Description:
The narrative structures of Cervantes’ masterpiece are subjected to an internal analysis of its aesthetic logic. What keeps all these episodes woven together? This approach suggests a deeper vision of Cervantes’ social critique without appealing to either Erasmianism or casticismos. Episodes such as the Helmet of Mambrino, The Galley Slaves, Penance in Sierra Morena, The highwayman Roque Guinart, The ínsula Barataria, and others, show Cervantes through an apparently greater awareness of Spanish Society. The issues of Cervantes political as well as cosmological critique, are also raised.

Along with this there is also a historiographical and critical awareness that sets these issues within a wider context which includes also Avellaneda, the author of the Counter-Quixote. Does the death of Don Quixote belong to the literature of ‘desengaño,’ or is his own death a ‘desengaño engañoso’? This raises the further critical issue: How is Cervantes’ last work, Persiles y Segismunda, to be appraised in the light of this research? A critical analysis of its aesthetic thematic structures is perceived as not only symbiotic with Part II of Don Quixote, but also in a subtle covert agreement with it. Thus, the assumption that Cervantes facing death ‘repudiated’ Don Quixote and embraced the Persiles and ‘converted’ to the Counter Reformation, ought to be at least reconsidered in the light of this Consideraciones.


INDICE:

Preliminar......xi

Prefacio......xvii

Consideracion I. Introduccion......1

Consideracion II. Critica Estetica......7

Consideracion III. Burla, Hipocresis, y Mascaras......19

Consideracion IV. Critica del Metodo......25

Consideracion V. Del Ser y No Ser de las Coasa......32

Consideracion VI. El Dragón Tricéfalo......41

Consideracion VII. Penitencia en Sierra Morena......57

Consideracion VIII. Terrosismo Magnanimo......72

Consideracion IX. Democracia y Contrautopia......81

Consideracion X. Estetica y Narrativa......85

Consideracion XI. Contrautopia como Utopia......90

Consideracion XII. El Christus Crucial......95

Consideracion XIII. La Constitucion Barataria......100

Consideracion XIV. Gobierno y Democracia......108

Consideracion XV. De la Muerte de D. Quijote......123

Consideracion XVI. El Quijote y el Persiles......136

Consideracion XVII. Conclusion......161

Bibliografia......173