Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Sp. 14 Paper for Part II: Spanish Literature, Life and History before 1492
Topic I: Social Hierarchy, Gender and Ethnicity
For additional General Bibliography, please see the relevant section of the full Bibliography for this paper.
General guide texts from set texts list
Poema de mio Cid, traditional lyric, ballads.
Additional guide texts
Alfonso X, the Wise, 1974. Las siete partidas: nuevamente glosados por el licenciado Gregorio López (Salamanca: Andrea de Portonaris, 1555), fasc. edn (Madrid: Boletín Oficial del Estado); Partida primera (on ecclesiastical structures); Partida segunda (on lay structures); Partida cuarta (on women & marriage); Partida séptima; Títulos 24 & 25 (on Jews and Muslims).
Alfonso X el Sabio, 1991. Partida Segunda: manuscrito 12794 de la Biblioteca Nacional, ed. Aurora Juárez Blanquer & Antonio Rubio Flores, Colección Romania, 3 (Granada: Impredesur).
Alfonso X el Sabio, 2001. Las Siete Partidas, trans. Samuel Parsons Scott & Robert I. Burns (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvannia).
Manuel, Don Juan, El conde Lucanor, Biblioteca Clásica, 6 (Barcelona: Crítica, 1994); ed. J.M. Blecua, Castalia.
Secondary Bibliography General
Mirrer, Louise, 1996. Women, Jews, and Muslims in the Texts of Reconquest Castile (Michigan: UP).
Mirrer, Louise, 1994. 'Representing "Other" Men: Muslims, Jews, and Masculine Ideals in Medieval Castilian Epic and Ballad', in Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages, ed. Clare A. Lees (Minneapolis: Minnesota UP), pp.169-186.
General issues to consider
- Are there different articulations of what constitutes otherness?
- Is this differently expressed at different times and places and in the different cultures of medieval Iberia?
- Who is other?
- What about their status makes them other?
- To what extent are others constituted as sites of (i) attraction; and, (ii) repulsion or fear?
- What is convivencia considered to be? Can it be meaningful applied to specific contexts?
Social Hierarchy Additional Guide Texts
Manuel, Don Juan, 1974. Libro de los estados, ed. R. B. Tate & I. R. Macpherson (Oxford: OUP).
Pérez de Guzmán, F., 1979. Generaciones y semblanzas, ed. J. Domínguez Bordona, Clásicos Castalia, 61 (Madrid: Castalia) OR 1965. Ed. R.B. Tate, Colección Támesis, B2 (London: Tamesis).
Danza general de la muerte (several editions; see especially ed. Ana María Álvarez Pellitero, Teatro medieval, Colección Austral, 157 [Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1990], pp. 279-319).
Secondary Bibliography
Rodríguez Puértolas, Julio, 1968. Poesía de protesta en la Edad Media castellana (Madrid: Gredos).
Ruíz, Teofilo F., 1994. Crisis and Continuity: Land and Town in Late Medieval Castile (Philadephia: Univ. of Pennsyvannia Press).
Valdeón, Julio, 1999. El feudalismo, Biblioteca de Historia (Madrid: Historia 16).
Valdeón, Julio, José Ma. Salrach & Javier Zabalo, 1980. Feudalismo y consolidación de los pueblos hispánicos (siglos XI-XV), Historia de España, 4 (Barcelona: Labor).
Juan Manuel, El conde Lucanor
Don Juan Manuel, El conde Lucanor, ed. Guillermo Serés, Biblioteca Clásica, 6 (Barcelona: Crítica, 1994).
Consult (N.B. Essential Reading is asterisked)
Ayerbe-Chaux, Reinaldo. "CL": Materia tradicional y originalidad creadora (Madrid: Porrúa Turanzas, 1975).
Ayerbe-Chaux, Reinaldo, trans., Libro del CL, intro. Alan Deyermond, Clásicos Modernizados, 2 (Madrid: Alhambra, 1985).
Bloch, R. Howard, The Scandal of the Fabliaux (London: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1986).
Devoto, Daniel, Introducción al estudio de don Juan Manuel y en particular de "El CL": una bibliografía (Madrid: Castalia, 1972).
Biglieri, A., Hacia una poética del relato didáctico: ocho estudios sobre "CL" (Chapel Hill,1989).
Gelley, Alexander, Unruly Examples: On the Rhetoric of Exemplarity (Stanford, CA: UP, 1995): articles by Gelley, Keenan
*Macpherson, Ian, ed., Juan Manuel Studies, Tamesis, A60 (London: Tamesis, 1977).
Manuel, Juan don, A Selection, ed., Ian Macpherson (London: Tamesis, 1980).
Manuel, Juan don, El CL, ed., Juan Manuel Blecua, Clásicos Castalia, 9 (Madrid: Castalia, 1985).
*Sturcken, H.T., Don Juan Manuel (New York: Twayne, 1974).
Issues to consider about social hierarchy
- How is feudalism constituted in the peninsula?
- How does it differ from other European models of feudalism?
- What are the roles of the different estates?
- Are there differences in treatment of different social estates before the law and in literature?
- Are there diachronic changes in society?
- To what extent are they mediated in literature?
Gender guide texts from set texts list
Juan Ruiz, Diego de San Pedro, court lyrics
Secondary Bibliography
Birriel Salcedo, Margarita Ma, ed., 1992. Nuevas preguntas, nuevas miradas: fuentes y documentación para la historia de las mujeres (siglos XIII-XVIII) (Granada: Univ.).
Lacarra, María Eugenia, 1988-89. "Notes on the Feminist Analysis of Medieval Spanish Literature", La Corónica, 17: 14-22.
Queer Iberia, 1999. Queer Iberia: Sexualities, Cultures, and Crossings from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, 1999. Ed. Josiah Blackmore & Gregory S. Hutcheson (Durham & London: Duke UP).
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky, 1985. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire (NY: Columbia UP).
Segal, Lynne, 1997. Slow Motion: Changing Masculinities, Changing Men (London: Virago).
Walthaus, Rina, ed., 1993. La mujer en la literatura hispánica de la Edad Media y el Siglo de Oro, Foro Hispánico, 5 (Amsterdam: Rodophi, 1993).
Zavala, Iris M., ed., 1995. Breve historia feminista de la literatura española (en lengua hispánica) (Barcelona: Anthropos). Several vols.
Issues to consider about gender (don't forget the general bibliography!)
- How did the medieval conception of gender differ from ours?
- From what sources was it derived?
- How is this seen in medical, legal, philosophical and religious contexts?
- What constituted appropriate female/male behaviour?
- Are there differences between the estates?
- Are there differences between the different ethnic and regional/national groups in the peninsula?
- How are these attitudes similar or different in practice and in literature?
- What critical approaches are useful in considering the social relations of men and women?
- The portrayal of the sexes in literature?
Ethnicity guide texts from set texts list
Juan Ruiz
Ethnicity additional guide texts
Berceo, Gonzalo de, Milagros de Nuestra Señora, ed., Isabel Uría, Biblioteca Clásica, 3 (Barcelona: Crítica, 1997); Fernán Pérez de Guzmán (see Social hierarchy above).
Constable, Olivia Remie, ed., 1997. Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim and Jewish Sources (Philadelphia: Univ of Pennsylvania, Press); sections 4, 6-14, 16-18, 24, 36, 39, 47, 49, 57, 60-63.
Smith, Colin, ed., 1989. Christians and Moors in Spain: I, 711-1150 (Warminster: Aris & Phillips).
Smith, Colin, ed., 1989. Christians and Moors in Spain: II, 1195-1614 (Warminster: Aris & Phillips).
Melville, Charles & Ahmed Ubaydli, ed., 1992. Christians & Moors in Spain: III, Arabic Sources, 711-1501 (Warminster: Aris & Phillips).
Secondary Bibliography
Carpenter, Dwayne E., 1986. Alfonso X and the Jews: An Edition of and Commentary on 'Siete Partidas' 7.24 "De los judíos", Modern Philology, 115 (Berkeley: California UP).
Castro, A., 1948. España en su historia; 2nd ed; trans. The Structure of Spanish History (Princeton, NJ: UP, 1954).
Castro, A., 1961. De la edad conflictiva, 1961.
Elliott, J.H., 1963. Imperial Spain (1469-1716) (London: Edward Arnold); early sections.
Fernández-Armesto, Fernando, 1987. Before Columbus: Exploration and Colonisation from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic 1229-1492 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1987).
Glick, Thomas F., 1979. Islamic and Christian Spain in the Early Middle Ages (Princeton: UP); on-line at http://libro.uca.edu.
Harvey, L. P., 1990. Islamic Spain 1250-1500 (Chicago & London: Chicago UP, 1990).
Jackson, Barry B., 1990-91. 'Racial Prejudice and the Frontier Ballads', REH, 17-18: 29-36.
Kamen, H., 1965 & 1976. The Spanish Inquisition (London; early sections)
Monsalvo Antón, J.M., 1985. Teoría y evolución de un conflicto social: el antisemitismo en la Corona de Castilla en la Baja Edad Media (Madrid: Siglo XX).
O'Callaghan, J. F., 1975. A History of Medieval Spain (Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP).
Ruíz, T.F., 1994. Crisis and Continuity: Land and Town in Late Medieval Castile (Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvannia Press).
Said, Edward W., 1995. Orientalism (London: Penguin).
Sánchez-Albornoz, Claudio, 1956. España: un enigma histórico (Buenos Aires).
Scripta Mediterranea, 1999-2000. 19/20 (A special issue of the journal on 'New Approaches to the Study of Muslims in Medieval and Early Modern Europe').
A discussion-based supervision on Ethnicity
- What is convivencia? What are the origins of the term? Can it be meaningfully applied synchronically to Medieval Iberia? Diachronically?
- Read either Glick or Harvey: What is their ideological standpoint with regard to (i) Reconquest; and (ii), convivencia?
- Read Said: What is the social situation he analyses? What is the core of his argument? What are the differences and similarities between medieval Iberia and the cultural situation Said analyses? How, and to what extent, is Said's analysis useful in providing a critical model for considering the medieval Iberian peninsula?
- How are relations between members of the different religions treated in (i) law; (ii), the literary guide texts, and; (iii), the guide texts from Constable, and in Smith and Melville & Ubaydli?
- Consider the general issues (listed above) with specific reference to ethnicity.
Essay questions
1 Discuss the effect of the frontier in shaping Iberian life and culture in this period.
2 Give a critical account of the presentation of women OR Jews, and of their role in the ONE OR MORE OF THE LITERARY TEXTS STUDIED.
3 Give a critical assessment of Juan Manuel's treatment of women OR men in the Conde Lucanor.
4 'The Infantes de Carrión are not truly masculine.' Discuss the implications of this statement and assess its validity.
5 Discuss the presentation of women OR Jews OR Muslems in a selection of ballads.
6 Discuss the writer's representation of society, and his or her attitude towards it in one or more literary works of this period.
7 Discuss one of the following quotations:
- 'There are tensions between tradition and change in Spanish medieval literature.'
- 'Islamic Spain was successful in integrating its diverse racial and social groups into unity, and in impregnating the whole society with its values.'
- 'The poet of the Cantar de mio Cid was presenting a series of characters as exemplars of the kind of conduct that was needed in those social and military circumstances.'
- 'The myth of convivencia is exploded by popular attitudes to Jews as seen in the literature and life of Medieval Christian Iberia.'
- 'Gender relations in the Spanish ballad suggest a system of social arrangements generating the dominion of one group over another.
- 'The epitome of masculinity in this period was the Christian warrior'.
- 'The Christian struggle with Islam provided a licence for the predatory appetites of the military class which dominated lay society, allowing it to despoil the pagans with a clear conscience.' Discuss.
8 Write a critical commentary on the following passage from the Poema de mio Cid:
| Rachel e Vidas en uno estavan amos | |
| en cuenta de sus averes, de los que avien ganados. | |
| Lego Martin Antolinez a guisa de menbrado: | |
| '¿O sodes, Rachel e Vidas, los mios amigos caros? | |
| En poridad f(l)ablar querria con amos.' | 5 |
| Non lo detardan, todos tres se apartaron: | |
| 'Rachel e Vidas: amos me dat las manos | |
| que non me descubrades a moros nin a christianos; | |
| por siempre vos fare ricos, que non seades menguados. | |
| El Campeador por las parias fue entrado, | 10 |
| grandes averes priso e mucho sobejanos; | |
| retovo dellos quanto que fue algo, | |
| por en vino a aquesto por que fue acusado. | |
| Tiene dos arcas lennas de oro esmerado. | |
| Ya lo vedes que el rey le a airado. | 15 |
| Dexado ha heredades e casas e palaçios; | |
| aquelas non las puede levar, si non, ser ien ventadas; | |
| el Campeador dexar las ha en vuestra mano, | |
| e prestalde de aver lo que sea guisado. | |
| Prended las archas e meted las en vuestro salvo; | 20 |
| con grand jura meted i las fes amos | |
| que non las catedes en todo aquesto año.' | |
| Rachel e Vidas seyen se consejando: | |
| Bien lo sabemos que el algo gaño, | |
| quando a tierra de moros entro que grant aver saco; | 25 |
| non duerme sin sospecha qui aver trae monedado. | |
| Estas archas prendamos las amas, | |
| en logar las metamos que non sean ventadas. | |
| Mas dezid nos del Çid: ¿de que sera pagado, | |
| o que ganançia nos dara por todo aqueste año?' | 30 |
| Respuso Martin Antolinez a guisa de menbrado: | |
| 'Mio Çid querra lo que ssea aguisado, | |
| pedir vos a poco por dexar so aver en salvo; | |
| acogen sele omnes de todas partes menguados; | |
| a menester seis çientos marcos.' | 35 |
