This book offers a comprehensive account of modern Spanish culture, tracing its dramatic and often unexpected development from its beginnings after the Revolution of 1868 to the present day. Specially-commissioned essays by leading experts provide analyses of the historical and political background of modern Spain, the culture of the major autonomous regions (notably Castile, Catalonia, and the Basque Country), and the country's literature: narrative, poetry, theatre and the essay. Spain's recent development is divided into three main phases: from 1868 to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War; the period of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco; and the post-Franco arrival of democracy. The concept of 'Spanish culture' is investigated, and there are studies of Spanish painting and sculpture, architecture, cinema, dance, music, and the modern media. A chronology and guides to further reading are provided, making the volume an invaluable introduction to the politics, literature and culture of modern Spain.

This volume presents a selection of translated public and private letters, written by Spanish officials, merchants, and ordinary settlers, aiming to illuminate the panorama of sixteenth-century Spanish American settler society and its genres of correspondence. Letters written by Native Americans, a few of whom at this time were beginning to practice European-style letter-writing, are also included. It is hoped that readers will feel the colorful humanity of the letter-writers, and also see the wide array of social types and functions during this era in the United States' Southwest.

Introduces the documentary legacy of Spain's Golden Age--eyewitness accounts of the adventures incurred during the course of discovery, conquest, and colonization--surveying both the documents themselves and the extant scholarship. Focuses on the chronicles long accepted as the most significant, among them, the writings of Columbus, his son Ferdinand, Cortes, Cabeza de Vaca, Ovido, and Motolinia. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The description for this book, Local Religion in Sixteenth-Century Spain, will be forthcoming.

Explores the representations of violence in colonial Nuevo Mexico as seen in history and fiction literature of the period.

Explores the impact the discovery of the New World had upon Europeans' perceptions of their identity and place in history

This book should appeal to all aficionados of the romance of the sea as well as to specialists in Spanish and Latin American colonial history.--Benjamin Keen, author of A History of Latin America

"This book has been written in the conviction that in order to understand and appreciate the literary culture of the Spanish Golden Age, we need to refine and extend our awareness of how the Christian Bible was read, interpreted, and transmitted in the society of the time. It is not, however, a study of the reception of the Bible in the Catholic Monarchy, nor does it consider in detail the biblical scholarship in which the Golden Age excelled. Its focus is instead the literature and art of the age, which it approaches by examining closely a selection of remarkable texts and paintings produced in Spain between the times of Columbus and Velázquez."--Preface, p. xv.

The Improbable Conquest offers translations of a series of little-known letters from the chaotic Spanish conquest of the Río de la Plata region, uncovering a rich and understudied historical resource. These letters were written by a wide variety of individuals, including clergy, military officers, and the region’s first governor, Pedro de Mendoza. There is also an exceptional contribution from Isabel de Guevara, one of the few women involved in the conquest to have recorded her experiences. Writing about the conditions of settlements and expeditions, these individuals vividly expose the less glamorous side of the conquest, narrating in detail various misfortunes, infighting, corruption, and complaints. Their letters further reveal the colony’s fraught relationship with the native peoples it sought to colonize, giving insight into the complexities of the conquest and the colonization process. Pablo García Loaeza and Victoria Garrett provide an introduction to the history of the region and the conquest’s key players, as well as a timeline and a glossary explaining difficult and archaic Spanish terms.

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