The Silk Road: amongst medieval story, historical novel and contemporary texts

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse some contemporary works that recreate the mythical path of the Silk Road and which make mention of the medieval travellers who crossed it. In particular, it will be studied how the travelogue Embajada a Tamorlán, one of the key works of hispanic medieval travel literature, influences two contemporary books. This medieval work serves as a basis and as textual reference for the historical novel by Fernando Martínez Laínez, Embajada a Samarcanda, and it inspires Miguel Silvestre, who in his travelogue Emoción del nómada declares to follow the tracks of the medieval ambassadors. In this article it is shown how the poetic narratives of these contemporary texts are conditioned or transformed, clearly or implicitly, by establishing a dialogue with the medieval story.