"Other" in Lope De Vega's El Nuevo Mundo Descubierto Por Cristobal
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Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2005 Dramatizing the Indian: Representations of the "Other" in Lope de Vega's El Nuevo Mundo descubierto por Cristóbal Colón and Shakespeare's The Tempest Ilia Mariel Cuesta Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES DRAMATIZING THE INDIAN: REPRESENTATIONS OF THE “OTHER” IN LOPE DE VEGA’S EL NUEVO MUNDO DESCUBIERTO POR CRISTÓBAL COLÓN AND SHAKESPEARE’S THE TEMPEST BY ILIA MARIEL CUESTA A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2005 The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Ilia Mariel Cuesta defended on October 31, 2005. Daniel J. Vitkus Professor Directing Thesis Bruce Boehrer Committee Member David Darst Committee Member Approved: Darryl Dickson-Carr, Director, Graduate Studies The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii Los hombres son como los zafiros, unos dan luz de sí, y otros brillan con la que reciben. - José Martí Para los que me dieron luz — Mami y Papi iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks to Dr. Daniel Vitkus for his encouragement and support throughout my graduate studies at Florida State and most especially throughout the composition of this thesis. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Bruce Boehrer and Dr. David Darst, for their insight and feedback. And I would be remiss if I did not thank Siobhan Welch and Thomas Garland for their love and support throughout this project. iv CONTENTS Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………………. vi Introduction …………………………...…………………………………………...…………….. 1 Chapter 1: Conquest, Colonies and “Civilization” ……………………………….…………. 6 Chapter 2: Staging the New World ………………………………………………………… 30 Chapter 3: Visions of New World Cultures in El Nuevo Mundo descubierto por Cristóbal Colón ……………………….…… 46 Chapter 4: Visions of New World Cultures in The Tempest ………………………………. 64 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………………..…. 76 Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………….…... 81 Biographical Sketch …………………………………………………………………….……… 84 v ABSTRACT Contributing to the growing critical conversation on colonization and imperialism in the New World, this study examines how sixteenth and seventeenth century Spanish and English theater addressed, promoted, and at times challenged contemporary ideologies of colonization and notions of “civility” and “civilization.” This study seeks to understand how Spanish and English society defined “civilization” during the colonization of the New World. An examination of the contemporary colonial discourse as well as the role of the theater in both Spain and England provides a background with which to analyze Lope de Vega’s El Nuevo Mundo descubierto por Cristóbal Colón and Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In addition to exploring how these individual playwrights addressed their nation’s colonial discourse on the stage, this study analyzes Lope de Vega and Shakespeare’s representations of New World Indians in order to understand how Spain and England interpreted “civility” and “civilization” during the colonization of the New World. By dramatizing New World Indians on the stage, Lope de Vega and Shakespeare exposed their audiences to the “Other” and attempted to inform and educate theater patrons about cultural difference. While each representation of the “Other” differs, the variances are reflective of the differences in Spanish and English culture and their definitions of “civility” and “civilization.” This study examines how sixteenth and seventeenth century Spanish and English theater participated in the larger national debates of the colonial discourses that questioned how to assimilate and absorb cultural differences. vi INTRODUCTION There is roome in the land for them and us. True Declaration of the Estate of the Colonies in Virginia (1610) Written over a century after Columbus first set foot on the American continent, the True declaration of the Estate of the Colonies in Virginia, with a confutation of such scandalous reports as have been tendered to the disgrace of so worth an enterprise succinctly summarized European attitudes toward the colonization of the New World. By the time this promotional pamphlet was printed at the behest of the Virginia Company, the Spanish had already conquered cultures, established colonies, and exploited New World resources. Relatively slow to join the colonization enterprise, England was beginning to undertake a stronger drive for expansion around the time this tract was circulated. Although there were many economic, political, religious, and social reasons for Spain and England to colonize the New World, the desire to expand empire was the driving force for Spanish and English overseas colonization. The construction of empire was not only undertaken in the New World through conquest and colonization; it was also constructed in the contemporary rhetoric of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In Spain and England alike, discovery narratives, philosophical essays, political propaganda, and religious treatises related what the New World and its natives looked like, the kinds of flora, fauna, and resources available, and the importance of colonization. These texts helped to construct an ideology of colonization and empire in both Spain and England. While the prospect of exploration and colonization was undoubtedly attractive and exciting to many people in sixteenth and seventeenth century Spain and England, the idea of the unknown and foreign also raised certain anxieties in their relatively homogenous societies. These anxieties are best illustrated in the various representations of the New World Indians. These 1 representations of the natives, which were often accompanied by accounts of Spanish and English encounters with them, aroused ethical and moral debates in the colonial rhetoric about how to deal with New World cultures; these debates challenged Spain and England’s ideologies of colonization and empire. For the Spanish and the English, encountering the “other” in the New World presented a challenge to their domestic notions of “civility” and “civilization.” Oftentimes, the Eurocentric view of the Spanish and English prevented explorers, conquerors, and colonizers from appreciating and respecting the cultural differences they encountered. Since elements of New World civilizations such as government, religion, style of dress, et cetera. did not conform to European notions of civilization, the indigenous cultures of the New World were viewed as “primitive” and “barbaric.” The colonial discourse reveals the racial stereotypes and intolerance of cultures of sixteenth and seventeenth century Spain and England. Instead of interpreting the differences between their way of life and the Indians’ as diversity, the Spanish and English viewed New World civilization as morally wrong: Spain and England’s view of “civilization” became a rhetorical and ideological strategy for colonization. Throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Spanish and English attempted to impose and implement their versions of “civilization” in the New World. In addition to imposing European economic and political value systems on the New World cultures, the colonizers forced their religion and social practices on the natives. They communicated to the Indians that their indigenous notions of civility and civilization were wicked and immoral, and that the colonizers’ way of life was not only better – it was right. The reasons the Spanish and English gave the Indians for adopting the European version of civilization served as a justification, in their European homelands, for colonization; the colonial discourse of both Spain and England reflects this practice. The Spanish and English chroniclers’ depictions of New World civilizations argue for their respective nation’s legitimacy in the New World enterprise; for, they argued, Spain and England were morally obligated to educate and instruct these cultures about “civility” and “civilization.” In Spain and England, these issues and debates permeated the colonial discourse and raised social awareness of the colonization enterprise in the New World. The ideological debates were widely known and discussed by the intellectual circles, politicians, clerics, nobles, 2 entrepreneurs, merchants, sailors, et cetera; it is these discussions that Spanish and English playwrights drew from to inform some of their plays that dealt with the New World experience. Inspired by the historical events and political issues of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Spanish and English playwrights captured the essence of the times through the most influential medium of the early modern period: the theater. The dramatizations of New World realities and challenges translated the economic, political, religious and philosophical language of the colonial rhetoric for large and captivated audiences; it re-enacted Columbus’s first moments with the Indians on La Española and dramatized how explorers marveled at the beauty of the New World. These theatrical representations of cross-cultural encounters illuminated audiences to the reality of exploration and colonization: the theater made the New World “real.” This study explores how sixteenth and seventeenth century Spanish and English theater addressed, promoted, and at times challenged