Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
The chroniclers who accompanied Lope de Aguirre on his expedition to find "EI
Dorado," accuse him of being a "crazy" tyrant, responsible for the rebellion to
emancipate the conquerors from the Spanish crown. Aguirre was made a scapegoat,
in Girard ian terms, not only for that reason but due to his critique of what Angel
Rama defined as the "Lettered City," a rebuke voiced in the infamous letter he wrote
to the Spanish king denouncing imperial institutions in the Americas. 20th century,
Spanish writer Ramon J. Sender's novel, La aventura equinoccial de Lope de Aguirre
(1964), reverses the historical discourse in order to use Aguirre's attack on the
"Lettered City," to criticize the intellectuals who supported Franco's regime in
Spain, as well as the Catholic Church. This thesis's critical reading of the source
chronicles on which Sender based his novel leads to a more profound understanding
of both the early modem imperial and the modem fascist violence unleashed, not
only by supposed "tyrants-scapegoats" the likes of Aguirre, but by power itself: that
of monarchies and dictators.
Dorado," accuse him of being a "crazy" tyrant, responsible for the rebellion to
emancipate the conquerors from the Spanish crown. Aguirre was made a scapegoat,
in Girard ian terms, not only for that reason but due to his critique of what Angel
Rama defined as the "Lettered City," a rebuke voiced in the infamous letter he wrote
to the Spanish king denouncing imperial institutions in the Americas. 20th century,
Spanish writer Ramon J. Sender's novel, La aventura equinoccial de Lope de Aguirre
(1964), reverses the historical discourse in order to use Aguirre's attack on the
"Lettered City," to criticize the intellectuals who supported Franco's regime in
Spain, as well as the Catholic Church. This thesis's critical reading of the source
chronicles on which Sender based his novel leads to a more profound understanding
of both the early modem imperial and the modem fascist violence unleashed, not
only by supposed "tyrants-scapegoats" the likes of Aguirre, but by power itself: that
of monarchies and dictators.
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