The Polemics of Possession in Spanish American Narrative

by Rolena Adorno

In this book on early Latin American narrative, Rolena Adorno argues that the core of the Spanish American literary tradition consists of the writings in which the rights to Spanish dominion in the Americas and the treatment of its natives were debated. She places the works of canonical Spanish and Amerindian writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries within this larger polemic and shows how their works sought credibility within the narrative system itself, rather than in the irretrievable historical events that lay outside it.

 

The triumph of the narrative mode over historical content is further revealed in Adorno’s demonstration of how these authors and their historical protagonists have been polemically reinvented up to the present day. Adorno traces the elaboration and persistence of colonial-era debates cast in narrative form to arrive at a new understanding of the role the “polemics of possession” plays in the history of Latin American literature and thought.

 

 

 

 

 

Genres: History, Nonfiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 9, 2007

Reviews

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can tell she's spent thirty years thinking about this. A comprehensive, brilliant look at colonial Spanish American literature that doubles as a fascinating history book. Not gonna lie, though, I mostly love this because it details the badassery of #myboi Bartolomé de las Casas so lovingly.

[Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to be able to write like this woman. She is freaking fantastic. No wonder she teaches at Yale. This book has made me very excited about the class I'm taking which I read it for and about exploring the possibility of researching religious dramas in Latin America for my dissertation. There are so many interesting personalities, polemics, and narratives alive in her work and evidently this period. For anyone who's interested in theatre history and has been following what Patricia Ybarra has written regarding how history takes time . . . I'm pretty sure this is the kinda of work that she is talking about.