Travel Writing in the Hispanic World to 1550
This course is an exploration of travel writing during the Spanish Medieval period in which students will venture into diverse journey narratives such as travel journals, romance tales, pilgrim guides, mirabilia, autobiographies or diplomatic reports. Although transportation was not as developed as today, Spanish medieval travelers still managed to make their way not only around Europe but to more exotic places such as Jerusalem, the Maghreb, Turkey, Egypt, Central Asia (Samarkand) and India. The class will offer a cross-cultural study of Spanish travelers (including Muslims and Jews) and their different motivations (conquest, pilgrimage, personal quest, diplomatic mission, trade, tourism), the narrative techniques used to record their experiences, the material aspects of travelling (transportation, technology, food, lodging, diseases, dangers), the reception (readers expectations, impact of printing, translations), as well as the symbolic and metaphorical meaning of travelling. We will particularly focus on the role of travel writing in the emerging creation of the Orient and the utopia (Letter of Prester John), its importance in the construction of otherness and imperialism, the contribution to the incipient Spanish identity, and the influence on the representation of America. In keeping with a cultural studies oriented approach, we will use reproductions of old maps, illustrations of the early editions, movies, art and architecture to enhance our understanding of the texts.
CORPUS of primary texts
Egeria. Itinerario (finales del siglo IV).
Hamid al-Gharnati, Abu, Relación de viaje por tierras asiáticas (h. 1155).
Tudela, Benjamín de. Libro de viajes (h.1170).
Anónimo, Libro de Alexandre (h. 1200) (selections).
González de Clavijo, Ruy. Embajada a Tamorlán (1406) (selections).
Díaz de Games, Gutierre. El Victorial. Crónica de don Pero Niño (h. 1436) (selections).
Tafur, Pero. Andanzas y viajes (1454) (selections).
Mártir de Anglería, Pedro. Legatio babilónica (1501).
Mérida, Fray Diego de. Viaje al Oriente (1512).
Villalón, Cristóbal. Viaje a Turquía (1557) (selections).
Colón, Cristóbal. Carta a Luis de Santángel (1493)
CRITICAL SOURCES
Campbell, Mary B. The witness and the other world: exotic European travel writing, 400-1600. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1988.
Dangler, Jean. Making Difference in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia. Notre Dame IN: U Notre Dame P, 2005.
Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Before Columbus: exploration and colonisation from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, 1229-1492. Basingstoke: Macmillan Education, 1987.
Friedman, John B., Trade, travel, and exploration in the Middle Ages: an encyclopedia. New York : Garland Pub., 2000.
López Estrada, Francisco. Libros de viajeros hispánicos medievales. Madrid: Laberinto, 2003.
Phillips, Kim M. Before Orientalism: Asian peoples and cultures in European travel writing, 1245-1510.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.
Phillips, J.R.S. The Medieval Expansion of Europe. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press, 1998.
Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
Verdon, Jean. Travel in the middle ages. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003.
Language of instruction: Spanish