Descubrimiento,geografía y origen de los discursos hispanoamericanos

Imaginación del Nuevo Mundo. Diez estudios sobre los inicios de la narrativa hispanoamericana. By JOSE JUAN ARROM. México: Siglo XXI Editores, 1991. Pp. 196.

Signs, Songs, and Memory in the Andes: Translating Quechua Language and Culture. By REGINA HARRISON. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1989. Pp. xvii, 233.

The Armature of Conquest: Spanish Accounts of the Discovery of America, 1492–1589. By BEATRIZ PASTOR. Translated by LYDIA LONGSTRETH HUNT. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992. Pp. x, 317.

Mil leguas por América. De Lima a Caracas 1740–1741. Diario de don Miguel de Santisteban. Preliminary study by DAVID J. ROBINSON. Bogotá: Banco de la República, 1992. Pp. 323.     

Cartografía emocional entre la China y la Gloria: Agustín de Foxá, Víctor Ruiz Iriarte y la Modernidad

Both Agustín de Foxá and Víctor Ruiz Iriarte premiered their first plays very near the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The two playwrights appear to belong to the same imaginative and poetical vein, but in fact Foxá yearns for an impossible return to an idealized past, in a pessimistic lamentation against Modernity—that is, precisely, his exotic drama Cui-Ping-Sing. The poetical theatre Ruiz Iriarte endorses in Un día en la Gloria, and thinks apt to Modern times, is based in a radical optimism—the idea that fantasy can always transform and improve a disappointing reality.     

Topoiesis: Procesos de espacialización en la literatura (crítica y metodología)

ABSTRACT

Space in literary texts has been widely studied but poorly systematized. There is no valid method of analysis that gives space a critical meaning. For instance, critics have eluded the fact that time and space cannot be considered separately. On the other hand, they have used concepts or methods from disciplines aside literature such as anthropology, biology, psychology, or geography that do not help clarify the meaning or signification of a literary text. We begin this article by giving a review of the main theoretical and critical positions regarding space in literature from the second half of the twentieth century. We do this in order to evaluate the main results those studies have attained. Later on, we propose a methodology that may clarify the significance of space in a literary text. The concept topoiesis (as far as we know, it has not been used in the humanities) represents for us a key word. It helps us to distinguish one main process where space can turn from a signification practice to the production of meaning in a literary text.     

“Vivo sin vivir en mí”: YouTube y la poesía de santa Teresa de Jesús

ABSTRACT

The poetry of Saint Teresa of Jesus has not aroused the same interest from the critics as has her prose. There are several reasons for this. However, her poetry has remained in the memory of anyone who has come in contact with it, as well as in public manifestations, one of which is the phenomenon of new media—in particular, YouTube. Consequently, this article presents an analysis of Teresa de Jesus's poem “Vivo sin vivir en mí” (“Live without living in me”) in the context of new media, specifically YouTube, in order to further analyze the oral-auditory impact of her work as a strategy of representation in the reception of her writing and, therefore, expand the communicative possibilities of her writing style close to the spoken language, beyond her time and context.     

Consejero de Felipe III en su Real Consejo de Indias: venalidad y corrupción en el servicio a la Monarquía

During the reign of Philip the III, one of the most famous legal proceedings of the 17th century took place. It was conducted against Pedro Franqueza and Alonso Ramírez de Prado, who were charged for taking advantage of the king's trust to obtain personal benefits and in detriment of the Monarchy. Two of the charges were referred to the case of an adviser from Indias: Lic. Francisco Alonso de Villagrá, who might have obtained the position through fraudulent activities with the all-powerful Pedro Franqueza. Based on the analysis of the documents pertaining to this case, the aim of this research is to unravel the events that took place, understand the causes that led Villagrá to become involved and the consequences of the way in which the position was acquired.     

Lírica y novela pastoril de la Colonia: Nuevas ediciones

Grandeza Mexicana de Bernardo de Balbuena. Edición crítica de JOSÉ CARLOS GONZÁLEZ BOIXO. Roma: Bulzoni, 1988. Pp. 123.

Siglo de Oro en las selvas de Erífile de Bernardo de Balbuena. Edición, introducción y notas de JOSÉ CARLOS GONZÁLEZ BOIXO. Xalapa: Universidad Veracruzana, 1989. Pp. 320 (más páginas e índices de ilustraciones).

Primera parte del Parnaso Antártico de obras amatorias de Diego Mexía. Edición facsimilar. Introducción de TRINIDAD BARRERA. Roma: Bulzoni, 1990. Pp. 276.     

Espacios locales y espacios trascendentales de la conversión: las Postrimerías de Carabuco y la producción performativa de epistemologías transculturales

The monumental paintings of the Postrimerías [Four Last Things] from the church of Carabuco (1684) serve as objects to study the complex dynamics of the visual and performative production of religious knowledge in a colonial contact zone. The article presents different ‘readings’ of the series that focus on possible uses and receptions of the paintings by local actors. These readings are based, on the one hand, on the idea of conceiving the series as a ‘cycle of meditation’ and product of the influences of Christian mysticism that played an important role in the ‘eschatological politics of conversion’ of the southern Andean Highlands. On the other hand, the paintings relate the eschatological message with the local hagiographic narratives of a pre-Hispanic apostle associated simultaneously with the Christian apostle Bartholomew and the Andean deity Tunupa—the most important figure of Aymara mythology. These works therefore represent objects of memory that participate in the local construction of time and space and that refer not only to Christian eschatological concepts but also to local Andean ontologies.