Raguel's Vita vel passio sancti Pelagii (c. 967) and Hroswitha of Gandersheim's poem (10th century) devoted to Pelagius are keywords for the creation of an European literary and symbolic space against Muslims. Both texts were born in a crossroad of religious, political and sexual passions. This article analyses their foundational status in order to understand Christian first imaginaire related to the construction of a virile "Reconquista", which will underline, in literature and historiography, feminine and sodomitic features in many Jew and Muslim men (but also suspicious Christian) in Iberian Middle Ages.
El propósito de este artículo es, a partir del análisis de la difusión impresa de la literatura caballeresca en lengua española, iniciar una reflexión sobre las dimensiones literarias y la difusión de la cultura de los súbditos de la Corona de Castilla que fueron desembarcando en tierras americanas durante los primeros viajes transatlánticos, aproximadamente entre 1492 y 1516. ; The goal of this article is the analysis of the early printed chivalric literature distribution in Spain, as well as in America, in order to discuss the new cultural and literary imprints intruduced by Spanish military explorers and administrators in the "New World" during the first years of the "Conquista" (1492-1516).
Las primeras obras historiográficas castellanas que relatan la "Conquista" de América ofrecen una de las mejores vías para comprender los discursos, religiosos y políticos, en torno a la sexualidad europea a fines de la Edad Media, especialmente relevante si analizamos las representaciones de la sodomía y del homoerotismo. A partir de textos de Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Bernardino de Sahagún, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Bartolomé de Las Casas, en este artículo se reflexiona sobre las significaciones de Sodoma (como geografía cultural e ideológica) en el contexto ibérico posterior a la "Reconquista". ; Les primeres obres historiogràfiques castellanes que relaten la "Conquesta" d'Amèrica ofereixen una de les millors vies per comprendre els discursos, religiosos i polítics, al voltant de la sexualitat europea al final de l'edat mitjana, especialment rellevant si analitzem les representacions de la sodomia i de l'homoerotisme. A partir de textos de Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Bernardino de Sahagún, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo i Bartolomé de Las Casas, en aquest article reflexiono sobre les significacions de Sodoma (en tant que geografia cultural i ideològica) dins el context ibèric posterior a la "Reconquesta". ; The first historiographical accounts of Spanish "Conquest" of America offer one of the best ways to understand religious and political discourses around European sexualities in late Middle Ages. This is specially relevant if an analysis of the representations of sodomy and homoeroticism is developed. After a reading of chronicles such as those written by Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Bernardino de Sahagún, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, and Bartolomé de Las Casas, this article intruduces some reflections on the meanings related to Sodom (as a cultural and ideological geography) in the post-"Reconquista" Iberian context.
The author of this article is concerned with trying to understand why Paloma Díaz-Mas, the writer of such an excellent novel as La tierra fértil (1999), has not received much critical attention. He underlines three main reasons. First, she does not live in Madrid or Barcelona and so she is far away from the main centres of cultural power. Second, she teaches Spanish literature in the Basque Country, a political and linguistic community which significantly differs from that of many other writers. Third, she writes historical novels, which does not appear to be very fashionable in Spain these days. Moreover, Díaz-Mas is a woman writer who does not make use of the most commonly available feminine patterns, and she does not seem to offer a model easy to include in a given feminist methodology either. However, Mérida-Jiménez argues that Paloma provides an intelligent deconstruction of "male authority" through subtle rhetorical means, as well as a representation of the weakness of his "domination" in very innovative ways, such as those derived from the dialectics between history and fiction, centrality and marginality, heterosexuality and homosexuality, individual and society, dream and reason or tradition and modernity.
