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The Spectacle of Conquest

This chapter examines how the comedias indianas of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain, plays set in the Americas, engage with the Hispanic and ancient Roman epic traditions. The study focuses in particular on the popular cycle of poems inspired by the ongoing conflicts between settlers and indigenous Mapuche on the Chilean frontier of Arauco through an analysis of three early plays, Lope de Vega’s Arauco domado, Ricardo de Turia’s La bellígera española, and the multi-authored Algunas hazañas de las muchas de don García Hurtado de Mendoza. It is argued that the challenge of translating the epics into stage performance resulted in dramatic innovation. Reflecting the many voices and perspectives adopted by the epics concerning the controversial colonization of Chile, and incorporating significant echoes of Virgil and Lucan, the plays eclectically juxtapose competing traditions and accounts. Foregrounding and commenting on the performance of violence, they ostentatiously avoid dramatic and generic closure.