Rhetorical Conquests: Cortés, Gómara, and Renaissance Imperialism by Glen Carman (review)

133 Reseñas ! ! ! ! ! El presente ensayo, desde este punto de vista casi sociológico, contribuye grandemente a nuestro conocimiento de la recepción de los poemas mayores de don Luis de Góngora. La mayor aportación de Xavier Tubau tiene que ver, sin embargo, con su minucioso análisis de los textos meta-poéticos de Lope. Tubau sitúa los pronunciamientos del Fénix en el marco de sus respectivas corrientes de pensamiento y, acto seguido, emite su opinión sobre el grado de sinceridad que, en cada caso, cabe atribuirles. Su ensayo, así las cosas, sirve de hilo de Ariadna en el Dédalo de las ideas estéticas de Lope. Javier Álvarez Universidad de Córdoba Carman, Glen. Rhetorical Conquests: Cortés, Gómara, and Renaissance Imperialism. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 2006. PB. viii + 248 pp. ISBN-10: 1-55753-403-9; ISBN-13: 978-1-55753-403-3. In Rhetorical Conquests, Glen Carman presents a critical analysis of the image of Cortés that appears both in Cortés’s own letters and in other chronicles of the early colonial period, particularly the work of Francisco de Gómara. Carman effectively situates the work within its historical context, but he focuses on the historiographical rhetoric rather than the historical reality. He acknowledges the fact that many aspects of Cortés’s actions and the events of the conquest and Mexico are controversial, but the determination of historical accuracy is irrelevant for the type of analysis undertaken here: the object of study is not what actually happened but rather its rhetorical articulation in its relation to Renaissance historiography on the one hand and Spanish imperialism on the other. After the introduction and the first chapter, which provides the historical and rhetorical context, Carman begins with an analysis of Cortés’s own self-representation as a daring captain and loyal servant of the king. He argues that Cortés’s project relies upon a fusion of narrator and protagonist and an attempt to reconcile the ideal of a stable truth with the inconsistencies of the ends and means in the conquest of Mexico. The third chapter then examines how this image changed in the work of later chroniclers. Here Carman focuses most closely on Francisco de Gómara, but he also presents a well-informed discussion of other chroniclers such as Oviedo and Las Casas as well. Chapter four deals with the reported speeches recorded in Gómara’s Historia de la conquista de México. Here Carman argues that each speech functions as a defense of the conquest, but that they employ different rhetorical strategies depending upon the audience to whom the speech 134 Reviews ! ! ! ! ! is directed. The book also includes an appendix with the texts and translations of two of the speeches from several different sources. The fifth chapter then examines the reported speech of Moctezuma in an attempt to identify its rhetorical function and how it relates to the larger project. Although most of the chapters focus primarily on Gómara, Carman maintains a consistent dialogue with other relevant texts from the period. At first glance, Carman seems to rehearse some of the arguments that have become part of the standard understanding of the texts in question. The notion presented in the second chapter about Cortés’s fusion of narrator and protagonist, for example, is closely related to the common observation that Cortés’s incorporates his letter-writing into his account in such a way that it becomes part of the conquest, another form of service to the King. But Carman not only presents this argument in a thorough and updated way that is valuable in its own right; he also ties it to apparently contradictory notions of truth that Cortés invokes throughout his letters. Furthermore, the subsequent analyses of the work by Gómara and other chroniclers adds an additional dimension to established readings of Cortés’s letters. This is not to say that readers will find all aspects of the argument compelling or sufficiently developed. The notion of truth discussed in the second chapter, in particular, may seem rather underdeveloped to many readers. Carman does not...