Reading Góngora's habla de negros in a Literary Attack Poem

Abstract

Abstract This article interprets and contextualizes Góngora's 1609 burlesque, black-talk sonnet “A la Jerusalén conquistada que compuso Lope de Vega.” A translation into English illuminates the poem's sense: a black reader critiques Lope's epic and alludes to an African epic superior to the Jerusalén. After clarifying Góngora's words, I argue that his implied reader recognizes black talk as an invitation to laughter at and derision of black Africans. The study then focuses specifically on black oppression related to literary composition and shows how Góngora's sonnet affirms exclusivity for white male authors. To this end, I establish parallels between Góngora's sonnet and writing by and about Juan Latino, the sixteenth-century black author of epic poetry in Latin who challenged white authorial exclusivity and became a frequently invoked exception to the rule as well as a target for racist stereotyping.