Slander and the right to be an author in fifteenth-century Spain

• Ana M. Gómez-Bravo ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Washington

     University of Washington

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, ISSN 1463-6204, ISSN-e 1469-9818, Vol. 16, Nº. 3, 2015, págs. 239-253
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Versified slander, particularly that addressed to converted Jews or conversos, is best understood within a social exercise of rhetoric as ars bene dicendi that channels ethnic and religious tensions through the practice of maldecir. Slanderous discourse or maldecir is both a flexible and a dangerous tool in the hands of an author, who becomes aggrandized through the poet's ethical responsibility to denounce social evils. However, slander can destabilize authorship due to the required use of despicable language. The result is a complex interplay among slandered authors and their critics that shows the flexible uses of slander in the context of ethnic and social strife.