrazas
Chapter 8 6. Aztec Ghosts and the Voice of Death in Romances and Songs Related to the Conquest of Mexico
Chapter 9 7. Spectral Texts and Ghost Author in Historia de la Invención de las Indias (1525) by Fernán Pérez de Oliva
Chapter 10 8. Literature, Memory, and Mourning: The Trauma of Conquest in La Florida (1605) by Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
Chapter 11 9. Reading the Specter in the Law: Colonialism and Culture in the Royal Commentaries (1609) by Inca Garcilaso de la Vega
Chapter 12 10. The Afterlife of Colonial Legal Texts: Spanish Legal Imperialism and the Conquest of America
Chapter 13 11. Human Rights and Academic Discourse: Teaching Las Casas-Sepúlveda debate in the Times of the Iraq War
Chapter 14 Bibliography
Chapter 15 Index

Editorial Reviews

This is an essential volume for anyone interested in the epic discourse produced during the colonial period in Spanish America. Marrero-Fente demonstrates its pervasive influence in the construction of colonial knowledge and in the production of culture. More importantly, he illustrates its multi-generic manifestations that are often ignored and essential to the understanding of colonial violence, human agency, and the many forms of imperialism practiced in the Spanish territories.

Santa Arias

This is an essential volume for anyone interested in the epic discourse produced during the colonial period in Spanish America. Marrero-Fente demonstrates its pervasive influence in the construction of colonial knowledge and in the production of culture. More importantly, he illustrates its multi-generic manifestations that are often ignored and essential to the understanding of colonial violence, human agency, and the many forms of imperialism practiced in the Spanish territories.--Santa Arias, University of Kansas

From the Publisher