A Literary Atlantic

I congratulate Canizares-Esguerra for succeeding in his goal of writing a book that doesn’t fit neatly into any genre. I’m a fanboy of the Atlantic World so approached his book with all the auspices in line. Puritan Conquistadors: Iberianizing the Atlantic is a confusing title. I certainly understand his point that the literary traditions of both England and Spain (for this is what is meant by Iberia) were part of larger “Purifying” discourse, but the title seems to indicate that there is a more direct process occurring. His conclusion also led me to believe that the title is indicative of a conscious effort to upset the more northerly orientation of Atlantic World historiography.
Canizares-Esguerra’s claims that he will write with a brash style that “seek[s] to reconstruct a worldview that is equally violent, alien, and offensive to our modern sense of what is physically possible” (17). Of course this begs the question: whose world-view. And what is physically possible? Though I don’t think he really follows through on this boast, it would seem to beat odds with his final purpose: to show the Atlantic as a whole. The opposition of modern sensibilities with those of the late medieval Atlantic undermines his critique of what he terms the “exclusionary force of the Western Civilizations Narrative”. One of his fundamental claims argues for the multiplicity and melding of world-views to make a “pure” Atlantic. In this vein the book seems to follow the work of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, whom he quotes fairly often in his conclusion. Canizares-Esguerra, at least in his Introduction and Conclusion, writes with a style that is reminiscent of Armesto. Arguing, without qualification or support, that sixteenth and seventeenth century Europeans were “obsessed with demons” (31). Granted demons were a part of the “religio-literary” (not sure if this works) iconography, but I think obsessed is too strong a word. The last chapter of the book follows in this same vein, but I think, probably due to my sympathies, that it works better in that instance.
Now for the rest of the book. I have to point out first that I think its argumentative heart is in the last chapter. I often felt that he wasn’t saying anything differently throughout the book: “the people who colonized and conquered the Americas thought about their conquest in terms of an epic battle with diabolical forces, be they human, animal, vegetable, or mineral”. That being said he does a great job of detailing his “Satanic discourse,” at least in terms of Puritan England and Roman Catholic Spain. He claims that the “Satanic epic” colored the perceptions on many European countries (81), but they are conspicuously missing from the book. At least he’s honest about it in his title, but shouldn’t someone so interested in shaking up conceptions of the Atlantic World at least note the participation of others in his view of their world-view, or lack thereof. Of course if he’s responding to a preponderance of such works then my criticism is withdrawn.
A final note. I may be part of his conceptualization of the Iberians/ Puritan Atlantic, but it is interesting to note that there are no entries in the index for Spain, Portugal, Iberia, or England. A literary genre is his patient here, so I suppose I can’t fault him too much for sticking to his guns/ arqubuses?.