MU Libraries New Books: History - Spain - Portugal

About the new book list

11/4/2009

The RSS feeds for the new books list is updated every Wednesday and contains a list of books added to the Ellis Library collection for the last six weeks. The titles are grouped by call number classification, and are listed by week and alphabetically by title.

Books for the most recent weeks are currently on the New Books Shelves inside the north entrance of Ellis Library. They can be checked out.

A cultural journey through Andalusia : from Granada to Seville / Gwynne Edwards. (10/28/2009)

10/28/2009

View title at
Amazon.com

Review

'There may be no northern European better suited than Edwards, author of 13 books on Spanish subjects and Professor of Spanish at Aberystwyth to be our guide in this vibrant book. Don't go to Andalusia without reading it.' The Western Mail Magazine, 20 June 2009

Call #: DP302.A47 E39 2009

Santuarios y rituales en la Hispania Céltica / Silvia Alfayé Villa. (9/16/2009)

9/16/2009

Call #: DP53.C44 A44 2009

Self-sufficiency and trade in Bracara Augusta during the Early Empire : a contribution to the economic study of the city / Rui Morais. (9/16/2009)

9/16/2009

Call #: DP702.B51 M67 2009

The archaeology of pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela : a landscape perspective / Julie Candy. (9/16/2009)

9/16/2009

Call #: DP402.S23 C26 2009

The eve of Spain : myths of origins in the history of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish conflict / Patricia E. Grieve. (9/9/2009)

9/9/2009

View title at
Amazon.com

Review

"A fascinating and original study of the topic. No current book in Iberian Studies examines the intersections of (women's) sexuality, mythmaking, and the politics of narrative and storytelling addressed by Grieve in these pages." -- Josiah Blackmore, University of Toronto

Product Description

The Eve of Spain demonstrates how the telling and retelling of one of Spain's founding myths played a central role in the formation of that country's national identity.

King Roderigo, the last Visigoth king of Spain, rapes (or possibly seduces) La Cava, the daughter of his friend and counselor, Count Julian. In revenge, the count travels to North Africa and conspires with its Berber rulers to send an invading army into Spain. So begins the Muslim conquest and the end of Visigothic rule. A few years later, in Northern Spain, Pelayo initiates a Christian resistance and starts a new line of kings to which the present-day Spanish monarchy traces its roots.

Patricia E. Grieve follows the evolution of this story from the Middle Ages into the modern era, as shifts in religious tolerance and cultural acceptance influenced its retelling. She explains how increasing anti-Semitism came to be woven into the tale during the Christian conquest of the peninsula -- in the form of traitorous Jewish conspirators. In the sixteenth century, the tale was linked to the looming threat of the Ottoman Turks. The story continued to resonate through the Enlightenment and into modern historiography, revealing the complex interactions of racial and religious conflict and evolving ideas of women's sexuality.

In following the story of La Cava, Rodrigo, and Pelayo, Grieve explains how foundational myths and popular legends articulate struggles for national identity. She explores how myths are developed around few historical facts, how they come to be written into history, and how they are exploited politically, as in the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 followed by that of the Moriscos in 1609. Finally, Grieve focuses on the misogynistic elements of the story and asks why the fall of Spain is figured as a cautionary tale about a woman's sexuality.

About the Author

Patricia E. Grieve is the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University and author of "Floire and Blancheflor" and the European Romance and Desire and Death in the Spanish Sentimental Romance (1440--1550).

Call #: DP99 .G75 2009