El discurso moral en la "Historia General" de Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo. ( Spanish text)
Item
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Title
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El discurso moral en la "Historia General" de Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo. ( Spanish text)
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Identifier
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AAI9108168
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identifier
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9108168
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Creator
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Rodriguez, Ligia.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Isaias Lerner
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Date
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1990
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, Romance | History, Latin American
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Abstract
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Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo's Historia General y Natural de las Indias, one of the most important historical accounts of the discovery and conquest of the New World, has been thought by many critics to portray an unsympathetic image of the American Indian. It is the purpose of this dissertation to re-examine the five-volume Historia, in particular the development of Oviedo's attitude toward the conquest.;Oviedo's critics, chief among them, the historian Las Casas, see him as an enemy of the natives. As evidence they point to his statements, that the Indians, because of their sins, brought upon themselves the wrath of God in the form of disease and decimation.;However, in examining this extensive account of the conquest in its entirety, the alert reader is able to detect a progressively sympathetic awareness of the tragic situation of the Indians. This evolution in Oviedo's thinking reflects his sense of the moral purpose of history. Therefore, his account becomes a didactic guide for those who undertook the long journey to the New World. For the clergy in particular, Oviedo employs ample recriminatory remarks, and he criticizes their behavior and avarice at the expense of their mission: the conversion of the Indians.;I hope that this close reading of the Historia General y Natural de las Indias will give a more balanced judgment of Oviedo's account of the conquest.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
