The Miraculous Lie Lope De Aguirre and the Search for El Dorado in the Latin American Historical Novel

by Lewis, Bart L.

• ISBN13: 9780739107874
• ISBN10: 0739107879
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-10-27
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

A fascinating study of five twentieth-century Latin American novels that focus on one particular search for El Dorado: the infamous 1559 expedition, headed by Pedro Ursua and the first legendary colonial rebel against the crown, Lope de Aguirre. Author Bart Lewis approaches these five works as both representations of Latin American literature during the mid to late twentieth-century and as re-examinations of the notorious figure of Lope de Aguirre.

Author Biography

Bart L. Lewis is Associate Professor of Modern Languages at the University of Texas, Arlington

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
A Personal Introduction	1	(6)
1 Lope de Aguirre in Latin American Culture: Historical Figure and Literary Character	7	(16)
2 Why Spaniards Dreamed: The Golden Legend and Colonial Searches for El Dorado	23	(20)
3 The Ursúa/Aguirre Expedition as Written Historical Record: Fact That Will Become Fiction	43	(18)
4 Birth of a Caudillo: Uslar Pietri's El camino de El Dorado	61	(28)
5 Limited Immortality: Aguirre Stalks History in Posse's Daimón	89	(18)
6 Characterization as Historical Progression in Otero Silva's Lope de Aguirre, Principe de la Libertad	107	(14)
7 Aguirre's Dialogue with History in Jorge Ernesto Funes' Una lanza por Lope de Aguirre	121	(22)
8 A (His)Story That Will Live Forever: The Supremacy of Fiction in Alvarez Sáenz' Crónica de Blasfemos	143	(14)
9 The Eternal Pilgrim: Lope de Aguirre in the Latin American Novel and Beyond	157	(6)
Appendix	163	(2)
Bibliography	165
Index	111	(74)
About the Author	185