Del decir al dicho en el Libro de las armas de don Juan Manuel

Hijano, Manuel

Abstract

The Libro de las armas (also known as Libro de las tres razones), don Juan Manuel’s last work and, in the opinion of many, an attempt at settling a literary score with his king and political nemesis, Alfonso XI, is a unique and, despite its brevity, outstanding contribution to the historiography of late medieval Iberia. The author’s decision to abandon the umbrella of didactic fiction and become a historian can be viewed as a response to the boost given by Alfonso XI to the production of royal chronicles in 1340’s Castile. Aware that his reputation would suffer at the hands of the royal chroniclers, don Juan Manuel wrote a book that borrows certain elements from the tradition of Alfonso X’s historical works, but it is wildly innovative in its approach to history writing, both in its disregard to the conventions of the genre and in the strategies deployed to legitimise his narrative and persuade the reader of its reliability. The present paper will discuss the effect of such strategies on the discourse of the Libro de las armas, both in terms of the utterance (“the act of saying”), as well as the statements (“what is said”).

Citation

Hijano, M. (2023). Del decir al dicho en el Libro de las armas de don Juan Manuel. Cahiers d'études hispaniques médiévales, 46(2023/1), 117-134

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 1, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: May 11, 2024
• Journal: Cahiers d'études hispaniques médiévales
• Print ISSN: 1779-4684
• Publisher: ENS Editions
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 46
• Issue: 2023/1
• Pages: 117-134
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2437731
• Publisher URL: https://www.cairn.info/revue-cahiers-d-etudes-hispaniques-medievales-2023-1-page-117.htm