Moral description of the amerindian in the Spanish Golden Age Theatre: subversive or propaganda speech

Abstract

This study examines the moral description of American Indians in plays of non-American theme as an indicator of cultural ideas about the conquest of America in the 17th century and the first years of 18th the theater is an important element in the process of communication between playwrights and its public that can transmit a propaganda or dissident discourse through the moral description. The bibliography insists that the natives are savages, cannibals, idol worshipers, and fools; this becomes propaganda that justifies the conquest of America. We also know that the authors have pointed out as part of a dissenting discourse that the natives are capable of being worthy opponents of the Spaniards for their nobility. Our objective is to provide data through the analysis of more than eight hundred works from the database of the Teatro Español del Siglo de Oro (TESO) on the number of times the Indian is mentioned and the tendency followed by different authors.