The Epic Mirror: Poetry, Conflict Ethics and Political Community in Colonial Peru

Spanish-American writers and veterans in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century used epic poetry to search for ethical solutions to the violent conflicts of their age, focusing on the frontiers of the Spanish empire. Choi reinterprets three major works of colonial Latin American literature, arguing that they provide a rare insight into the development of political thought in Viceregal Peru.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 18 February 2022
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd

The Epic Mirror delves into the fascinating exploration of how Spanish-American writers and veterans in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century employed epic poetry to seek ethical resolutions to the turbulent conflicts of their era. These wars unfolded at the frontiers of the Spanish empire, where new political communities were emerging, including fiercely independent Amerindian republics, rebellious Spanish settlers, and maroon kingdoms of fugitive African slaves. This unique colonial context gave rise to a distinctive vision of just warfare and political community. Spanning the fields of Hispanic literature, political thought history, and studies of empire, colonialism, and globalization, Choi reinterprets three significant works of colonial Latin American literature: Alonso de Ercilla's La Araucana (1569-90), Pedro de Oña's Arauco domado (1596), and Juan de Miramontes Zuázola's Armas antárticas (1608-9). Through the imaginative mirrors of epic, she argues that these works offer a rare glimpse into the evolution of political thought in Viceregal Peru. By compelling the reader to reflect on the unfinished conquests of the Americas alongside those in Africa, Asia, or Europe, The Epic Mirror poses thought-provoking questions about the attainment of peace in the face of irreconcilable worldviews.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781855663473