Seminar in Colonial Spanish American Literature: Colonial Palimpsests: Mexico, Lima, Cuzco

The three cities that we "visit" were major population centers in their own right prior to the arrival of the European invaders in the 16th century. We ask ourselves, both how they became colonial cities and how might we, as readers in the 21st century, see the traces of these transformations in the cultural artifacts produced by Spanish, Criollo, Indigenous, and Afro-Peruvian authors. The palimpsest as metaphor for the city would imply that many layers of writing, traces and erasures may be observed on the urban surface.