Writing as Poaching

Interpellation and Self-Fashioning in Colonial Relaciones de Méritos Y Servicios
Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-21109-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 44, 168 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 431 g

Reihe: The Medieval and Early Modern Iberian World

Colonial Spanish bureaucracy produced masses of “autobiographical” texts ('relaciones de méritos and servicios') which forced/invited individuals to present themselves as perfect subjects of the King in order to be rewarded. Bureaucracy produced the officials of the colonial regime, and, at the same time, it provided individuals with the possibility of exploring the literary potential of writing one’s curriculum vitae. This book helps contextualize a body of often-used yet understudied historic sources; it indicates that the fabric of early modern society was held together by a pervasive economy of 'mercedes' (rewards); and it shows that the tension between state-induced production of autobiographical documents and the individual’s endeavor to outsmart this system is at the origin of modern forms of literature.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Folger, Robert A

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Romanische Literaturen Lateinamerikanische Literaturen, Spanische Literatur außerhalb Europas
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements.vii
List of Figures.ix

1. Introduction.1

2. Strategic Interpellation and Tactical Writing in Colonial Historiography (Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries).13
2.1. Introduction.13
2.2. Relaciones de méritos y servicios.16
2.2.1. The Bureaucratic Dispositif: The Allocation of Offices and Privileges.18
2.2.2. The Archive: La Historiografía Indiana and the Monopolization of Historiographical Discourse.52

3. Tactical Appropriations.67
3.1. Dorantes de Carranza: Memoria y Papeles.67
3.2. The Arduous Work of Writing History: Alonso Borregán.95
3.3. Self and Archive: El Carnero de Juan Rodríguez Freyle.108

Epilogue: The Hallucinatory World of Bureaucracy.133

Works Cited.139
Index.153

Über Autor(innen)

Robert Folger, Ph.D (1999) in History, University of Rostock, and Ph.D. in Spanish literature (2001), University of Wisconsin-Madison, is Professor of Spanish at Utrecht University. He has published on a broad range of topics in Spanish and Latin American literatures and cultures, with a particular focus on the medieval and early modern period.