RLSP 231
Indigenous Writers of Colonial Mexico and Peru Fall 2022
Division I Writing Skills Difference, Power, and Equity
This is not the current course catalog

This course examines the writings of 16th and 17th Century Indigenous authors of New Spain and colonial Peru. We will study the works of well-known Indigenous writers such as Hernando de Alvarado Tezozomoc, Fernando de Alva Ixtlilxochitl, El “Inca” Garcilaso de la Vega, and Guaman Poma de Ayala, as well as writings by lesser-known and anonymous Indigenous authors. Our focus on the historical contexts and formal aspects of their works will be supplemented and enhanced by a study of the critical methods of textual analysis that are particularly relevant to Indigenous texts, as facilitated by a set of selected critical readings. The course, in short, will aim to interrogate the idea of a “Spanish lettered city” (a colonial city dominated by Spanish men of letters) and will explore the possibilities of an “alter-native” lettered city, one in which Indigenous writing flourishes during times of crisis. Conducted in Spanish.