Masters Thesis

Destabilizing dialogues: self, religion, and politics of conquest in Mandeville's Travels and Guamán Poma

The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1356) and Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala’s El Primer Nueva Cordnica i Buen Gobierno [The First New Chronicle and Good Government, 1615] present religion and land as significantly entwined with how the Mandeville narrator and Guaman Poma de Ayala position themselves within their text and their respective societies. In the Travels, the narrator attempts to instill more religious piety among his Christian readers by presenting a fictional pilgrimage to the Holy Land and depictions of inhabitants in the Far East. In the Cordnica, on the other hand, Guaman Poma de Ayala offers a revisionist history of the Indians and Incas, criticizes Spanish officials and priests, and advises King Philip III on what constitutes good governance. In this thesis, I will analyze how the Mandeville narrator and Guaman Poma de Ayala construct their textual authority. I will show that they both in some ways undermine their position and world perspective due to their relationship to those they represent in their work.

Items in ScholarWorks are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.