El Inca Garcilaso, "clásico de América", en las obras de José de la Riva-Agüero y Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo

Abstract

"This article contends that the intellectual success of José de la Riva-Agüero in the Peruvian field of cultural production owes itself to the collaborative relationship that he established with Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo’s Hispanist project. This relationship manifested itself through a debate regarding the historic qualities of the writings of the Inca Garcilaso, who was considered by Menéndez Pelayo, in the 1890s, to be a utopian novelist. The eventual acceptance of Riva-Agüero’s argument in favor of the historical nature of the Inca Garcilaso’s work in 1910, was decisive for both intellectuals, signifying two important moments: the meeting between the American disciple and his Spanish mentor towards the end of the latter’s life, which would guarantee the Peruvian continuation of his Hispanist project, and the beginning of Riva-Agüero’s intellectual project, backed by the cultural authority of Menéndez Pelayo."