La lógica del absolutismo. Vecinos y magistrados en Charcas en tiempos del reformismo borbónico

El artículo analiza la relación entre el reformismo borbónico y el desarrollo de espacios públicos de deliberación sobre asuntos de interés común en la ciudad de La Plata, la sede de la real audiencia de Charcas (hoy Sucre), hacia fines de la década de 1770. Se exploran un conjunto de luchas en torno a cuestiones críticas al programa reformista, tales como los recortes a las potestades del ayuntamiento, las preeminencias ceremoniales, el monopolio del tabaco y los medios legítimos de resolución de conflictos entre gobernantes y gobernados. Como resultado, se genera una politización de las relaciones de mando y obediencia, la multiplicación de controversias en diversos ámbitos donde se desenvolvía la vida pública y la difusión de pasquines como medio de propagación de opiniones contestatarias. Argumentamos que este proceso terminó por poner en cuestión tanto los fundamentos ideológicos como las condiciones de posibilidad de las políticas absolutistas.     

La destrucción y la creación en Los siameses y Flores de papel

Many Hispanic American plays of the twentieth century, such as Flores de papel and Los siameses, among others, depict the social-economic imbalance visible among the different social classes. This inequality is seen as inevitable, forcing the working class first to destroy elements of the status quo, in order then to construct a new reality. Thus it attempts to produce radical changes, including the alteration or reconstruction of the class system itself, through destruction-construction of the surrounding reality. Hence, the dramatists, considering the role of the theater and of the writer, present these struggles and class discrepancies in an attempt to find a solution to the problems of their characters' social environment.     

La revolución minera asturiana de 1934 en Melania Jacoby,de Susana Pérez Alonso: Un conflicto individual de proyecciones universales

Susana Pérez Alonso's novel Melania Jacoby proposes two levels of meaning: on the one hand, it deals with what it means to be Asturian and its social rebelliousness, and the visible traces left in the history of the region by the Asturian revolution of 1934 as well; on the other hand, the novel can be read as a universal metaphor of two forces in conflict: the untamed Nature (represented by the sea, the fields, and the coal mines) and the efforts by men to subjugate it and put it at the service of the Asturian bourgeoisie and the incipient power of the franquists. The purpose of this article is to analyze how the figure of Melania Jacoby, a woman who transgresses the hegemonic order in terms of class and gender, acts as a point of articulation and dialogue between those conflicting forces and constitutes an “interstitial space,” a border, and a place of resistance for the marginalized people (the women, the persecuted, and the poor).     

Violencia y género en Los comendadores de Córdoba de Lope de Vega

This article studies the correct generic framing of an early work of Lope de Vega,Los comendadores de Córdoba, which has attracted recent criticism, in part because the structure of tragedy is undermined by numerous laughable and grotesque elements. It therefore seems to be a play characterized by failure to follow the path of a specific genre. This article tries to overcome this problem by studying the relationship between gender and violence.     

Implicaciones legales de las seis muertes en La Celestina: Un acercamiento histórico-literario

This article examines the different types of deaths in La Celestina from the point of view of their legal and sociological significance. The analysis builds on contemporary historical data on suicide, homicide, executions, and accidents. It is shown that, beside its literary value, La Celestina is also an important historical document that provides an accurate portrait of the legal system relative to deaths that were socially unacceptable at that time. This study also highlights the presence of social criticism in the text when it describes how the authorities did not comply with some legal regulations.     

La tragedia del Tasso: obra inédita de Manuel Fernandez y Gonzalez

Although Manuel Fernández y González is mainly known for his work as a novelist, he also developed a significant number of plays that, in spite of the warmth of the audience at the time, today remain unexplored in most of nineteenth century studies. The purpose of this article is twofold: first, recovering an unpublished play of Fernández y González that it is also representative of Spanish postromantic drama from the mid-century; and second, exploring the reasons why the figure of Torcuato Tasso did not reach in Spain the category of romantic icon that it did in other European counterparts.     

Cuerpo y nación a través del poema "Su cuerpo es una isla en escombros" de Domingo de Ramos

This article is devoted mainly to one poem, "Su cuerpo es una isla en escombros," by Domingo de Ramos (1960), and its relationship to the Peruvian armed conflict that lasted from 1980 to 2000. The article focuses on one incident, the Peruvian prison massacre of June 1986. As part of the analysis, poetry by Alejandro Romualdo (1926-2008) and the Andean myth of the Inkarri are also used. The article shows how Domingo de Ramos's poetry, like similar work by other Peruvian poets, participates in a long tradition that uses the body as a space to represent sociohistorical processes.     

La prudencia de Cortés: teoría política y práctica retórica en la Historia de la conquista de México de Antonio de Solís

The Historia de la conquista de México, published by Antonio de Solís in 1684, and later extensively reissued and translated, has been praised for the ‘elegance’ and ‘sweetness’ of its style. From very early on these qualities made the Historia to be read as a prose model worthy of imitation. Different scholars have studied Solís's sources and the way he manipulated them on the one hand, and, on the other, the extent of the reliability of his account. However, very little has been said about the actual writing practices of the Historia in the context of contemporary historiographical theories, or the author's own ideas about history or politics. This paper analyzes how some of these rhetorical techniques (I particularly focus on the use of oratio figurata, sententia, and epiphoneme) gave shape to Solís's political ideas, in particular the concept of prudence.     

Revuelta plebeya,conciencia criolla y reivindicación jesuita: política y gobernanza en la Historia del Reino de Quito,de Juan de Velasco

Este artículo propone una lectura de la Historia del Reino de Quito en la América Meridional (1789), de Juan de Velasco, a partir de las ideas políticas y jurídicas de su autor. Sugiere abordar el tomo tercero de la Historia no solamente como un relato del declive social y económico que aqueja a la Audiencia de Quito, sino como un comentario a la crisis de gobernanza que, según Velasco, inicia con el ascenso de los Borbones al trono. La incapacidad jurídica de controlar la mestización de la sociedad y las desacertadas políticas de las autoridades peninsulares, resultan en la Rebelión de los Barrios de Quito, episodio que representa el clímax de las penurias que atraviesa el Reino y que le permite a Velasco cuestionar el modelo de gobierno establecido por los reformistas ilustrados, abogar por la necesidad de un gobierno criollo y restaurar la desgastada imagen de la Compañía de Jesús.     

El comercio de libros entre Europa y América en la Sevilla del siglo XVI: Impresores,libreros y mercaderes

Este artículo estudia la importancia de la Sevilla del siglo XVI como el centro del comercio de libros entre Europa y la América hispana. Uno de sus objetivos consiste en poner de manifiesto el papel que desempeñaron los grandes libreros, impresores y mercaderes de las principales plazas tipográficas del Viejo continente en la Carrera de Indias; sobre todo los flamencos, italianos y franceses. Estos mercaderes fueron los que abastecían a España y el Nuevo Mundo de libros cultos y profesionales en latín. Mientras que los peninsulares solían ser sus intermediarios en los negocios atlánticos y, a lo sumo, satisfacían de demanda americana de libros en romance, baratos y de alta popularidad. En definitiva, Sevilla y el libro fueron dos protagonistas esenciales de aquella era primera de la globalización económica-cultural.     

La ejecución de Atahuallpa: Símbolo andino de colapso y resistencia

This article studies Los dramas de Atahuallpa (Atahuallpa's Dramas) as an oral and ritual memory of the Andean natives. In those texts are traces of the resistance of the European domination initiated during the middle of the sixteenth century. They also recall the destruction of the Inca empire. The discussion points out the work done by the panaca, a Tahuantisuyo institution dedicated to preserving the memory of each Incan emperor's public life. During the twentieth century and the present years of the twenty-first, the tradition of representing Atahuallpa's death has been an expression of the political projects built by the native Andean as well as a symbol of the resistance against the conquest and its results.     

Las estrategias del juego áulico en las comedias mitológicas de Calderón de la Barca

This article studies the particular case of the mythological plays of Calderón that form a cohesive and recognizable set of works in certain circumstances. This kind of comedy is modulated by specific issues of reception, under the dominant global principle of playfulness, through the mechanisms of admiratio, and different strategies of courtly game that can be summarized in four basic areas: conventional comicity, the writing of a theater full of sensorismo, the importance of the intellect games, and finally, the strategies to point identity marks of a particular social group.