P. E. Russell - Böcker

The Comentarios reales de los incas, a classic of Spanish Renaissance prose narrative, was written by Garcilaso Inca de la Vega, the son of an Inca princess and a Spanish conquistador. It is full of ideological tensions and apparent contradictions as Garcilaso attempts to reconcile a pagan new-world culture with the fervent Christian evangelism of the period of the discovery and conquest of America. This study of the Comentarios is original both in adopting the perspective of discourse analysis and in its interdisciplinary approach. Margarita Zamora examines the rhetorical complexities of the Comentarios, and shows how, in order to present Inca civilization to Europeans, Garcilaso turned to disciplines other than traditional historiography, and in particular to the linguistic strategies of humanist philology and hermeneutics. Professor Zamora reveals how Garcilaso's views of the Incas were shaped by the dual nature of his background, by his commitment to humanism and Christianity, by the expectations he had of his readers, and by the discursive practices of his time.

The Spanish picaresque novel of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is not only a major genre in its own right; it was a decisive influence on the subsequent literature of Spain and the development of the modern European novel. When first published Professor Rico's book broke new ground by analysing historically and critically the form of the picaresque, particularly the narrative style of the three greatest novels of this genre, Lazarillo de Tormes, Guzman de Alfarache and Quevedo's Buscon. The author shows how Lazaro's and Guzman's ficitonal autobiographies made a highly original break with contemporary theory by attempting to see from within the life of people of low rank, rogues and buffoons. The point of view of the narrator in these novels, becomes the unifying element; plot, structure and style are all manifestations of a fully developed narrative persona. For this 1984 translation, the author updated the bibliography and extended his account of the later development of the picaresque in the postscript. This study will be of value to students of comparative literature as well as those studying the picaresque as a major topic in Spanish courses.

The Comentarios reales de los incas, a classic of Spanish Renaissance prose narrative, was written by Garcilaso Inca de la Vega, the son of an Inca princess and a Spanish conquistador. It is full of ideological tensions and apparent contradictions as Garcilaso attempts to reconcile a pagan new-world culture with the fervent Christian evangelism of the period of the discovery and conquest of America. This study of the Comentarios is original both in adopting the perspective of discourse analysis and in its interdisciplinary approach. Margarita Zamora examines the rhetorical complexities of the Comentarios, and shows how, in order to present Inca civilization to Europeans, Garcilaso turned to disciplines other than traditional historiography, and in particular to the linguistic strategies of humanist philology and hermeneutics. Professor Zamora reveals how Garcilaso's views of the Incas were shaped by the dual nature of his background, by his commitment to humanism and Christianity, by the expectations he had of his readers, and by the discursive practices of his time.