The History of Wonder in Colonial Spanish American Lettres

The notion of wonder (asombro, maravilla) played a determining role in the Spanish and Creole writings of the Spanish American colonial period. The volatile aesthetic of wonder raises and implicates such important issues as otherness, exoticism, category crisis, and identity formation. A studies course examining the role of wonder in New World historiographic and literary writings of the 16th and 17th centuries.