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

该项目将探索19世纪墨西哥征服史的持久和影响力如何与当代欧洲对墨西哥土著文化的观察相结合，这些文化有助于创造和延续关于“被征服”民族的有害观念，这些观念一直持续到今天。1842年，西班牙独立以来第一位驻墨西哥大使的英国妻子弗朗西斯Calderón德拉巴萨出版了《墨西哥生活：用英语写的一系列记录她经历的信件》。她的朋友和著名的历史学家威廉·h·普雷斯科特（William H. Prescott）鼓励出版这本书，但也要求Calderón为他的《征服墨西哥的历史》（1843）获取资料和联系方式。24普雷斯科特的《历史》被认为是学术上的里程碑，它在巩固欧洲文化优越性是征服者成功的关键这一观念方面发挥了不可或缺的作用（克兰迪宁，1991），这种观念在现代大众的想象中仍然普遍存在。尽管在英国、西班牙、美国和墨西哥广受欢迎并广泛出版，Calderón的《墨西哥生活》却被男性主导的历史景观所忽略。19世纪女性的旅行叙事通常被同时代的人认为是琐碎和不学术的（Leask,1999）。然而，作为一个新兴的史学领域，旅行写作开辟了新的研究方法，阿德里安娜·姆萨姆德斯·罗德纳斯（2014）为研究跨大西洋女性叙事铺平了道路。利用这种历史方法论的转变，该项目将对弗朗西斯Calderón de la Barca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获得）和普雷斯科特的历史进行仔细的比较分析，检查Calderón对叙事的影响；将她的影响进一步追溯到征服墨西哥的更广泛的史学。这项研究的目的是探索女性在历史叙事中被边缘化的声音。-评估Calderón对19世纪墨西哥人的观察在多大程度上影响了普雷斯科特在征服期间对16世纪土著人民的负面描述。——研究这些叙事是如何导致“被征服”的民族继续受到压迫的，尽管他们表面上是独立于殖民“主人”的。-探索Calderón在延续土著自卑感有害思想方面的作用，并使用后殖民方法将它们置于背景中，以探索19世纪欧洲对失败的帝国主义的焦虑，这种焦虑导致了“征服叙事”的复苏。这些早期的历史仍然有助于种族主义的比喻，比如土著文明在最近的大众媒体上被描述为“古老的外星人”。质疑这些叙述的尝试往往会遭到“觉醒”甚至“重写历史”的指责，因为缺乏对历史是如何根据不断变化的政治格局创造的广泛理解，以及它们可能对边缘化人群造成的伤害。这个项目旨在解构这些概念，通过与我的主管团队中面向公众的文化和教育合作伙伴（如Mexicolore.co.uk和墨西哥研究中心）的合作，帮助改变公众的看法，并促进讨论。第一年将重点放在二手材料上；探索已出版的原始资料，并计划第二年的研究旅行；第三年的重点是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.