Spanish V95.0985/Medieval and Renaissance Studies Center: "Secrets New Worlds: Occult Philosophy and the literature of the discovery and conquest of America"

RALPH BAUER
Visiting Associate Professor
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
New York University,
New York, New York 10003-4556

19 University Place, 4th floor
New York, New York 10003-4556
Phone: 212.998.8780
E-Mail: rb137@nyu.edu
website: "http://homepages.nyu.edu/~rb137/"

TH 9/14
- Christopher Columbus, The Journal of the first voyage (paperback ed. 37-76). (electronic text available on-line here)
- Secondary Readings: Anthony Grafton, New Worlds, Ancient Texts (on-line)
- Recommended Movie: Ridley Scott, 1492: the Conquest of Paradise (part I, part II)
TH 9/21:
- Columbus, Narrative and Letter, Third Voyage (paperback, 206-226, 265-276), and Letter from the Fourth Voyage (paperback 283-304) (electronic text available here;
- from Columbus, The Book of Prophecies (on-line)
- from Aztecs Accounts of the Conquest (collected by Bernadino de Sahagun) (on-line)

TH 9/28:
- Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, The Account (in paperback)
- Presentation: Lucy Nagle and Dara Rosenberg
- Recommended movie: Nicolás Echevarría, Cabeza de Vaca (part I, part II,)
TH10/5:
- from The Badianus ms (on-line)
- from Nicolas Monardes, La Historia Medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales (on-line).
- from Francisco Hernandez, The Mexican Treasury (on-line)
- Oswaldo Pardo, "Contesting the Power to heal: angels, demons and plants in colonial Mexico" (on-line)
- from Serge Gruzinski, The Mestizo Mind (on-line)
- presentation
TH 10/12: no class: Book Review due

TH 10/19:
- Sir Walter Ralegh, The Discovery of the empire of Guaiana (on-line)
- from Charles Nicholl, The Creature in the Map (on-line)
- Recommended Movie: Werner Herzog, Aguirre: der Zorn Gottes
  Presentation: Lael Laderman adn Emily Watson
TH 10/26: no class

TH 11/2:
- Thomas Hariot, A Briefe and True Report (in paperback)
- from Francis Yates, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age (on-line)
  Presentation: Lynda van Wart and Rachel Anderson

TH 11/30:
- Edward Taylor, Selections (on-line)
- Karen Gordon-Gube, "Evidence of Medicinal Canniblaism in Puritan New-England," Early American LIterature 28, no. 3 (1993): 185-221 (on-line)
  Presentation: Sharon Pinches and Nasim Chauhhuri
TH 12/7
- Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, "Primero Sueño" ("First Dream") (in paperback)
- from Octavio Paz, Sor Juana, or the traps Faith (on-line)
- Recommended movie: Maria Luisa Bemberg, Yo, la peor de todas/I, the worst of all (part I, part II, part III, part IV)
  Presentation: Lindsay Rothenberg and Mason Buck

F 12/15: Seminar Paper Due