Focusing on certain key first-hand narratives of the discovery, exploration and conquest of the New World, the author views various journals, letters and other documents not merely as narratives of facts and events, but as literary expressions of the dynamics of the writer's experience. Bodmer uses early Spanish chronicles to take the reader on a journey of exploration into the ideology of conquest and how it fared in the face of New World realities. What emerges is a detailed analytical history of the gradual awakening of a critical consciousness concerning accepted versions of the discovery...