The Evolution of Converso Literature : The Writings of the Converted Jews of Medieval Spain

Gregory B. Kaplan

ISBN 10: 0813024757 / ISBN 13: 9780813024752

Published by University Press of Florida, Gainesville, 2002

About this Item

Cover a little rubbed and marked. Contents clean and unmarked. Ownership inscription on first inside page. Overall, sound and serviceable. Publisher's note: Discusses Converso poetry, and some prose, from the 1460s to 1499, focusing on works by Conversos who identified as Christians and were dismayed at being treated as inferiors by Old Christians. Deals mainly with works written in Castile. They express varied responses to the evolution of the persecution of Conversos, including apparent toleration in the early years of Queen Isabella's reign and the establishment of the Inquisition in 1480, as reflected in laments like those of Rodrigo Cota. Size: 23.5 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm. 161 pp. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: History; Spanish literature--To 1500--History and criticism; Spanish literature--Jewish Christian authors--History and criticism; Christian converts from Judaism--Spain--History; Discrimination in literature; Outsiders in literature; Politics and literature--Spain; Literature and society--Spain; ISBN: 0813024757. ISBN/EAN: 9780813024752. Add. Inventory No: 260207REH005522.

Seller Inventory # 260207REH005522

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Evolution of Converso Literature : The Writings of the Converted Jews of Medieval Spain
• Publisher: University Press of Florida, Gainesville
• Publication Date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813024757
• ISBN 13: 9780813024752
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • History

About this title

Synopsis

"Kaplan's work organizes many of the insights of previous scholars and moves us forward along well-accepted lines."--George Greenia, College of William and Mary

"Kaplan's ideas are quite original and are going to cause some spirited debate among scholars . . . compelling and convincing."--Denise M. DiPuccio, University of North Carolina, Wilmington

During the early 15th century, many Spanish Jews converted to Christianity to escape persecution in the wake of widespread anti-Jewish violence in the 1390s.  The extent to which the literature written by these conversos accurately reflects their social and legal alienation from the Old Christian (non-converso) population has long been debated. This book is the first comprehensive examination of this literature, setting its parameters and providing illustrations from a broad range of converso texts.

Kaplan analyzes representative literary works from three stages of the socio-religious disenfranchisement of the conversos, from the initiation of legal discrimination in 1474, through Isabel's early years as queen, to the decades immediately after the establishment of the Inquisition. He identifies a number of parallels between the historical evolution of the plight of the conversos and the course of their literature. From early admonitory responses to a two-tier Christianity, to a general deification of Queen Isabel when she appeared to be working to close the schism between Christians, to allegorical reactions to the arbitrary persecution of the Inquisition, Kaplan describes a “converso code” or discourse of alienation.   

For students of literature, Kaplan identifies a distinct converso sensibility in many texts and shows how it focuses on certain metaphors and evolves in response to certain historical events and pressures. For historians, he identifies a body of literature that reflects and testifies to the turbulent social and religious currents of Spain in the 15th century.

Gregory B. Kaplan is associate professor of Spanish at the University of Tennessee.

About the Author

Gregory B. Kaplan is associate professor of Spanish at the University of Tennessee.