Presents career biographies and criticism for Castilian writers of the fifteenth century. There are also essays on topics such as theater, poetry, and travel writers of Castile.
To many medieval Europeans north of the Pyrenees, the Iberian Kingdom of León-Castile was remote and unfamiliar. In many ways such perceptions linger today, and the fact that León-Castile is mentioned at all in current textbooks is the result of efforts begun by scholars some forty years ago. Joseph F. O'Callaghan was part of a small group of English-speaking medievalists who banded together at conferences in the early 1970s to share their knowledge of Spain. O'Callaghan's general A History of Medieval Spain (1975) introduced a generation of English-speaking medievalists to Iberia. Still much of the new scholarly interest over the past decades has been directed toward the Kingdom of Aragon-Catalonia with its exceptionally well-preserved archives. The Emergence of León-Castile brings together the current research of O'Callaghan's colleagues, students and friends. The essays focus on the politics, law and economy of León-Castile from its first great leap forward in the eleventh century to the civil strife of the fifteenth. No other volume in English allows the reader to trace the institutional development of the kingdom with this chronological breadth. At the same time the volume integrates the Leonese experience into the wider discussions of lordship and power. While León-Castile's culture was certainly its own, the kingdom shared in and influenced the institutional and economic development of its fellow Christian kingdoms both in Spain and north of the Pyrenees. The kings of León and Castile were among the first European rulers to invite townsmen to their assemblies. At the same time, they attempted to regulate their economy through sumptuary legislation and wage and price freezes. And, their centuries-long colonization southwards influenced the Germanic expansion across the Elbe, the English drive into Wales and Ireland and the Latin settlement in the Crusader states. In conclusion this collection underlines the fact that León-Castile was not an isolated backwater but a sophisticated state that had an important influence on the development of medieval and renaissance Europe.
Exploring the diverse factors that persuaded Christopher Columbus that he could reach the fabled "East" by sailing west, Dante, Columbus and the Prophetic Tradition considers, first, the impact of Dante’s Divine Comedy and the apocalyptic prophetic tradition that it reflects, on Columbus’s perception both of the cosmos and the eschatological meaning of his journey to what he called an ‘other world.’ In so doing, the book considers how affinities between himself and the exiled poet might have led Columbus to see himself as a divinely appointed agent of the apocalypse and his enterprise as the realization of the spiritual journey chronicled in the Comedy. As part of this study, the book necessarily examines the cultural space that Dante’s poem, its geography, cosmography and eschatology, enjoyed in late fifteenth century Spain as well as Columbus’s own exposure to it. As it considers how Italian writers and artists of the late Renaissance and Counter Reformation received the news of Columbus’ ‘discovery’ and appropriated the figure of Dante and the pseudo-prophecy of the Comedy to interpret its significance, the book examines how Tasso, Ariosto, Stradano and Stigliani, in particular, forge a link between Dante and Columbus to present the latter as an inheritor of an apostolic tradition that traces back to the Aeneid. It further highlights the extent to which Italian writers working in the context of the Counter Reformation, use a Dantean filter to propagate the notion of Columbus as a new Paul, that is, a divinely appointed apostle to the New World, and the Roman Church as the rightful emperor of the souls encountered there.
Antología de escritoras españolas de la Edad Media y el Siglo de Oro ofrece una selección de obras literarias de ocho escritoras medievales, renacentistas y barrocas. Cada capítulo presenta una extensa introducción sobre la autora y su obra. Esta antología contribuye a mejorar el conocimiento de los estudiantes sobre la lengua, la literatura y la cultura españolas, al igual que ofrece una lectura desde la perspectiva de género de estas escritoras. Acompañada de textos originales modernizados al castellano actual, notas aclaratorias, actividades y una extensa y actualizada bibliografía, Antología de escritoras españolas de la Edad Media y el Siglo de Oro muestra la evolución de voces femeninas a lo largo de estos siglos. Las actividades sugeridas para cada capítulo ayudan a exponer y a reflexionar sobre la relevancia cultural que en la actualidad tienen los argumentos que estas mujeres proponent en sus trabajos. Esta antología será de gran utilidad para estudiantes de literatura y cultura españolas de niveles de grado y graduado e, igualmente, para los estudiantes hispanohablantes de literature comparada y de estudios de género.
Conquered in 1492 and colonized by invading Castilians, the city and kingdom of Granada faced radical changes imposed by its occupiers throughout the first half of the sixteenth century—including the forced conversion of its native Muslim population. Written by Francisco Núñez Muley, one of many coerced Christian converts, this extraordinary letter lodges a clear-sighted, impassioned protest against the unreasonable and strongly assimilationist laws that required all converted Muslims in Granada to dress, speak, eat, marry, celebrate festivals, and be buried exactly as the Castilian settler population did. Now available in its first English translation, Núñez Muley’s account is an invaluable example of how Spain’s former Muslims made active use of the written word to challenge and openly resist the progressively intolerant policies of the Spanish Crown. Timely and resonant—given current debates concerning Islam, minorities, and cultural and linguistic assimilation—this edition provides scholars in a range of fields with a vivid and early example of resistance in the face of oppression.
This book provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art account of the field, reaffirming Iberian Studies as a dynamic and evolving discipline offering promising areas of future research. It is an essential tool for research in Iberian Studies.
Contents Contributors Preface Julia Marvin: Latinity and Vernacularity in the Tradition of Geoffrey of Monmouth: Text, Apparatus and Readership Erik Kooper: Content Markers in the Manuscripts of Robert of Gloucester¿s Chronicle Dániel Bagi: Genealogische Fälschungen und Fiktionen als Legitimierungsmittel in narrativen Quellen des Östlichen Europas im 11¿13. Jahrhundert Isabel de Barros Dias: The Emperor, the Archbishop and the Saint: One Event Told in Different Textual Forms Anders Bengtsson: L¿Essor de la proposition participiale dans la prose historique Cristian Bratu : Translatio, autorité et affirmation de soi chez Gaimar, Wace et Benoît de Sainte-Maure R. W. Burgess and Michael Kulikowski: Medieval Historiographical Terminology: The Meaning of the Word Annales Nicholas Coureas: The Conquest of Cyprus during the Third Crusade according to Greek Chronicles from Cyprus Isabelle Guyot-Bachy : La Chronique abrégée des rois de France et les Grandes chroniques de France: concurrence ou complémentarité dans la construction d¿une culture historique en France à la fin du Moyen ge? Mihkel Mäesalu: A Crusader Conflict Mediated by a Papal Legate: The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia as a Legal Text Adrien Quéret-Podesta : Le Gallus anonymus et l¿abbaye de Saint Gilles du Gard Lisa M. Ruch: Digression or Discourse? William of Newburgh¿s Ghost Stories as Urban Legends Biörn Tjällén: Political Thought and Political Myth in Late Medieval National Histories: Rodrigo Sánchez de Arévalo (¿1470)
This much-needed guide to translated literature offers readers the opportunity to hear from, learn about, and perhaps better understand our shrinking world from the perspective of insiders from many cultures and traditions. In a globalized world, knowledge about non-North American societies and cultures is a must. Contemporary World Fiction: A Guide to Literature in Translation provides an overview of the tremendous range and scope of translated world fiction available in English. In so doing, it will help readers get a sense of the vast world beyond North America that is conveyed by fiction titles from dozens of countries and language traditions. Within the guide, approximately 1,000 contemporary non-English-language fiction titles are fully annotated and thousands of others are listed. Organization is primarily by language, as language often reflects cultural cohesion better than national borders or geographies, but also by country and culture. In addition to contemporary titles, each chapter features a brief overview of earlier translated fiction from the group. The guide also provides in-depth bibliographic essays for each chapter that will enable librarians and library users to further explore the literature of numerous languages and cultural traditions.
Essays on poets and dramatists of the seicento, the seventeenth-century period of Italian literature and art. Examines the challenge that the Baroque movement posed to the neo-Aristotelian aesthetics of the Renaissance and to the notions of decorum and morality in art.