Once Upon a Time in the Oeste: Epic, History and Narrative in Iberia

Abstract

This dissertation explores the boom of epic poetry from 1569 to 1600 in Iberia and the Iberian epic genre’s engagement with history. It contends that the engagement of sixteenth-century Iberian epic with recent history, with contemporary philosophy of history, and historiography, makes Iberian epic distinct from other epic poetry. Every epic of this period is about a recent colonial event, drawing ideas from contemporary historical writing, and explicitly and implicitly thinking about the nature of history and time. As a distinctly historical genre, Iberian epic forms a body of texts about early imperial and colonial history from which historians can gain important historical perspective, as well as containing its own philosophy of history.The first chapter of this dissertation defines the genre of Iberian epic, detailing its influences from classical and Italian epic, exploring how it engages with history in ways other epics do not. In particular, the critic Miguel de Faria e Sousa’s extensive analysis of Luís de Camões’ Os Lusíadas is explored as a framework for understanding the contemporary conception of Iberian epic. The second chapter explores historical writing in sixteenth-century Iberia, focusing on the important and expansive Portuguese historiographies about India by João de Barros, Fernão Lopes de Castanheda, and Gaspar Correia, detailing how these texts define history, the sources they use, and their rhetorical norms. The chapter then compares how these historiographies describe key historical moments (Vasco da Gama’s first journey, contact with Africa, or military and diplomatic clashes with Muslims) with the description of the same or similar events in Iberian epics, such as Jerónimo Corte-Real’s Cerco de Diu, Juan Rufo’s Austriada, Juan Latino’s Austrias Carmen, and Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga’s La Araucana, among others. The final chapter conducts a close analysis of Os Lusíadas, the most famous epic from this period. My analysis of Camões’ epic details how the poem’s plot and many narrators, structure history in a way that both celebrates Portuguese empire and subversively critiques it, arguing for the importance of poetry and narrative in preserving history.