Invasion and Transformation: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Conquest of Mexico (Mesoamerican Worlds: From the Olmecs to the Danzantes (Hardcover))

Invasion and Transformation examines the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and transformations in political, social, cultural, and religious life in Mexico during the Conquest and the ensuing colonial period. In particular, contributors consider the ways in which the Conquest itself was remembered, both in its immediate aftermath and in later centuries. Was Moteuczoma really as weak as history portrayed him? As Susan D. Gillespie instead suggests in "Blaming Moteuczoma," the representation of Moteuczoma as a scapegoat for the Aztec defeat can be understood as a product of indigenous resistance and accommodation following the imposition of Spanish colonialism. Chapters address the various roles (real and imagined) of Moteuczoma, Cortés, and Malinche in the fall of the Aztecs; the representation of history in colonial art; and the complex cultural transformations that actually took place. Including full-color reproductions of seventeenth-century paintings of the Conquest, Invasion and Transformation will appeal to scholars and students of Latin American history and anthropology, art history, colonial literature, and transatlantic studies. Contributors include Rebecca P. Brienen, Louise M. Burkhart, Ximena Chávez Balderas, Constance Cortez, Viviana Diáz Balsera, Martha Few, Susan D. Gillespie, Margaret A. Jackson, Diana Magaloni Kerpel, Matthew Restall, Michael Schreffler. "Invasion and Transformation examines the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire and transformations in political, social, cultural, and religious life in Mexico during the Conquest and the ensuing colonial period. In particular, contributors consider the ways in which the Conquest itself was remembered, both in its immediate aftermath and in later centuries." "Was Moteuczoma really as weak as history portrayed him? As Susan D. Gillespie instead suggests in "Blaming Moteuczoma," his representation as a scapegoat for the Aztec defeat can be understood as a product of indigenous "resistance and accommodation following the imposition of Spanish colonialism." Chapters address the various roles - real and imagined - of Moteuczoma, Cortes, and Malinche in the fall of the Aztecs; the representation of history in colonial art; and the complex cultural transformations that actually took place." "Including full-color reproductions of seventeenth-century paintings of the Conquest, Invasion and Transformation will appeal to scholars and students of Latin American history and anthropology, art history, colonial literature, and transatlantic studies."--BOOK JACKET Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Meeting the Enemy: Moteuczoma and Cortés, Herod and the Magi 2. Blaming Moteuczoma: Anthropomorphizing the Aztec Conquest 3. The Hero as Rhetor: Hernán Cortés’s Second and Third Letters to Charles V 4. Now You See Her, Now You Don’t: Memory and the Politics of Identity Construction in Representations of Malinche 5. Spanish Creation of the Conquest of Mexico 6. The Conquest of Mexico and the Representation of Imperial Power in Baroque New Spain 7. Painting a New Era: Conquest, Prophecy, and the World to Come 8. Indian Autopsy and Epidemic Disease in Early Colonial Mexico 9. Death During the Conquest Era 10. The Kislak Paintings and the Conquest of Mexico Works Cited Index __Invasion and Transformation__Including full-color reproductions of seventeenth-century paintings of the Conquest, will appeal to scholars and students of Latin American history and anthropology, art history, colonial literature, and transatlantic studies. Contributors include Rebecca P. Brienen, Louise M. Burkhart, Ximena Chávez Balderas, Constance Cortez, Viviana Diáz Balsera, Martha Few, Susan D. Gillespie, Margaret A. Jackson, Diana Magaloni Kerpel, Matthew Restall, Michael Schreffler.