Review by Choice Review
Has Columbus ever been read with the degree of intensity and sophistication leveled at him during the Quincentennial Year? Possibly not since his first letter home was disseminated throughout Europe. But that letter itself may have been a PR gambit, according to Zamora, noting that it emphasized the evangelical theme and underplayed the commercial motives for the expedition that are laid out in the capitulaciones, Columbus's mandate from the Catholic kings. Much of what is available of Columbian writings comes through the mediation of Las Casas, who quoted extensively from them. Or did he? How much of Las Casas's writings were the authentic works of the Admirial, how much Las Casas's own perception of matters? Retrieving marginalia suppressed or ignored by earlier authors, Zamora portrays a Las Casas far closer to today's critics of Columbus than to his worshipful followers. Applying modern techniques of literary criticism, the author places Columbus texts within diverse contexts, such as medieval pilgrimage literature, portolan charts, and notions of gender relations. Feminizing the Indians, she points out, was a way of balancing desire with disdain, idealization with denigration, and prepared the Spanish for the conquest that was to follow. General; graduate; faculty; professional. J. L. Elkin; University of Michigan
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
