Lecture by Sizen Yiacoup (University of Liverpool) "Of Borders & Betrayal: Remembering the Reconquest of Spain in the Castilian Frontier Ballads"

 "Of Borders & Betrayal: Remembering the Reconquest of Spain in the Castilian Frontier Ballads." 

The Spanish frontier ballads famously present the latter stages of the conflict between Castile and Al-Andalus from a Muslim perspective, frequently employing pathos to engage the emotions of the audience and underscore the tragedy of loss through conquest. Basing its critical approach on the Aristotelian premise that the explicit objective of pathos is to awaken emotion in the audience so as to induce them to make the judgment desired, this presentation will examine some of the ways in which grief and guilt are expressed and assigned in two frontier ballads, Moraima and The Conquest of Alhama, both of which draw their emotional force from the personal tragedies induced by the wider conflict of the Reconquest.