Early Visions and Representations of America: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's Naufragios and William Bradford's of Plymouth Plantation

When the Europeans first arrived in America, they had a number of preconceptions, prejudices, expectations and hopes about what life in the New World would be like. This book examines the different visions and representations of America conveyed in the writings of Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and the Pilgrim leader William Bradford, taking both writers within their respective literary and historical contexts.

Anthologies of American literature have consistently ignored Spanish-language achievements on the grounds of a restrictive interpretation of American literature based on linguistic boundaries. Consequently, Spanish-language texts such as Cabeza de Vaca's or the account by the Hidalgo de Elvas, to name but two examples, have been marginalized in the narrative of American literary history. In seeking to redress this neglect, Galisteo contributes to scholarship which seeks to analyze Early America as a whole, including not only Anglo American perspectives but also the Spanish American aspect of the colonization process.

“The author has chosen an unusual comparison of North American narrative: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vacas Naufragios and William Bradfords Of Plymouth Plantation. Although the focus is on these two accounts, the author does an excellent job of placing both works in the context of other accounts composed at approximately the same  time […]There already exists a historical debate on eyewitness testimonials about the Americas, and it will be interesting to see how  this argument will be received.” -Patricia Seed, University of California-Irvine, Journal of American Studies

A comparative examination of Spanish- and English-language accounts of the New World.

M. Carmen Gomez-Galisteo teaches English at UNED (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia), Madrid, Spain. She has published in a number of journals, including Ad Americam, Contemporary Legend, Clepsydra, and RAEI. She is the author of The Wind is Never Gone: Sequels, Parodies and Rewritings of Gone With the Wind (2011).

Preface
1: Introduction
2. Competing Visions of America
3. Describing an Unknown Land
4. America in Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation
5. America in Cabeza de Vaca's Naufragios
6. Cabeza de Vaca and Bradford as Eyewitnesses and Historians
Conclusions
Bibliography
Index