University Press of America
Pages: 136
Trim: 6 x 9¼
978-0-7618-5235-3 • Paperback • September 2010 • $44.99 • (£35.00)
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.
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
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