The myth of El Dorado and its European symbolic transpositions

ISBN-13: 9786204265919 / Angielski / Miękka / 52 str.

Adriana C. Muller Wirth

Opis

The myth of Eldorado arises in the middle of the sixteenth century, in South America as the result of a transfer of European conjectures on the existence of a land of gold mixed with stories from Indian traditions. An alliance between the imaginary of the colonizers at the time of the conquests and their interpretation of the narratives of the Indians of the New World around their rituals of the gold. It is the fruit of a Renaissance that seeks to catch up with an unreal past and the testimony of a social disposition that will energize history. Eldorado is the genesis and symbol of an era, an ideal converted into a myth, carried by a collective enthusiasm that drives history. For many, it was a question of leaving in search of their dreams in an imaginary America that they did not yet know. Gold had sacred and mythical connotations, and sometimes scientific connotations with alchemy. Its value is the result of ancient stories and chivalry. These values, transposed to the New World for military, economic and expansionist purposes, end up transforming the myth according to the encounters until becoming today a symbolic idea in a common name.

O autorze

C. Muller Wirth, AdrianaDoctor in French Literature and Civilization at Paris IV Sorbonne, (2005) attached to the CRLV, born in Bogotá, Colombia, degree in Español and languages from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional de Bogotá, teacher-researcher on the myths of the Amazonas and El Dorado in travel literature. Publications and Colloquia online at crlv.org.