GENERAL GUIDELINES TO WRITE THE SEMINARS’ SUMMARIES

BEFORE THE SEMINAR

1) What is the topic of the seminar? A description of the Canary Islands. George
Glas.
a. Brief summary of author and work: The author is Scottish and his work
is a description of the Canary Islands from the 18th century, he visited the
Canary Islands He explains in detail the people, the buildings, the customs
and the landscape of the islands.

2) In what ways does the text fit or mirror the historical period it belongs to?
a. How is it, for instance, a Renaissance/Enlightenment/Romantic text?
It belongs to the Enlightenment since is from the 18 th century. Based on
experience and real illustrations.
b. How does it follow the conventions of travel writing in that period? In
the text you can clearly see the time, the place, period, historical moment,
experiences and background of the traveler. Although travel writing is
more from the renaissance, the place is put on paper by his descriptions.
c. Why is it a relevant text? With it we can observe the vision of the Canary
Islands in that time and comprehend the customs that nowadays are
somehow lost. It also shows the perception of the Islands to others.

3) Is there anything that called your attention either because you didn’t know
it, you liked it, you hated it, or it was way too boring/difficult? The
beginning of the story was boring and repetitive, and sometimes it was a tedious
work to understand the words used for descriptions.

4) Did you have to do any previous research to prepare for the seminar?
a. Study the class notes, visited Internet sites, asked friends: I visited
some Internet sites for the bibliography of the author and checked some
class notes about the travel writing.
b. Was there any aspect not mentioned in class for which you had to do
some research? I had to do more research about the life of the author.
And about the social background although it was on the text.
 DURING THE SEMINAR
1) Interesting questions by the students (probably someone said or asked
something you hadn’t thought about; you realized that many people shared
the same doubts, liked the same parts or had the same point of view as you).
 In the story, Voltaire and Rosseau were mentioned, which gives us a hint of the
time in which the text was written, making clear that the text is from the
Enlightenment.
 The church did not allow the people from the Canary Islands to fully develop.
 Blood tribute related with economy.
 He does not talk much about Lanzarote and Fuerteventura

2) Interesting comments by the teacher (what are the points that are receiving
more attention? What lines or paragraphs of the text have received more
attention and may probably be more relevant?)
 Saints are something strange for them and they use this love of the saints by the
Spaniards to laugh at them sometimes. It was not well seen.
 The author finds the Inquisition as evil, because it limited the knowledge that
depended on if the holy church precepted that the books were profane or not.
 Blood tribute related with economy. Canarians working from the Spanish
colonies, the Spanish were “superior” and we can see how dumb and uneducated
the Canarian people were seen by the Spaniards. Trade was focus almost only on
Tenerife.
 The Spanish people used 3 reasons why they were real Spanish people:
o The were suffering a religious prosecution.
o They were true descendants of the Celts.
o They were catholic.
 The Canarian people fell in love without knowing each other, which created a lot
of unhappy marriages.

3) New information that was not in your notes (has something been mentioned
which was not in the book? Have you learnt something which had nothing to
do with the topic of the seminar?
 The Canarian inhabitants complained about the trade of the Irish and the British
in the Canary Islands.
 Mexican dollars: when he died the ship was full of Mexican dollars, which were
made of silver (really talking about silver, which was abundant on Mexico).