Memory, Media, and Empire in the Castilian Romances of Antiquity

During the 13th and 14th centuries, medieval Castile produced some of the liveliest, most sophisticated vernacular reworkings of narratives inherited from classical and late antiquity, including those about Alexander the Great, the Trojan War, or Apollonius of Tyre. This study recovers the overlooked tradition of the Castilian romances of antiquity, showing how these works offered a nuanced reflection of the relationship between cultural memory, the media through which memory is shaped and transmitted, and Castile’s imperial ambitions. Clara Pascual-Argente restores a genre of great cultural and political importance to its rightful place in Castilian and European literary history.