Honor and Violence in Golden Age Spain
Scott K. Taylor
Abstract
Early modern Spain has long been viewed as having a culture obsessed with honor, where a man resorted to violence when his or his wife's honor was threatened, especially through sexual disgrace. This book overturns this idea, arguing that the way Spanish men and women actually behaved was very different from the behavior depicted in dueling manuals, law books, and “honor plays” of the period. Drawing on criminal and other records to assess the character of violence among non-elite Spaniards, the author finds that appealing to honor was a rhetorical strategy, and that insults, gestures, and vio ... More
Keywords: Spain, honor, interpersonal violence, dueling manuals, law books, honor plays, rhetorical strategy, insults, reputation, non-elite Spaniards
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2008 | Print ISBN-13: 9780300126853 |
| Published to Yale Scholarship Online: October 2013 | DOI:10.12987/yale/9780300126853.001.0001 |
