Main points are in red; Comps stuff/people is/are are highlighted in blue and also listed below.
*This was a nice concise
big-picture review of the whole colonial section.
Comps people/stuff mentioned
-
Poma de Ayala (pg. 3-4)
-
Popol Vuh
(pg. 6)
-
Inca Garcilaso
de la Vega – Comentarios reales (pg. 6,
pg. 14-15)
-
Ollantay (pg. 8)
-
Bernal
Díaz del Castillo – Historia verdadera de
la conquista de la Nueva España (pg. 10-11)
-
Alvar
Núñez Cabeza de Vaca – Naufragios (pg.
11-12)
-
Bartolomé
de las Casas (pg. 13-14)
-
Alonso
de Ercilla – La Araucana (pg. 16-17)
-
Carlos
de Siguenza y Góngora’s – Los infortunios
de Alonso Ramírez (pg. 18-21)
-
Sor
Juana Inés de la Cruz (pg. 21-24)
-
Juan
del Valle Caviedes (pg. 24-25)
General Notes
-
Spanish conquest of Central and South America had
a vast impact on the European mindset (1)
o
New problems of law and politics
o
Visions of Utopia
o
Challenged notions of geography and natural history
-
Huge trauma/psychological shock of indigenous
Americans due to conquest (1)
-
Indigenous/Indians that were conquered ranged
from primitive nomadic tribes to highly-civilized communities (Incas in the Andes,
Aztecs of Mexico, and Mayas of Central America) (1)
-
Indigenous religion (1)
o
Nature-religions (focus on nature and natural
laws)
o
Focus on gods, who must be placated – Christian
idea of individual salvation was radical
-
Major conflict of opinions about nature – Spaniards saw nature as something to be
conquered and overcome, while Indians/indigenous saw it as an intimate and
important part of life (3)
-
Tragic paradox: for
Spaniard the conquest = possibility of Utopia; for Indian it’s the end of a Golden
Age (3)
o
Example: Poma de
Ayala described pre-conquest society in a very positive way
-
Mass conversion effort (c’mon, Indians, be
Christians… or we’ll kill you!) (4)
o
Conquest soldiers, friars/missionaries, schools,
churches, convents, printing press for religious documents
o
Indian culture/religion survived, especially in
more remote rural areas (Christian/Spanish focus was in urban centers)
-
Sharp division
between the sophistication of the city and the backwardness and cultural
conservatism of the rural areas – this contrast persists today (5)
Literature during
conquest and colonial period
-
Indian literature of the colonial period (5-6)
o
Records of pre-Columbian literature written down
after the conquest, as a means of preserving the record of ancient belief (think Popol Wuj
and Huarochiri…)
o
Literature created by the Indians during the
colonial period
-
Poetry was important for many indigenous
cultures (6-8)
o
For example, for the Incas – Garcilaso de la Vega recorded some of their poetry
in his text Comentarios reales (6)
-
Medieval forms of literature from Spain (such as
the ballad) took hold and persisted in some of the rural regions of the New
World – the idea being that while the urban centers advanced with Spain, the
rural areas didn’t really change/advance much (9)
-
Conquistadors were fascinated by
legends/fantasies – legends based on New World (Fountains of Youth, Seven
Enchanted Cities, and myth of El Dorado) and also popular novels of chivalry
(from Spain) (9)
-
Tons of chronicles –
idea that the conquerors were conscious of their own glorious destinies
(10)
o
Ex: Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (10-11)
o
Many records of conquest written with goal of
persuading the authorities to give due recompense for services (11)
o
“personal
interest” story – example: Cabeza de Vaca’s Naufragios
(11-12)
The Universalization
of the American Experience (Politics, labor, religion, literature)
-
By 1540, Indies were
divided into two huge administrative zones – the Viceroyalties of Peru and New
Spain (with its capital in México) (12)
-
Church and State were combined (12)
-
Major conversion effort (13)
-
Indians = labor supply as slaves (13)
-
“The usual view of the churchmen was simply to
regard the Indian past as a time of idolatry and error from which the
providential arrival of the Spaniards had rescued them” (14)
-
Inca Garcilaso de la Vega – Comentarios
reales (14-15)
o
He was a mestizo, and embraced his dual
identity, establishing himself as different/an outsider
o
Compared Incan civilization with the greatest of
Western societies and cultures (example: described Cuzco as another Rome in
that empire)
o
Compared Incan/indigenous religion with Christianity
-
“for several decades after the foundation of the
colonial empire, the leading poets were Spanish-born and had often grown up in Spain”
(16)
-
Alonso de Ercilla – La Araucana (16-17)
o
Spanish poet who wrote in New world
o
Epic poem – provoked many imitations
-
There were tons of lyric poets in the New World,
and a lot of them really weren’t that great (17)
-
Theatre was a
popular form of entertainment and an instrument for teaching of Church doctrine
in colonies – reflecting growing popularity of theatre in Spain at time (17)
-
Novel failed to take
root in the New World (18)
o
This was in part due to wariness of then-popular
novels of chivalry as bad influence on indigenous
o
There was an embargo on importation of novels to
New World, but some did get in
o
Carlos de Siguenza y
Góngora’s text Los infortunios de Alonso
Ramírez did have some novelistic tones to it, although it was
technically a historical record (18-19)
Seventeenth Century
-
Spanish colonies
were well-controlled – firm relationship (political and economical) with Spain,
and constant watch of Inquisition (19)
-
Baroque artistic style, characterized by
exuberant decorative elements, and the use of curves and broken lines (19)
-
Baroque style in
poetry – very complex and “decorative” styles (19-20)
-
Carlos Siguenza y
Góngora (20-21)
o
Trained as a Jesuit but soon left the order
o
Undistinguished poet, but gifted writer of
narrative (ex: Infortunios de Alonso…)
o
Learned Indian language
o
Wrote some chronicles, that were published
posthumously
-
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (21-24)
o
Joined convent to be able to study
o
Admired by Spanish-speaking world, known as “Décima
musa”
o
Wrote lyric poetry, metaphysical poems (ex: Sueño), both sacred and profane plays,
theological polemic, and some secular letters
o
Torn both by conflict between religious
obedience and passion for learning, and between two kinds of scholarship – old method
of trusting to autoridades and new
pragmatic methods (23)
-
Juan del Valle
Caviedes (24-25)
o
Spanish born poet who arrived in the New World
and became well known as a satirist in Lima (Peru)
o
Main target of his satirical poems were emergent
professions, especially doctors
o
Interest in ugliness and sordidness of human
life and its grotesque absurdity
The Eighteenth Century
-
“The great structure
that was the Spanish colonial empire began to crack and break in the eighteenth
century” (25)
-
Mining was replaced by agriculture as the
mainstay of colonial economy (26)
-
Uprisings and disturbances grew more frequent
(26)
o
Ex: great rebellions in Paraguay and Venezuela –
Indians of Yucatán with Tupac Amaru
-
Jesuit order was expelled from all Spanish
territories in 1767 – the Jesuits had formed a major component of the
educational system, so that was a serious blow (26)
No comments:
Post a Comment