Arms and Letters analyses the unprecedented number of autobiographical accounts written by Spanish soldiers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These first-person retrospective works recount a range of experiences throughout the sprawling domain of the Hispanic monarchy. Reading a selection of autobiographies in contemporary historical context
including the coalescing of the first modern armies, which were partially populated by forced recruits and the urban poor
Faith S. Harden explains how soldiers adapted the concept of honour and contributed to the burgeoning autobiographical form. Harden argues that Spanish military life writing took two broad forms: the first as a petition, wherein the soldier's service was presented as a debt of honour, and second, as a series of misadventures, staging honour as a spectacle that captivated an audience.
Honour was inevitably gendered and performative, and as such, it functioned as one of the overarching metrics of value that early modern men and women applied to themselves and others. In charting how non-elite subjects rendered their lives legitimate through autobiography, Arms and Letters contributes both to a critical genealogy of honour and to the history of life writing.
By:
Faith S. Harden
Imprint: University of Toronto Press
Country of Publication: Canada
Dimensions:
Height: 231mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 440g
ISBN: 9781487507046
ISBN 10: 1487507046
Series: Toronto Iberic
Pages: 200
Publication Date: 10 November 2020
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Primary
,
Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgments Introduction: Arms and Letters 1. Virtue, Honour, and Exemplarity 2. Professional Honour and the Production of Knowledge 3. Spiritual Honour and Religious Authority 4. Playing the Pícaro Conclusion Notes Works Cited Index
Faith S. Harden is an assistant professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University Arizona.
Reviews for Arms and Letters: Military Life Writing in Early Modern Spain
""Harden’s study focuses on specific texts, but her in-depth analysis and conclusions provide new insights into the social, historical, military, religious, cultural, and literary implications of soldier writing in early modern Spain."" -- Iana Konstantinova, Southern Virginia University * <em>Journal of Military History</em> *
