Chronicles of the Indies, a literature of the Encounter: Travel Tales and Explorations of the Other

Abstract

Through a quick comparative look at the best-known narratives of the Spanish colonial enterprise, the article reconstructs the mutual influences and shared main categories of observation on American reality. In the European hermeneutics of the encounter with native civilizations, in fact, a stereotype of the inferiority of the Other, compared to an arbitrary evolutionary standard, recurs: the vision of the chroniclers of conquest expeditions reflects the ability of the invading and narrating subject to relate to diversity through neutralizing strategies. For instance, under the condition of being able to project himself into it. Special attention is also directed to Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda's controversial reflection on the legitimacy of the conquering wars. His application of the Aristotelian theory of natural slavery to this historical circumstance represents a cultural need – still widespread – for the assimilation of heterogeneity, functional to the justification of domination.