Arms and Letters: Military Life Writing in Early Modern Spain by Faith S. Harden (review)

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Reviewed by:

• Arms and Letters: Military Life Writing in Early Modern Spain by Faith S. Harden
• Luis F. Avilés

Faith S. Harden. Arms and Letters: Military Life Writing in Early Modern Spain. U OF TORONTO P, 2020. 188 PP.

THIS BOOK analyzes a select number of autobiographies written by soldiers in early modern Spain, with a special emphasis on the literary and social forces that contributed to their authorial self-fashioning. The constitution of a first-person narrative voice depended upon several factors. Faith Harden's approach focuses on the central role played by honor in the writing of a soldier's experiences, at times imposing limits while at others promoting creativity and nuance. This allowed soldiers of lower social rank to infuse dignity in their writings even when their deeds were questionable. Honor was highly important for soldiers whose purpose was to receive a reward, enhance their stature, or simply produce a spectacle of their own self. Harden proposes that the fashioning of a self depended on a creative understanding of honor as a public extension of the author's lived experiences in a complex economy of benefits, recognition, rewards, pleasure, social mobility, and the dangers of public self-exposure. Another factor crucial for fashioning an authorial voice was the diversity of genres available. Harden convincingly traces genres such as chivalric romances, lives of martyrs, military treatises, legal testimonies, and the picaresque novel, among others. She documents very well the variety of ways in which these genres were incorporated into soldiers' autobiographies. Harden makes a strong argument for the importance of taking into account all the forces (literary, material, social, and sexual) that intervene in the creation of the written self.

Chapter 1 is devoted to Diego García de Paredes's (1468–1533) Breve Suma, giving an account of how he was able to appropriate and transform the negative perspective of the mercenary soldier into a record of experiences that are worthy of emulation. Harden focuses on the way García de Paredes emphasizes his strong sense of personal honor and camaraderie towards other soldiers, effectively counteracting the negative perception of mercenary soldiers by prospective readers. For this soldier-autobiographer, individuality and loyalty to himself and his fellow comrades was more important than obeying superiors. Harden identifies a shifting articulation of exemplarity as well, arguing that García de Paredes proposes himself as a heroic model for other soldiers. Exemplarity also stems from the chivalric code and how [End Page 423] it was appropriated by soldiers like Paredes, who were from lower social strata. Harden provides a lucid account of the idiosyncratic way in which the author makes use of the chivalric code, as for example, when he is implicated in various acts of intense violence, or when he demonstrates his lack of refinement towards women.

In chapter 2 Harden focuses on what she describes as the "petitionary mode of life writing" (21) in the works of Diego Suárez Corvín (1552–1623) and Domingo de Toral y Valdés (1598–1635). The petitionary mode is characterized by a relationship of inequality between the writer and the intended receiver of the text. Thus, writing is meant to be a service that provides some worthwhile knowledge obtained though experience and study. For example, Harden argues that Suárez Corvín displays his own intellectual capacity, promotes truthfulness and credibility above fiction, and demonstrates moderation and sexual self-control, distancing himself from the traditional image of the unruly soldier. Exiled to what he considers a "forgotten frontier" (55), Suárez Corvín turns into a historian, providing a new perspective on the North African campaigns. In the case of Toral, his Relación de la vida (1635) proposes rational self-control as an exceptionally positive attribute that generates authority. The text is highly critical of the Spanish military and, in consequence, conveys a deep hopelessness for the future. Harden contextualizes Toral's critique and his emotional distress by paying close attention to stoicism, a masculine paradigm characterized by control, integrity, and self-mastery. Toral is critical of promotions based on birth instead of experience and merit. For Harden, both autobiographies fail in their attempt to gain material rewards...