Maker of masks: Fray Antonio de Guevara's pseudo-historical fictionalizations.

摘要

Fray Antonio de Guevara (1482--1545) was a prolific writer of pseudo-historical prose. Although he was named official chronicler by Emperor Charles V in 1526, Guevara never wrote a conventional history, since none of his prolific writings carries the title of History or Chronicle. Considering this paradox, Guevara's role as historian needs to be re-examined, especially in light of the numerous allusions in his works both to classical and contemporary history. It is necessary to establish to what extent Guevara surpasses the limits of Renaissance Humanism and the long tradition of medieval historiography.;Guevara creates numerous literary personalities of himself, making personae or masks of the different roles he assumes: those of friar, preacher, bishop, chronicler, courtier, counselor, and buffoon. As a master of semblance, Guevara makes and wears his own self-fashioned "masks," narrative voices that often assume and play the part of the novelist in historian's garb, inventing pseudo-historical anecdotes with the air of historical truth. His literary modernity can be compared to a fictional "mask" that simulates both erudition and historical reality, yet resoundingly projects the voice of the novelist, of the entertainer, similar to a court buffoon who entertains the reader by means of humor and irony. In the artistic manipulation of classical history, Guevara innovatively creates not a genuine work of Renaissance historiography, but rather what can more appropriately be called a vast and labyrinthine web in which history and fiction ultimately form an inseparable hybrid: a pseudo-historical narrative closer in spirit and form to the novel than it is to genuine history.