"La Araucana" y la "Nueva novela histórica"

Abstract

In the present essay we assess the narratives of the conquest, and specifically La Araucana, in the light of Ainsa and Menton’s concept of the “New Historical Novel”. We show that this epic presents many features that characterize their definition. We conclude that if the genre of the historical novel starts from the common basis of the epic, La Araucana is the work that best reflects this transition; it no longer belongs exclusively to history or to the novel, but is one of the earliest historical novels of literature –if not the earliest– written in Spanish.