Life in Mexico: Reclaiming Frances Calderón de la Barca as a historian of the Conquest of Mexico

这个项目将探索一部持久而有影响力的19世纪墨西哥征服史如何融入当代欧洲对墨西哥土著文化的观察，这些观察帮助创造并延续了关于被征服民族的有害思想，至今仍在延续。1842年，独立以来第一位西班牙驻墨西哥大使的英国妻子弗朗西丝·卡尔德龙·德拉巴卡出版了《墨西哥生活：一系列英文信件》，记录了她的经历。她的朋友和著名历史学家威廉·H·普雷斯科特鼓励出版这本书，但也要求卡尔德龙为他的墨西哥征服史(1843年)获取资料和联系人。7/24普雷斯科特的历史被认为是一部里程碑式的学术著作，在巩固欧洲文化优越性作为征服者成功关键的观念方面是不可或缺的(克伦丁宁，1991)，这些思想仍然普遍存在于现代大众想象中。尽管卡尔德龙在英国、西班牙、美国和墨西哥非常受欢迎，并被广泛出版，但卡尔德龙在墨西哥的生活在男性主导的历史版图中被省略了。十九世纪女性的旅行叙事通常被同时代的人认为是琐碎的和非学术性的(Leask1999)。然而，游记写作作为一个新兴的历史学领域，为这一体裁开辟了新的途径，阿德里亚娜·门德斯·罗德纳斯(2014)为研究大西洋两岸的女性叙事铺平了道路。利用这一历史方法论的转变，该项目将对弗朗西丝·卡尔德龙·德拉巴卡的信件和旅行日记(可在大英图书馆、英国国家档案馆和哈佛大学霍顿图书馆找到)和普雷斯科特·希斯托里进行密切的比较分析，考察卡尔德龙对叙事的影响；进一步追踪她的影响，以了解征服墨西哥的更广泛的史学。这项研究的目的是--探索女性声音在历史叙事中的边缘化。--评估卡尔德龙对19世纪墨西哥人的观察在多大程度上促成了普雷斯科特在征服期间对16世纪土著人民的负面表现。--考察这些叙事是如何导致被征服的民族继续受到压迫的，尽管他们显然是独立于他们的殖民‘主人’的。--探索卡尔德龙在延续关于土著自卑的有害思想方面所扮演的角色，并使用后殖民方法来探讨19世纪欧洲人对失败的帝国主义的焦虑，这些焦虑促成了‘征服叙事’的复兴。这些早期历史仍然有助于种族主义比喻，例如，在最近的流行媒体上，将土著文明描述为“远古外星人”。质疑这些叙事的尝试经常被指责为“不明智”，甚至“重写历史”，因为人们对历史是如何根据不断变化的政治格局创造的，以及它们可能给边缘化的人民造成的损害缺乏广泛的理解。这个项目旨在解构这些概念，通过与与我的监督团队有关的面向公众的文化和教育伙伴的合作，如墨西哥网站和墨西哥研究中心，帮助改变公众的看法和促进话语。一年将专注于辅助材料；探索已出版的主要来源的集合，并计划第二年的研究旅行；第三年集中于重新起草和提交论文。

This project will explore how a lasting and impactful nineteenth century History of the Conquest ofMexico incorporated contemporary European observations of Indigenous Mexican culture that helped tocreate and perpetuate harmful ideas about 'conquered' peoples that endure today.In 1842, Frances Calderón de la Barca, British wife of the first Spanish ambassador to Mexico sinceIndependence, published Life in Mexico: a series of letters written in English documenting herexperiences. Her friend and famed historian, William H. Prescott, encouraged this publication, but alsorequested that Calderón procure sources and contacts for his History of the Conquest of Mexico (1843).7 / 24Considered a landmark work of scholarship, Prescott's History was integral in cementing notions ofEuropean cultural superiority as key to the conquistadors' success (Clendinnen, 1991), ideas which arestill pervasive in the modern popular imagination.Despite being incredibly popular and published widely in Britain, Spain, USA and Mexico, Calderón's Lifein Mexico has been omitted from the male-dominated historical landscape. Travel narratives by womenduring the nineteenth century were often considered trivial and unscholarly by contemporaries (Leask,1999). However, travel writing as an emerging field of historiography has opened up new approaches tothe genre, with Adriana Méndez Rodenas (2014) paving the way for the examination of femaletransatlantic narratives in particular. Capitalising on this shift in historical methodologies, this project willundertake a close comparative analysis of Frances Calderón de la Barca's letters and travel diaries(available in the British Library; National Archives UK and Harvard's Houghton Library) and Prescott'sHistory, examining the influence that Calderón had on the narrative; tracing her influence further into thewider historiography of the Conquest of Mexico. The research aims are- to explore the marginalisation of women's voices in historical narratives.- to assess how far Calderón's observations of nineteenth century Mexicans contributed to Prescott'snegative representation of sixteenth century Indigenous peoples during the Conquest.- to examine how these narratives contributed to the continued oppression of 'conquered' peoples,despite their apparent independence from their colonial 'masters'.- to explore Calderón's role in perpetuating harmful ideas about Native inferiority and to contextualisethem using postcolonial methodologies to explore the nineteenth century European anxieties aboutfailing imperialism that contributed to a resurgence in 'conquest narratives'.These early histories still contribute to racist tropes, such as the presentation of Indigenous civilisationsas 'ancient aliens' in recent popular media. Attempts to question these narratives are often met withaccusations of 'wokeness,' or even 're-writing history' due to a lack of widespread understanding abouthow histories are created according to changing political landscapes, and the damage they can cause tomarginalised peoples. This project aims to deconstruct these concepts to help change public perceptionsand facilitate discourse through collaboration with public-facing cultural and educational partners linkedto my supervisory team, such as Mexicolore.co.uk and the Centre for Mexican Studies.Year one will focus on secondary material; exploring published collections of primary sources, andplanning research trips for year two; with year three concentrating on re-drafting and submitting thethesis.