Aronson Gives Talk on Fake News in Early Modern Spain

Volume 30, Issue 7 The premier student newspaper of the University of Minnesota Morris February 9, 2018 Aronson Gives Talk on Fake News in Early Modern Spain Joshua Schlenner News Editor the illiterate. Such illustrations were often of animals, moth- ers and children, or mythological creatures. Otherwise, the On Thursday, February 1, Professor Stacey Parker Aronson illustrations were of common wood carvings that could be gave a presentation entitled “Female Criminality and ‘Fake bought in several stores. News’ in Early Modern Spain” at 5 p.m. in Imholte 109. Ar- Aronson’s current line of research began when she shared onson is currently the Interim Chair of the Humanities Divi- a number of documents with a student from The University sion at The University of Minnesota, Morris and specializes of Minnesota, Morris for her to organize. The student found in the Spanish language and Spanish literature. She began her that a number of the broadsheets she had been given followed current research by analyzing how modern Spanish literature the same basic story structure: a woman is captured by Mus- portrays the repercussions of rape. Over time, her research has lim Turks, she is offered marriage, she willingly converts to led her to the focus of her presentation: the “pliegos sueltos Islam, and finally, she either converts back to Christianity or poéticos”, or “broadsheets”, of early modern Spain. she suffers. After identifying the common structure, Aron- In order to show her audience a modern equivalent of the son searched for more stories that shared the simple structure. early modern broadsheet, Aronson shared an image of the During her presentation, she analyzed a particular story called front cover of a 1997 issue of the American tabloid Weekly “Curious ballad detailing a marvelous happening and prodi- Page 4 World News. Accompanying an image of a deformed child gious case that occurred in the City of Viterbo on January 1 with bat-like features were the large bold words “Bat Child Just this week, Smitten Kitten of this present year, in which a soulless woman murdered her Found in Cave.” Aronson explained that the early modern was invited to campus to host a husband and her aunt and tore out their hearts so that she workshop on sex positivity and broadsheets were single sheets of paper with stories and il- could lie with her young lover with whom she escaped. They consent. Read all about what lustrations similar to those of the aforementioned bat child. fell into the hands of Muslims, he was killed and she captured they had to say in our News Reaching the peak of their popularity during the 17th and and of the fortuitous ending she had because of the devotion Section! 18th centuries, broadsheets were sold on the streets by vari- of the Virgin of Remedies…” ous vendors. Unlike the modern tabloid, however, the stories The story follows Camila, a young woman who lost both written on broadsheets were accepted as true by the general her parents at a young age and now lives with her aunt. She public. The stories would often tell of real places, people, or falls in love and has sex with a nameless man. A few days events and were frequently written and distributed anony- later, her aunt arranges for her to marry a nobleman. When mously. This, coupled with the limitations of the time period, she resists, her aunt invites the nobleman into their home and made proving the credibility of the stories difficult. Aronson allows him to brutally rape Camila. That night, she murders told her audience that “they may be true, they may be false, both the nobleman and her aunt in their sleep and rips their but they had the appearance of truth.” hearts out. She and her lover then run away only to be cap- Over the centuries, thousands of broadsheets were pre- tured by Muslim Turkish pirates. Her lover is killed in the served within a handful of libraries across Europe, including skirmish and Camila is taken to Constantinople as a slave. those in Milan, Italy; Lisbon, Portugal; and Krakow, Poland. Her master falls in love with her and she agrees to marry him. Additionally, a number of wealthy European families col- After a few days, Camila requests that she be allowed to lected broadsheets, which were eventually dispersed to the cannibalize the other Christian captives. Her husband is too Page 7 aforementioned libraries and anthropologists as part of their fearful to object. Before she is able to kill them, however, she post-mortem inventories. The broadsheets on which Aronson This issue’s feature gives us a sees a vision of the Virgin Mary and is reminded of the power look at many of the exciting conducted her research were found in the National Library of of God. She then repents and tears out her own heart as a events that will be occurring Spain in Madrid and The British Library in London. means of atonement. In the end, she is allowed entrance into throughout the semester. Check Within these libraries, the broadsheets were sewn togeth- heaven. it out and mark your calendars! er to make hundreds of books. Aronson explained how the During her summary of the narrative, Aronson explained broadsheets had never been compiled into a proper online da- that the Muslim Turks in the story are written as being polite tabase so she was forced to page through each book and take and caring toward Camila despite her status as a slave. In pictures of all broadsheets pertaining to her research. After particular, Camila’s marriage with her master is written to be returning to Morris, Aronson transcribed each broadsheet she perfectly healthy by modern standards. Aronson noted that it had photographed into a number of online documents for her was common amongst the works she examined for the Muslim personal organization. Since then, she has used the broad- Turks to be written in such a way. She believes it is due to sheets in a number of different research projects. the fact that the stories were never truly about the Turks but The early modern broadsheets most often told stories rather about the captive’s conversion to Islam and therefore that contained various degrees of crime, gore, and adventure. emphasis on the Turks themselves was never required. “Sometimes I think the writers were tasked with seeing just Aronson explained that, at the time, any Christian woman how much deviance they could cram into these [stories],” Ar- who married a Muslim man and converted to Islam would be onson explained to her audience. She believes that it was due given rights equivalent to those of her husband. As a result, it to such deviance that the broadsheets were highly appealing was not uncommon for women to run away to Constantino- to the general public despite their price. Beside the imagina- ple. These women were known at the time as “renegades”. In Page 8 tive stories, the broadsheets were accompanied by imaginative the stories of such renegades, such as Camila’s, it was the will- This spring’s student perfor- illustrations, which widened the appeal of the broadsheet to ing conversion that was vilified so strongly. Emphasis need mance was Eurydice, a romantic not be placed upon take on a very old story. And it the Turks because was phenomenal! Read all about it was the evil of it in our Arts & Entertainment the conversion that Section! angered the reader. Aronson believes that Camila’s story was intended to serve as a caution- ary tale. She explained that the “voluntary conversion to Islam was such a heinous crime that every- thing else paled in comparison to it.” Aronson further Page 9 explained that the If you’re a sports fan, we’ve got reader had an ex- good news for you! The Univer- pectation for a ren- sity Register has begun covering egade to be pun- sports again! Check out our re- ished in some way. turn to the sports world in our In the case with Arts & Entertainment Section! Camila, however, she explains that the emphasis on the conversion de- tracts from the rape of the character and keeps the story from ever address- ing her trauma. Aronson remarked that “the silencing of her voice unwit- tingly silenced the crime committed Page 11 against her.” Rise of the Sh*tlords returns! Read the first exciting chapter of the semester in our Variety Section! Photo from the13thfloor.tv page 02 February 9, 2018 abstract The University Register Katy Evenson the university register University of Minnesota, Morris day, and then go on to stream for an audience in additionComic to 600 East Fourth Street that. A typical player might put in as many as sixteen hours Morris, MN 56267 Esports: The responsible of total game-time each day. Such repetitive actions for Christian Pfeiffer Editor-in-Chief E-mail: [email protected] many hours on end, day after day puts a massive amount of E-mail: [email protected] NFL that doesn’t take your strain on the fingers and wrists, not to mention the psyche The University Register invites letters from its readers. Letters tax dollars Ben Mladenich, Staff Writer of the individual in question. As such, many teams opt to may be edited for length, libelous content, good taste, and other hire both doctors and nutritionists to help offset the possi- In December of 2016, I went to go see Passengers with bility of chronic injury, as the staff of Kotaku’s COMPETE like concerns. All letters and editorials represent the views and several of my friends.

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