Apu Ollantay

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The play " Apu Ollantay " is considered the classic work of colonial Peruvian Quechua literature . It was performed a lot at the Theater in Cusco in the 18th century and was rediscovered in the 19th century . The text of the play is entirely in Quechua , with no Spanish loanwords, but the storyline is heavily influenced by the Spanish drama.

Content description

The play is about the love of the Inca general , Apu Ollantay, for the daughter of the Inca Pachakutiq , Kusiquyllur (also Cusicoyllur, something like "lucky star"). This forbidden love is not without consequences, but the deserving general Ollantay applies for the hand of Kusiquyllur - and is suspended from service as general by Inka Pachakutiq because of his suggestion. Thereupon Ollantay starts a revolution from Ollantaytambo , allows himself to be proclaimed an anti-Inca and takes 10 years to prepare this revolution. Meanwhile, Kusiquyllur gives birth to her daughter Ima Sumaq in prison. Ultimately, it is the old friend Rumiñawi (stone eye) who, as an alleged political refugee, seduces the rebel army in Ollantaytambo into excessive alcohol consumption during the Inti Raymi (sun festival) and thus opens the gates to the few troops loyal to the rich. Ollantay, his general Urqu Waranqa (Orco Huaranca), the high priest Willaq Umu and the rebels are overwhelmed, arrested and brought before the Inca. This ruling Inca was no longer Pachakutiq, but Tupaq Yupanki , his successor, who pardoned Ollantay and gave him his Kusiquyllur to wife.

Lore history

There are two lines of tradition, on the one hand the tradition based on the manuscripts and on the other hand the tradition based on the oral tradition first written down in 1857.

The known manuscripts are:

  • Dominico I , edited by Johann Jakob von Tschudi . It was located in the library of the Santo Domingo Monastery in Cusco, on the foundation walls of the Sun Temple, the former main shrine of the Inca Empire.
  • The Justiniani manuscript , which is in the National Library in Lima and, according to the information provided by the British traveler Clement Markham, is a copy of the original text by Valdez, who wrote the text at the time of Markham's stay in Cusco in 1853 as a friend of the revolutionary Tupac Amaru II and author of the text was true. This revolution took place in 1780–82.
  • The Sararaura manuscript by Gavino Pacheco Zegarra was probably used for his edition of the drama. This edition from 1871 includes as an appendix the edition of Oral Tradition, which appeared in the small newspaper El museo erudito o los tiempos y las costumbres in 1837 .
  • The Dominico II manuscript edited by Teodoro L. Meneses.

interpretation

According to the state of research, the drama belongs to the Spanish comedy or tragicomedy tradition founded by Calderón de la Barca . But this still does not explain the oral tradition and certain things in the drama itself that require prior knowledge of a prehistory, as, for example, Medea requires Euripides to have at least a limited knowledge of the Argonautica as a prehistory. From the anthropological standpoint of myth research, Alejandro Ortiz Rescaniere's interpretation of the Andean subtext in the drama : El Quechua y el Aymará (Madrid 1992) should still be valid. In the meantime, evidence has surfaced that the drama is actually based on the official account of history handed down to Spanish chroniclers by the imperial aristocrats, and contains suppressed events around the reign of Pachakutiq.

literature

Editions of the drama Apu Ollantay

  • Johann Jakob von Tschudi (Ed.): Ollanta. An old Peruvian drama from the Kechua language . K. Gerolds Sohn, Vienna 1875 (text of the drama in two languages ​​Quechua-German on pages 62–135 , PDF 17 MB ).
  • Julio Calvo Pérez (Ed.): Ollantay - Edición Crítica de la Obra Anónima Quechua [Anónimo]. Centro Bartolomé de las Casas: Cusco (Peru) 1998 (Orig. With Spanish translation)
  • Jesús Lara (ed.): Ollanta - drama quechua del tiempo de los inkas [Anónimo]. Trad. by Jesús Lara. Libr. Ed. "Juventud", La Paz 1971 (original with Spanish translation)

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