Violence and piety in Spanish folklore

by Timothy Mitchell

In this innovative book, Timothy J. Mitchell examines how Spanish cultural creations reflect the extraordinary fusion of violence and religiosity that has shaped Spanish' history. Using legends, rituals, fiestas, folk poetry, and popular drama, Mitchell demonstrates that crises of one kind or another lie behind Spanish moral codes and honor codes alike. Significantly, the intense devotion Spaniards feel for their patron saints is inseparable from magical procedures for the eradication of "enemies"-- the witch, the Moor, the Jew. Mitchell contends that patently unjust rites of popular justice, for example mock executions of Judas, can paradoxically evolve to include elements of confession, grace, and moral progress. Elaborating such insights into provocative theory of the Spanish cultural "style," Mitchell reveals the structural unity of a wide range of popular creations -- the bullfight, Holy Week processions, the legend of Rodrigo, the myth of Don Juan, the cult of the Virgin. He draw