''Peruvian Traditions'' ( es, Tradiciones peruanas, link=no) is a compendium of some of the writings of the Peruvian writer
Ricardo Palma
Manuel Ricardo Palma Soriano (February 7, 1833 – October 6, 1919) was a Peruvian author, scholar, librarian and politician. His magnum opus is the ''Tradiciones peruanas''.
Biography
According to the official account, Manuel Ricardo Pa ...
.
Introduction
The writings, which are collectively known as the ''Tradiciones'', started appearing in 1863 in newspapers and magazines. They are short stories of
historical fiction that relate events based on historical fact and that are descriptive of the way people lived in different moments in the
Peruvian history. Their value as historical sources is limited, but their literary value is great.
Some of the ''Tradiciones peruanas'' have been translated into English under the title ''The Knights of the Cape and Thirty-seven Other Selections from the Tradiciones Peruanas of Ricardo Palma'' (ed. Harriet de Onís, 1945) and more recently under the title ''Peruvian Traditions'' (ed. Christopher Conway and trans. Helen Lane, Oxford University Press, 2004).
Characteristics
Some of the key characteristics of the ''Traditions'' are:
*Use of popular language full of proverbs, sayings, songs and verses.
*Some stories are based on historical events that are backed up by archives or documents (Palma was librarian of the
Biblioteca Nacional del Perú
The National Library of Peru ( es, link=no, Biblioteca Nacional del Perú) is the national library of Peru, located in Lima. It is the country's oldest and most important library. Like the majority of Peruvian libraries, it is a non-circulating ...
)
*Other stories with no firm historical basis are used to explain facts, such as the names of streets and houses in Lima.
*Oral tone, often containing a dialog with the reader. (The writer sometimes refers to himself in the third person plural).
*Critique of political, social, and religious institutions of the era.
*Mostly set in
Lima
Lima ( ; ), originally founded as Ciudad de Los Reyes (City of The Kings) is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín Rivers, in the desert zone of the central coastal part of ...
, but with a significant portion of the stories set in the rest of what used to be the
Viceroyalty of Peru
The Viceroyalty of Peru ( es, Virreinato del Perú, links=no) was a Spanish imperial provincial administrative district, created in 1542, that originally contained modern-day Peru and most of the Spanish Empire in South America, governed fro ...
.
Publications
The ''Traditions'' were published in the following order:
*1872 First part.
*1874 Second part.
*1875 Third part.
*1877 Fourth part.
*1883 ''Tradiciones'', from the first to the sixth part recompilation.
*1889 ''Ropa vieja'', seventh part.
*1891 ''Ropa apolillada'', eighth part.
*1906 ''Mis Últimas Tradiciones'', ninth part.
*1910 ''Apéndice a mis últimas tradiciones peruanas'', tenth part.
The adjective "Peruanas" ("Peruvian") was not used by Palma. The adjective was used for the first time in 1890 on their first publication in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
.
There are in total 453 ''Traditions'' of which six are set during the
Incan Empire
The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...
, 339 during the
Viceroyalty
A viceroyalty was an entity headed by a viceroy. It dates back to the Spanish conquest of the Americas in the sixteenth century.
France
* Viceroyalty of New France
Portuguese Empire
In the scope of the Portuguese Empire, the term " Viceroyalt ...
, 43 during the
Emancipation
Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranch ...
, 49 during the Republic and 16 that cannot be placed within a specific period.
Further reading
*Andreu, Alicia G. "Una nueva aproximación al lenguaje en las ''Tradiciones peruanas'' de Ricardo Palma". ''Spanish American Literature: From Romanticism to 'Modernismo' in Latin America''. Eds. David William Foster & Daniel Altamiranda. New York & London: Garland, 1997: 175–190.
*
*Bazán, Dora. ''Mujeres, ideas y estilo en 'Las tradiciones' de Palma''. Lima: Universidad Ricardo Palma/Universitaria, 2001.
*Chang-Rodríguez, Raquel. "Elaboración de fuentes en 'Carta canta' y 'papelito jabla lengua'". ''Kentucky Romance Quarterly'' 24.4 (1977): 433–439.
*Conway, Christopher. "Introduction". In Palma, Ricardo, ''Peruvian Traditions''. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2004: xix–xxxvii;
*Durán Luzio, Juan. "Ricardo Palma, cronista de una sociedad barroca". ''Revista Iberoamericana'' 140 (July–September 1987): 581–593.
*Leavitt, Sturgis E
"Ricardo Palma and the ''Tradiciones Peruanas'' ''Hispania'' 34.4 (November 1951): 349–353.
*Mariátegui, José Carlos. "Ricardo Palma, Lima y la Colonia". In ''siete ensayos de interpretación de la realidad peruana''. México: ERP, 1988: 218–227;
*Mariátegui, José Carlos. "Ricardo Palma, Lima and the Colony". In ''Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality''. Trans. Marjory Urquidi. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971: 195–203.
*Miró, César. ''Don Ricardo Palma: El Patriarca de las Tradiciones''. Buenos Aires: Editorial Losada, 1953.
*Moreano, Cecilia. ''Relaciones literarias entre España y el Perú: la obra de Ricardo Palma''. Prólogo de Pura Fernández. Lima, Perú: Universidad Ricardo Palma, Editorial Universitaria, 2004.
*Palma, Edith. "Ricardo Palma y sus ''Tradiciones peruanas''". ''Tradiciones peruanas completas''. Por Ricardo Palma. Madrid: Aguilar, 1964: xvii–xl
*Palma, Ricardo. ''Tradiciones peruanas''. Eds. Julio Ortega y Flor María Rodríguez-Arenas. Nanterre, France: Allca XXe, Université Paris X, 1996. This edition of the ''Tradiciones'' of Ricardo Palma contains numerous excellent articles about the author and his work.
*Puccini, Darío. "La doble oralidad y otras claves de lectura de Ricardo Palma". ''Spanish American Literature: From Romanticism to 'Modernismo' in Latin America''. Eds. David William Foster & Daniel Altamiranda. New York & London: Garland, 1997: 169–174.
*Rodríguez-Peralta, Phyllis. "Liberal Undercurrents in Palma's ''Tradiciones peruanas''". ''Spanish American Literature: From Romanticism to 'Modernismo' in Latin America''. Eds. David William Foster & Daniel Altamiranda. New York & London: Garland, 1997: 153–167.
*Stowell, Ernest
"Ricardo Palma and the Legal Profession" ''Hispania'' 25.2 (May 1942): 158–160.
*Tanner, Roy L
"The Humour Of Irony And Satire In The Tradiciones Peruanas" Columbia University of Missouri Press, 1986.
*Tauzin Castellanos, Isabelle. ''Claves de una coherencia: las "Tradiciones peruanas" de Ricardo Palma''. Lima : Universidad Ricardo Palma, 1999.
*Vargas Ugarte, Rubén
"Don Ricardo Palma y la historia" ''Journal of Inter-American Studies'' 9.2 (April 1967): 213–224.
External links
* {{Gutenberg, no=21282, name=Tradiciones peruanas
''Perú. Tradiciones'' Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library
The Miguel de Cervantes Virtual Library (MCVL; in es, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, BVMC) is a large-scale digital library project, hosted and maintained by the University of Alicante in Alicante, Spain. It comprises the largest open-acc ...
Peruvian literature
Peruvian folklore