Cortes

English 3070:

August 25th, 2016

Who are these people and events Cortes is talking about?

-Valazquez, Spaniards, Mutezuma, natives (Tlaxcalans)

Historical Background:

What kind of person is Cortes, according to him (his letter)?

What are the main subjects of the letter? What does he want to tell his reader about?

Narrator, Plot

How does he do so? How does he justify his actions?

Literary Techniques, Sociocultural Norms

Why write a letter? Who read it? How did it survive these past 500 years?

Form

Key terms and Context for Cortes

-Adynaton

a declaration of impossibility, usually in terms of an exaggerated comparison. Sometimes, the expression of the impossibility of expression.

-Simile

an explicit comparison, often (but not necessarily) employing like or as

-Captatio benevolentiae

a rhetorical technique designed “capture the goodwill” of the audience

-List, enumeration

-Publication dates of Cortes letters

-General sense of the sequence of events of Cortes in (what is now) Mexico

-Relacion

-Literature of travel and exploration

-Requerimiento

- Carta de relacion

- genre that originated in feudal law:

- an eyewitness account in a legal dispute or in a petition for reward

- humble and plain language

- official character

- authority of first-hand experience

- relate experience of ordinary people to those in power

In New World context:

Expansive genre:

Legal tradition, meshed with other forms of writing (history, autobiography, etc)

Hernando Cortes in the New World

* 1504

* Cortes to New World: Hispaniola

* 1511

* Cortes to Cuba under Velazquez

* November 1518

* Cortes sails form Cuba by command of Velazquez

* February 1519

* Cortes lands on Yucatan Peninsula (mainland Mexico)

* June/ July 1519

* Established town of Vera Cruz

Hernando Cortes in the New World

* August 1519

* Cortes begins march to interior

* November 1519

* Cortes enters Tenochtitlan, with Tlaxcalans and Totnacs

* May...