The Baroque Narrative of Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora

Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora, one of seventeenth-century Mexico’s best-known intellectuals, was a writer of fascinating and complex narratives that exemplarise the heterogenous nature of colonial Spanish-American prose. This book is the first critical study to place both the writer and his narrative within the phenomenon of the Barroco de Indias, or the Spanish-American baroque. Approaching Siguenza as criollo historian preoccupied with the placement of the New World within a universal context, Professor Ross develops a theoretical framework within which his texts can be read and understood today. Professor Ross incorporates into her examination of the author new critical trends in the study of colonial Spanish American literature, such as the use of narrative theory, the new historiography, and feminist criticism.

Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Culture of the Spanish American baroque; 2. A new world paradise; 3. The discourse of paternity; 4. The discourse of paternalism; 5. Reading the vidas; Epilogue; Appendices; Notes; Bibliography; Index.