Book of seven seeds
Abstract
The Book of Seven Seeds is a collection of historical fiction short-stories centered around the transition of medieval-Islamic Spain to Catholic Spain. As additional material, there are two maps that I created to highlight various themes within the story. One metaphor which is Spain is Granada which both refers to the name of the last city conquered by the Catholics to unify Spain, and the fruit it translates too which is pomegranate. The other map is an artistic representation of what I interpret the ancient City of Tenochtitlan may have looked like. There are seven of these short stories which mimic the style of Miguel de Cervantes in his infamous novel Don Quixote, where Cervantes uses seven interpolated stories to make political commentary. Since Cervantes uses humor by using modern slang in a historical context, I decided to also use modern humor and themes throughout the thesis. These stories take various perspectives as it pertains to time, gender, religion, location, and economic situation. This is to draw differing perspectives on various historical events as an everyday person may have experienced the event. The events in history were chosen to visit the unique moments of Spanish history such as the conquering of the City of Granada, the execution of Christians in the City of Cordoba, the conquering of the City of Tenochtitlan, and more. There are also various characters and situations that are a nod to Don Quixote, such as gypsies, windmills, giants, and sheep.