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The Libro de los ejemplos del Conde Lucanor and the Panchatantra : Translatio , Power, and Comparison[Note 1. I would like to thank Luis Girón‐Negrón, Harvard University, ...]
Author(s) -
Hernandez Gloria
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
literature compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.158
H-Index - 4
ISSN - 1741-4113
DOI - 10.1111/lic3.12158
Subject(s) - conquest , storytelling , power (physics) , middle ages , ambiguity , history , humanities , sanskrit , literature , art , philosophy , ancient history , linguistics , narrative , physics , quantum mechanics
This article compares the Castilian Medieval Libro del Conde Lucanor alongside its eldest predecessor in the storytelling tradition, the Sanskrit Panchatantra , attributed to the Indian sage Viṣṇu Śarma and dated around the eighth century. Observing how the Conde Lucanor and the Panchatantra dwell upon questions of governance, trust, and textual ambiguity makes evident that both works represent the transferring of knowledge as means to support imperial power. The comparison examines the dynamics of auctoritas – concerning authorship – and authority – concerning power – through which Don Juan Manuel appropriated the stories of the Panchatantra and integrated them into his own cultural domain, thus complying with the demands of conquest and colonization at play in the thirteenth and fourteenth‐centuries Christian Kingdom of Castile.