Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spain. Show all posts

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Camb. Spain (Novel) Chap. 10 - Generation of 1898 to the vanguard



Cambridge Companion to Spanish Novel
“Chapter 10: From the Generation of 1898 to the vanguard” – Roberta Johnson

Comps people mentioned (highlighted in blue):
-          Miguel de Unamuno (pg. 155-157)
-          Ramón del Valle-Inclán (pg. 156, 158-159)
-          Pío Baroja (pg. 156, 159-160)
-          José Ortega y Gasset (pg. 162)

Important points (highlighted in red):
-          Generation of ’98 (155-156)
-          Brief but significant flowering of the vanguard novel in Spain from 1926 until about 1934 (164-165)
-          New novelists of the period from 1900 to 1936 sought to break with the realist-Naturalist tradition (170)

General notes:
-          Period from about 1900 until the Spanish Civil War (1936-9) is often considered a second Renaissance in Spanish culture, a “Silver Age” (155)
-          Early signs of modernism in the novel (155)
-          Generation of ’98 (155-156)
o   Writers of Miguel de Unamuno’s era
o   Born at the same time as Spain somewhat belatedly entered the modern age
o   European modernists – concerned with the effects of modern life on society and the individual; expressed anxieties in the novel
o   Some major writers: Miguel de Unamuno, Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Pío Baroja, José Martínez Ruiz
o   Conscious creation of new art forms in order to distinguish literature from the precedent realist-Naturalist mode
o   Concern with existential problems rather than with “real world” issues; however, existential dilemmas are always embedded in concrete situations such as love and marriage
-          Modernist novel in Spain arose somewhat earlier than in the rest of Europe – around 1902 rather than with the onset of the First World War (156)
o   Spain entered existential crisis earlier than other parts of Europe due to a corrupt government in the 1890s and the war between Spain and U.S. in 1898 in which last colonies were lost
-          Miguel de Unamuno: Niebla, 1914 (157)
o   Unamuno’s third novel
o   Novel stripped of external descriptions and depictions of social ills and institutions
o   Introduced a metafictional element – characters discuss the process of novel-writing, specifically the kind of novel we are reading
§  “Victor Goti, friend of the main character Augusto Pérez, is writing a nivola, which he defines as having a great deal of dialogue and no plot or a plot that makes itself up as it goes along, just as life is lived” – idea of spontaneous novel
o   More metafiction – author himself appears as a character who engages in an important conversation with Augusto
§  “The wealthy August has fallen in love with Eugenia, who already has a boyfriend named Mauricio. Eugenia, disgusted with Mauricio’s suggestion that she marry Augusto but continue their relationship on the side, breaks with him and finally agrees to marry Augusto. At the last minute, however, she elopes with Mauricio and writes Augusto a devastating farewell letter. In despair Augusto decides to commit suicide, but before doing so, he travels to Salamanca to consult with Unamuno, who tells him that he cannot kill himself because he is a fictional entity. Augusto, up to this point a passive character, begins to assert himself. He determines to prove his existence by committing suicide; he eats too much for dinner and dies, leaving the reader to decide whether it was Unamuno who killed him or if he killed himself.”
-          Pío Baroja (159)
o   Relied on artistic language to convey a sense of anxiety about the modern world
o   Camino de perfección, 1902
§  New conception of novel as loosely structured, more conform to life’s unstructured path than to the traditional pattern of beginning, middle, and end
§  Influence of picaresque tradition of character moving through the world and experiencing life
o   He was Spain’s most prolific novelist of pre-Civil War period
o   El árbol de la ciencia, 1911
§  Represents Baroja’s interest in the role of science in the modern world and the relationship of writing to life
§  “Baroja, who had a medical degree and was a practicing doctor for a short time, explored through Andrés Hurtado, the protagonist of El árbol de la ciencia, the limitations of science and philosophy in dealing effectively with the basic problems of humanity – poverty, disease, immorality, and loneliness”
-           Section about feminism during the time period in Spain (160-162)
o   Not as organized and militant than in the U.S. / England
o   Women writers have been left out of literary history and the canon
o   Carmen de Burgos and Concha Espina (not on Comps list…)
-          José Ortega y Gasset (162)
o   Philosopher
o   Intellectual leader of “Generation of 1914”
o   Introduced Spain to phenomenology, a philosophy that emphasizes the way humans perceive the world around them
o   Argued against novelistic realism and in favor of narratives that encapsulate the reader in their own artistic world; wanted a new kind of fiction writing
-          “Disaffection from the Restoration monarchy reached crisis proportions by 1923 after a series of disastrous military campaigns in North Africa. To quell the unrest, King Alfonso XIII ceded governing power to General Primo de Rivera, and Spain was ruled as a military dictatorship from 1923 to 1930” (164)
-          1920s – greater cosmopolitanism in Spain (164)
-          Brief but significant flowering of the vanguard novel in Spain from 1926 until about 1934 (164-165)
o   Light, airy tone
o   Often fragmented, scenically centered narrative influenced by film techniques
o   Influences of cubism and futurism
o   Example: Ramón Gómez de la Serna (not on the list)
-          Many women writers were deeply engaged in the feminist movement in the 1920s (167)
o   Talks about a few examples of women writers, but none of the ones mentioned made it onto the list.
-          “By the late 1920s, when these writers began publishing fiction, Spain’s political stability was collapsing. Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship ended and King Alfonso XIII went into exile, opening the way for the Second Republic proclaimed in 1931. The Republic suffered wild swings between leftist radicalism and conservative background that led to the Civil War in 1936” (169)
-          New novelists of the time period from 1900 to 1936 sought to break with the realist-Naturalist tradition (170)
-          These novelists influenced later, post-Civil War novelists such as Camilo José Cela, Carmen Laforet, Ana María Matute, Luis Martín Santos, and Miguel Delibes (170)
o   Elliptical plot structures
o   Poetic language
o   Linguistic representation of thought processes

Monday, June 3, 2013

Soldados de Salamina- Javier Cercas (2001)

(There's a movie!)

From article online:
A grandes rasgos, la novela de Cercas explora los complejos hilos que controlan los actos humanos, no como la armonía impuesta por una organización colectiva, sino por la voluntad y las motivaciones, muchas veces contradictorias, de los individuos

Rafael Sánchez Mazas, un hombre cultivado, aristocrático, poeta esteticista, intelectual, ha provocado, posiblemente, junto a sus compañeros fundadores de Falange, la guerra fraticida más “triste” de todas.
(Basically, how could a group of learned people essentially "create" Spanish Fascism?

-el surgimiento de la Guerra Civil se debió en gran medida a una revuelta de corte antisocialista: una alianza de Falange (movimiento minoritario animado por fuerzas monárquicas y de vieja estirpe aristocrática), con militares y agrupaciones políticas más conservadoras.

Rafael Sánchez Mazas= antihéroe, symbolizes los intelectuales y artistas que fascinados por el poder y guiados por una ambición política (extensión equivocada de la imaginación, realización que escapa a la literatura) contribuyeron en algún momento a crear o a justificar la barbarie


Another article:
Javier Cercas decidió que el libro que iba a escribir no sería una novela sino un relato real "cosido a la realidad, amasado con hechos y personajes reales que estaría centrado en el fallido fusilamiento de Sánchez Masas y en las circunstancias que le precedieron y le siguieron".
 relata paso a paso el calvario de Sánchez Mazas que se libró de la muerte, gracias a un miliciano que le miró fijamente, cuando apenas escondido en la maleza se negó a darle el tiro de gracia. 
Masas as first, most influential Spanish Fascist. 


The Book

Part I
Father died, wife left, dropped out of school-heard about R.S.M.'s fusilamiento. Starts to write for newspaper, interviewed Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio (mixture of "aristócrata castellano avergonzado de serlo" and "viejo guerrero oriental") He was cordial, but didn't want to answer interview ?s. Finally, talks about father's fusilamiento at the end of the war, '37, fled MAD, ended up in BCN. It was a mass execution, so republicans probs didn't know they were shooting on of the founders of the Falange. He was shot, but not killed and escaped into the forest. A guy found him, had a chance to kill him, but didn't. Around that time (of the interview), the trendy thing to do was to try to vindicate falangist writers. But, was vindicating a falangist the same as vindicating the falange? No. 
Anyhoo, he recalls that Machado and RSM died around the same time- simetría y contraste entre essos hechos terribles. Mentions news article he wrote about their experiences. One guys writes a card to the paper telling of another man who survived the fusilamiento, Aguilar. The card writer works for the ajuntament of the town Banyoles because of an enchufe he has. Says he's independentista. (Nacionalismo es una idealogía/independentismo es sólo una posibilidad." Aguirre says Republicanos probs DID know who they were shooting, mentions fusilamiento could've been ordered from Servicio de Inteligencia Militar. Mentions a specific masía where his father may have gone after shooting. Aguirre wants to know if he's planning to write a novel with this info. "No. I don't write novels. And besides, this isn't a novel; it's a real story." Finds out another guy has written almost the same story, except in one version the militiaman shrugs his shoulders before leaving, in the other, he looks him in the eye. Yet, this story goes against the traditional doctrine of war, e.g. never save the life of an enemy. 
Mentions his (mexican? or maybe it's just that he's about to go on vacay to Cancún.) girlfriend (who dresses like a hooker), Conchi. During that Cancún vacay, decides to write the book. Sánchez Mazas, que estuvo siempre al lado de José Antonio y desde ese lugar supo urdir una violenta poesía patriótica que inflamó la imaginación de centanares de miles de jóvenes y acabó mandándolos al matadero, es más responsable de la victoria de las armas franquistas que todas las ineptas maniobras militares. Discusses meeting with Figueras, whose father+father's brother+father's friend became republican deserters and hid in the forest when they knew they were losing the war. They found this half-blind man in the forest, RSM, who said he was the oldest Falangist in Spain. Fig.'s father ended up in jail and family asked him to ask RSM (now a ministro) for help to get out (o sea, que la gente sabía algo de su relación...) Fig. hands over what he thinks to be RSM's diary from the forest and offers to take him to place in forest where they were hiding. Tells him his tío is still alive and he could try to talk to him. Finds out a few things reading the diary- learns there was probably some kind of contract  "un modo de formalizar la deuda que RSM tenía con quienes le habían salvado la vida." (One page torn out which seemed to be the page where he thanked them for helping out). Looks for Pere Figueras' name among a list of prisoners-doesn't find it (he's trying to verify all the facts of the story). He's thinking it might not be true, that people have just invented a mostly-unverifiable story to help mythify themselves. BUT then, librarian locates his name (poorly transcribed). Maybe it was all true. Tells Conchi about it, she thinks it's a great idea to write a book. Goes to visit Figueras. Someone tells him, "now I remember. RSM was going to write a book about the event called Soldados de Salamina." Angelat doesn't know if he actually wrote the book or now, but if he did, he wants to see it because he's sure it would talk about him. Cercas is excited-he has a real story for the paper.

Part Two: Soldados de Salamina. 
27 abril 1939: Pere Figueras + 8 compis sent to prison in Girona, RSM named "consejero nacional de Falange Española + some other stuff). 
RSM: esquinado (prickly), soberbio, despótico. No: mezquino ni vengativo. So his office was full of ppl looking for intercession for their jailed familiares. Asks for Joaquín Figueras, padre de Pere and Joaquin (jr.) Tells him he'll get his son out of jail. RSM's max moment of power was in that role. Father was a military doctor, grandfather was the king's medic. RSM was an excellent writer (like Zorilla, Unamuno, etc), also licenciado en derecho. Had done reporting in war of Morocco. Married Catholic italiana. Then, became a Fascist- "el instrumento idóneo para curar su nostaliga de un catolocismo imperial" y "para recomponer por la fuerza las seguras jerarquías del antiguo régimen" A way to make his poetry REAL, an impossible paradisiacal world. War, in a sense, is the time, par excellence for heroes and poets, so RSM wanted war to break out, wanted a Spanish Mussolini (channeling the panic of countless traditionalists who feared the disappearance of the monarchy). 1st attempt with Primo de Rivera. RSM responsible for rhetoric/propaganda/symbols of the Falange (used yoke and arrows, like los Reyes Católicos). In the early days, intellectuals from the left and right could still meet up at the same bars in Madrid to engage in (relatively) friendly name-calling. Falange grew, then cut off by police in 1936. RSM went to jail, allowed to leave 3 days to see new baby. Someone warns him not to come back to the jail, so he flees to Portugal-or, tries to. Militiamen ask him for ID, which he says he doesn't have because he's on a secret mission. While verifying his story, the chief dude tells him to take refuge in the Chilean Embassy, where he'll stay for 1.5 yrs. In Fall of '37, tries to flee. Gets plugged in with a group called Quinta Columna. Later, jailed on a boat called Uruguay. Manages to avoid the death penalty and two days before Franco's troops arrive in BCN, doesn't know if he'll be freed or executed. In another jail. Food is scarce, conditions are bad. They're told they're going to work in an aviation field in Banyoles, but RSM think it's a cover. Realizes he can escape because he's 5th in line. Can't escape from behind because that's where the bullets will come from, nor the left nor the front, but sí a la derecha, en los pinos. He runs into the woods just a little bit and hides. He stands up and dum dum dummm, a soldier is looking at him. Without compassion or hate or disdain, the soldier doesn't shoot. Then, he goes looking for a more permanent shelter, ends up at masía. María, 26, farmer's daughter, sees him first, offers him food. He finds it more important to not die of food/cold than delación (denunciation). He tells them he's a leader of the Falange. They show him where he can stay, offer to feed him. Republican soldiers (the Figueras brothers + 1 other) come up to him...he tells him, yet again, the truth. A little bit of background about the Figueras (basically, they're tired of war...might be desertors, too). Basically, RSM says, you all help me now and when the nationalists win, I'll make sure you all are alright. One night, Angelats saw Joaquim sleeping, but not Pere or RSM. They were outside smoking. Blah blah. A few days later, nationalists arrive. RSM, thus, is in the clear. he refers to them as his amigos del bosque. María would keep writing to RSM, who always responded, interceding for her friends. RSM never saw Pere, Angelats, Joa again ...but they saw him. Falangist dreams become "aguachirle gazmoños, previsible, y conservador". flagrant discrepancy between vision and reality. RSM becomes leader of RAE. Dismissed because he wouldn't go to Franco's meetings. Imagen de hombre íntegro y reacio a las vanidades del poder. Lo más probable es que sea falsa. Basically, even though things don't pan out he says, "ni me arrepiento, ni me olvido." Rafael Sanchez Ferlosio, his son, wrote El Jarama (WOAH). Also, he was a member of a bourgeois upper class that he wanted to protect. He is rich. y punto. Died in 1966. "la literatura y la plentitud son incompatibles. Hoy poca gente de acuerda de él y quizá lo merece.". 

Part 3: 
Cita en Stockholm  
finished writing Soldados sooner than he expected. Thought the book would take a life of it's own bc "uno no escribe acerca de lo que quiere, sino de lo que puede", also thought RSM would be the nucleo of the book. I read the finished prouduct and it wasn't bad, it was just unfinished. Conchi gives a shallow response (in keeping with her hookeresque character)- "told you not to write about a facha!" Starts a job at the paper in which he interviews many ppl. Interviews Chilean writer who says Cercas isn't such a bad writer. This writer lived through Allende/Pinochet. First, he really hated Allende. Now, he thinks of him as a heroe, aka someone who thinks they're a hero and they're right or someone who understands that a hero is someone that doesn't kill or lets themself be killed. RSM never killed and sometimes he thought of himself as a hero. Bolaño says a decent person is not the same as a hero. There is something blind and irrational in a hero. Bolaño and Cercas meet for lunch the next day, keep talking (B invites him for lunch frequently). They have lots of deep convos about writers and writing and memory, etc. B. is diagnosed with fatal disease, tells Cercas this story about Miralles. Met this guy at a campsite (for "proletariats"). His body is covered in scars (it's 1978), got drunk frequently. Tells him in Fall '36, was in a Republican batallion (though before the war, he was a-political). He was ok with the anarchists at the beginning of the war, but the chaos they were creating wasn't helping the Republican side. So, in the summer of '37, the anarchists were "liquidated". In Feb. '39, M. crossed the border to France, where a concentration camp was awaiting them (WHAT?!?) So, he joined the French legion and went to Africa to fight against the Axis powers in WWII. Ends up joining Montgomery. Goes to Normandy, too. Strictly volunteer division- 7 años sin parar de luchar. Makes it through Austria/Germany. Steps on a mine...yet he didn't die! In the end, he becomes a French citizen with a pension for life. Got married/lived in Dijon. Had a daughter named María, who Bolaño met at the campsite. Miralles started to sleep with a prostitute named Luz, got so drunk/sad when she wasn't around. One night, B. hears soft music playing, gets up and sees Luz and M. dancing a sad paso doble. The summer ended, said their goodbyes and B never saw M again. Cercas wants to write down their story (as long as B. hadn't already, which he hadn't). Then, Cercas has the revalation he should ask Bolaño about RSM. Cercas wonders if Miralles could be the militiaman who saved RSM. Tries to call campsite to ask for his info; no dice. Makes more phone calls. Cercas now wants to talk to this guy even more than he wants to finish the book. Bolaño tells him it's better just to invent a Miralles. But, C is insistant and calls for info on 81 residencias. Finally reaches a man named Miralles. When he starts to question him, Miralles says, "no one ever thanked me for fighting for Spain. A war is a war." (basically, he's upset, maybe feeling accused). Miralles says "those historias aren't interesting" and gives Cercas a message for B to remember "stockton". B. explains the movie to C, "nosotros íbamos a acabar igual, fracasados y solos" like the characters in the movie. C. goes to Dijon.  Miralles starts to talk to C. about guarding the [enemy] men, "peces gordos". He knew RSM was there. Says if they would've been able to kill RSM, would'v have "ahorrado la guerra". FINALLY Miralles says that RSM survived thanks to a soldier of Lister. war as full of historias novelescas**(sounds like that other book- reality/fiction) Mir: "there are no heroes in times of peace. real heroes are born in the war and die in the war". Talks about his friends who died and gets sad. Miralles wants C. to come back and visit. Tells him RSM knew the soldier that saved him, yet still says it wasn't him. ends with Cercas on the train, reflecting about writing his book. 

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Don Quijote: Cervantes (1605, 1615)


Sobre el autor  y la obra
-          Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
o   Vida: 1547-1616
o   Novelista, poeta, y dramaturgo
o   Sirvió en el ejército; durante su servicio fue cautivo por cinco años. Regresó al trabajo de la escritura más tarde en su vida.
-          La obra
o   Una de las obras más famosas en el mundo entero, vista como una de las mejores obras de ficción escrita hasta la fecha – una de las obras más influénciales en la literatura del mundo entero
o   La influencia en el lenguaje español
o   Es una sátira de las novelas de caballería y una exploración de humanidad
o   Fue publicada en dos partes

Personajes
-          For a more complete character list and character analysis, see SparkNotes.
-          Alonso Quijano = Don Quijote de La Mancha – the protagonist of the novel; he’s a retired country gentleman almost 50 years old that is obsessed with books of chivalry; he goes crazy and takes on persona of “Don Quijote” and goes off to seek adventures. He is brave, obsessed with chivalry, and determined.
o   The novel’s tragicomic hero. Don Quixote’s main quest in life is to revive knight-errantry in a world devoid of chivalric virtues and values. He believes only what he chooses to believe and sees the world very differently from most people. Honest, dignified, proud, and idealistic, he wants to save the world. As intelligent as he is mad, Don Quixote starts out as an absurd and isolated figure and ends up as a pitiable and lovable old man whose strength and wisdom have failed him. (SparkNotes)
-          Sancho Panza – Alonso Quijano’s neighbor, who becomes Don Quijote’s squire
o   The peasant laborer—greedy but kind, faithful but cowardly—whom Don Quixote takes as his squire. A representation of the common man, Sancho is a foil to Don Quixote and virtually every other character in the novel. His proverb-ridden peasant’s wisdom and self-sacrificing Christian behavior prove to be the novel’s most insightful and honorable worldview. He has an awestruck love for Don Quixote but grows self-confident and saucy, ending the novel by advising his master in matters of deep personal philosophy. (SparkNotes)
-          Rocinante – Don Quijote’s skinny steed (his faithful and well-loved, but old, horse)
-          Aldonza Lorenzo = Dulcinea del Toboso – the unsuspecting neighboring farm girl that Don Quijote names his lady love
o   While she is central in the novel, she never actually appears as a physical character (SparkNotes)
-          Alonso’s niece
-          Alonso’s housekeeper
-          Dapple – Sancho’s donkey
-          Cide Hamete Benengeli -  The fictional writer of Moorish decent from whose manuscripts Cervantes supposedly translates the novel. Cervantes uses the figure of Benengeli to comment on the ideas of authorship and literature explored in the novel and to critique historians. Benengeli’s opinions, bound in his so-called historical text, show his contempt for those who write about chivalry falsely and with embellishment.
-          Cervantes -  The supposed translator of Benengeli’s historical novel, who interjects his opinions into the novel at key times. Cervantes intentionally creates the impression that he did not invent the character of Don Quixote. Like Benengeli, Cervantes is not physically present but is a character nonetheless. In his prologues, dedications, and invention of Benengeli, Cervantes enhances the self-referential nature of the novel and forces us to think about literature’s purpose and limitations.
-          The duke and duchess – they delight in manipulating Quixote, knowing his madness. They are introduced in Part Two, Chapter XXX

Resumen básico
(There are more detailed summaries on Wikipedia and SparkNotes. I noted the main structure/ideas here).
Part 1: Alonso Quijano is obsessed with books of chivalry. He goes a bit crazy and takes all of the fictional content of the books to be true, and wishes to go out as a knight errant in search of adventure. He takes on all the necessary components of his new persona (knightly name Don Quijote, faithful steed Rocinante, and lady love Dulcinea) and goes off to perform chivalric deeds. He’s actually quite a nuisance in his attempts to be a great knight, and is returned home and put to bed after being knocked unconscious in a severe beating. Although his family/friends burn his books while he’s knocked out, when Alonso wakes up he’s still determined to be the knight Don Quijote, and takes on the “squire” Sancho Panza (his neighbor) and goes off to his “adventures,” the most famous of which is his attack on windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants. After many adventurers, he finally heads home.
Part 2: Alonso/Quijote and Sancho are aware of the book published about them and are now quite famous. The duo encounter some strangers (a Duke and Duchess), who begin to deceive and manipulate Don Quijote for entertainment. This part is a significantly darker account of the rest of Quijote’s adventures, in which the element of deception is much stronger. Toward the end, Quijote becomes starts to become sane again, and when he is “conquered” in a battle, he heads home, where he falls into a deathly illness. One day he awakes from a dream having fully recovered his sanity, and he recognizes his true identity as Alonso Quixano, apologizes for any harm he has caused, and orders that his niece be disinherited if she marries a man who reads books of chivalry.

Important critical ideas/thoughts
-          Sources/inspirations for the novel
o   Amadís de Gaula (very famous throughout the 16th century)
o   Tirant lo Blanch (a romance written by the Valencian knight Joanot Martorell and published in 1490 – “Tirant the White,” one of the best known medieval works of literature in Valencian)
o   Orlando Furioso (Italian epic poem published in 1532 by Ludovico Ariosto; Orladin’s unrequited love which leads to his madness)
o   The Golden Ass (published in antiquity by Apuleius; focus on protagonist’s desire to see and practice magic and his accidental transformation into an ass)
o   Cervantes’s own experiences as a galley slave in Algiers
-          Publication of spurious “Second Part” by Avellaneda
o   Some dude, Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda, published a second part to Cervantes’s novel (before Cervantes did), in which he gratuitously insulted Cervantes
o   Cervantes took offense and responded – he subtly criticized Avellaneda in the prologue to his own, true second part, and included several subtle digs at him in the second part of his novel
-          Other stories
o   Cervantes includes several extra stories/tales within the story of Quijote and Sancho. These tales are narrated by the various picaresque figures that the two main characters encounter during their travels.
o   There are less of these tales in part two, as many criticized the frequency of these digressions in part one.
-          Language/Spelling/Pronunciation
o   Cervantes uses two types of Spanish. Don Quijote speaks Old Castilian, to show his knightly character – he uses the same language used in the chivalric books. The other characters use more modern Spanish. This “language barrier” makes it hard for the other characters to understand Quijote sometimes.
o   The novel had a huge influence on the modern Spanish language.
§  Formation of idioms/clichés
o   Use of puns in character’s names
§  Rocinante (the horse) – means “a reversal”
§  Dulcinea (lady love) – means “an allusion to illusion”
-          Various different interpretations of the work
o   Parody of the chivalric romantic novels of his time (generally accepted truth)
o   Cervantes was attacking the Catholic church, the Spanish inquisition, and the ruling Catholic Spanish nobility (Professor Tariq Ali)
o   Radical nihilism and anarchy; preference of the glory of fantasy over t he real world (Harold Bloom)
o   Desire to move people into emotion using a systematic change of course, on the verge of both tragedy and comedy at the same time (Edith Grossman)
-          Characterization
o   Quijote and Sancho are opposites
§  Quijote: tall, thin, fancy-struck, and idealistic
§  Sancho: fat, squat, world-weary
o   Hero and sidekick duo
o   Sancho and Quijote are foil characters. “Whereas Don Quixote is too serious for his own good, Sancho has a quick sense of humor. Whereas Don Quixote pays lip service to a woman he has never even seen, Sancho truly loves his wife, Teresa. While Don Quixote deceives himself and others, Sancho lies only when it suits him.” (SparkNotes)
o   “Sancho’s perception of Don Quixote informs our own perception of him, and we identify and sympathize with the bumbling Sancho because he reacts to Don Quixote the way most people would. Through Sancho, we see Don Quixote as a human being with an oddly admirable yet challenging outlook on life.” (SparkNotes)
-          Influence on the world
o   Influenced literature ever since
o   Quijote and Sancho have become character motifs
o   Influence on Spanish language
o   Creation of many puns/sayings/clichés
-          Cervantes’s tendency to comment on nature of storytelling
o   Ex: Sancho tells a story in a very repetitive way and Don Quijote interrupts and commands him to tell the story only once. Sancho is defensive, saying he’s telling it in the traditional way of his homeland. Quijote gets bored and Sancho stops because he’s offended (Part One, Cap. XX)
§  Sancho’s idea that story is not a story unless it has a certain formal structure (clue to pay careful attention to Cervantes’s structure)

Temas/ideas importantes (del texto mismo)
-          Estilo de escritura
o   Third person narration
o   Narration from a distance – openly writing after the adventures, as though recounting a tale
o   Episodic format
-          Intertextuality
o   Cervantes makes several references to previous famous texts
o   Example: one of the books that Alonso Quixano loves is the famous chivalric novel, Amadís de Gaula
o   Example: Reference to Lazarillo de Tormes
-          Realism
o   Contrast of the “delusion” vs. the stark description of reality, particularly at the end of the novel
-          Metatheatre (reflecting comedy and tragedy simultaneously)
o   “Lionel Abel relates the character of Don Quixote as the prototypical, metatheatrical, self-referring character. He looks for situations he wants to a part of, not wating for life, but replacing reality with imagination when the world is lacking in his desires. The character is aware of his own theatricality” (Wikipedia, “Metatheatre”).
o   “Abel adds that role-playing derives from the character not accepting his societal role and creating his own role to change his destiny” (Wikipedia, “Metatheatre”).
o   Techniques of metatheatre according to Wikipedia:
§  Ceremony within a play, role-playing within a role, reference to reality, self-reference of the drama, and a play within a play
o   *The protagonist is role-playing within a role – the character Alonso Quixano takes on the role of Don Quijote
o   *Self-reference of the drama: in Part 2 of the novel, the characters are aware of the publication of Part 1
-          Genre “picaresca”
o   Episodic form (series of adventures)
o   Title is similar to a title of picaresque novel
o   Takes place over a long period of time
-          Deception / illusion / engaño
o   Don Quijote is obviously deluded (and quite a bit crazy).
o   Everyone deludes/deceives him
o   Quijote makes excuses for his own delusions
§  In the windmill scene, when the “giants” are revealed to be windmills, he says that the enchanter (his enemy) changed them just after he attacked them (Part One, Chapter IV)
§  In a scene in which he kills several sheep, thinking they are knights, he again uses the same tactic, saying that a sorcerer turned the armies into sheep in the midst of battle to thwart his efforts (Part One, Chapter XVIII)
o   In Part 2, even faithful Sancho deceives him (example: when Quijote demands that he bring him Dulcinea, he brings in three shabby women and says they are Dulcinea and her two maids in waiting. They are shabby due to an “enchantment”)
-          Clase social
o   Distinction between class and worth
§  Contrast between Sancho (lower class but kind and thoughtful) and Duke and Duchess (upper class but cruel)
o   Cervantes criticizes class structure in Spain, “where outmoded concepts of nobility and property prevailed even as education became more widespread among the lower classes. The arrogance of the Duke and Duchess in the Second Part highlights how unacceptable Cervantes found these class distinctions to be” (SparkNotes)
o   “Through Sancho, Cervantes critiques the ill-conceived equation of class and worth. Though Sancho is ignorant, illiterate, cowardly, and foolish, he nonetheless proves himself a wise and just ruler, a better governor than the educated, wealthy, and aristocratic Duke.” (SparkNotes)
o   Sancho tells his wife  that he will soon be leaving with Quixote on another adventure. Teresa warns Sancho not to dream too much and to be content with his station. Sancho replies that he wants to marry off his daughter and make her a countess. Teresa objects to this plan, saying that people are happier when they marry within their own class (Part Two, Chap. V)
-          Metafiction
o   Cervantes says he is recounting/translating this story from an old manuscript. He often mentions problems in the original manuscript, or says that the manuscript has been ruined or cut off in places.
§  A key example of this is in Part One, at the end of chapter VIII and beginning of Chapter IX, when the historical account from which he is working “cuts off” and so the action (a great battle) is interrupted and then re-continued when Cervantes finds another manuscript (in the following chapter).
o   “In the second section, Cervantes informs us that he is translating the manuscript of Cide Hamete Benengeli and often interrupts the narration to mention Benengeli and the internal inconsistencies in Benengeli’s manuscript. Here, Cervantes uses Benengeli primarily to reinforce his claim that the story is a true history. In the third section, however, Cervantes enters the novel as a character—as a composite of Benengeli and Cervantes the author. The characters themselves, aware of the books that have been written about them, try to alter the content of subsequent editions. This complicated and self-referential narrative structure leaves us somewhat disoriented, unable to tell which plotlines are internal to the story and which are factual. This disorientation engrosses us directly in the story and emphasizes the question of sanity that arises throughout the novel. If someone as mad as Don Quixote can write his own story, we wonder what would prevent us from doing the same. Cervantes gives us many reasons to doubt him in the second section. In the third section, however, when we are aware of another allegedly false version of the novel and a second Don Quixote, we lose all our footing and have no choice but to abandon ourselves to the story and trust Cervantes. However, having already given us reasons to distrust him, Cervantes forces us to question fundamental principles of narration, just as Quixote forces his contemporaries to question their lifestyles and principles. In this way, the form of the novel mirrors its function, creating a universe in which Cervantes entertains and instructs us, manipulating our preconceptions to force us to examine them more closely.” (SparkNotes)
-          Honor
o   “Don Quixote’s obsession with his honor leads him to do battle with parties who never mean him offense or harm” (SparkNotes)
-          Symbols (according to SparkNotes)
o   Books and manuscripts – importance and influence of fiction and literature
o   Horses – symbolize movement and status; often denote a character’s worth or class
§  Rocinante and Dapple
o   Inns – meeting places for people of all classes
-          Love
o   Quijote is obsessed with Dulcinea
o   Quijote claims that all knights errant are in love, even if they do not show it (Part One, Chapter XIII)
o   Chrysostom and Marcela – C fell in love with M for her beauty and wrote numerous depressing poems about her before his suicide due to her cruelty. Fact is M is pretty but was quite articulate in her rejection of him due to chastity, so C was the idiot. (Part One, Chapters XII-XIV)
-          Gender
o   “With the exception of Dorothea, the women in the First Part of Don Quixote are weak-willed, subservient creature who rely on their husbands as masters… men revere women for their beauty and their chastity, but women remain mere objects over whom men fight or drive themselves insane” (SparkNotes)
-          Religion
o   Cervantes brings up religion by mentioning Benengeli’s praise of Allah and Sancho’s suggestion that he and Don Quixote try to become saints (towards beginning of Part Two). The novel repeatedly touches on the importance of being a Christian in Cervantes’s Spain. Cervantes often brings up religion in reference to Sancho, who Cervantes says is an old Christian and whose wise aphorisms often stem from Christian sources. The captive’s earlier tale about the Moor Zoraida’s passionate longing to convert to Christiantity and subsequent baptism makes Zoraida appear to be a good and beautiful woman. This depiction of the essential goodness within Zoraida despite her Moorish heritage contrasts with Cervantes’s and his characters’ dismissal of her Moorish countrymen as liars and cheats. Moreover, in the discussion on the way to Chrysostom’s funeral, in Chapter XIII, Don Quixote compromises his extreme faith in chivalric traditions in order to allow knights-errant to praise God. Christianity, then, unlike most of the social customs of the times, receives a positive and somber treatment in the novel and stands alone as the one major subject Cervantes does not treat with a mordant, ironic tone. Here, at the beginning of the third expedition, Cervantes treats Christianity with more reverence than at any other point in the novel. (SparkNotes)
Key scenes
-          Don Quixote hears crying and finds a farmer whipping a young boy. The farmer explains that the boy has been failing in his duties; the boy complains that his master has not been paying him. Don Quixote, calling the farmer a knight, tells him to pay the boy. The boy tells Don Quixote that the farmer is not a knight, but Don Quixote ignores him. The farmer swears by his knighthood that he will pay the boy. As Don Quixote rides away, satisfied, the farmer flogs the boy even more severely. (Part One, Chapter IV)
-          Windmill scene: Don Quixote and Sancho come to a field of windmills, which Don Quixote mistakes for giants. Don Quixote charges at one at full speed, and his lance gets caught in the windmill’s sail, throwing him and Rocinante to the ground. Don Quixote assures Sancho that the same enemy enchanter who has stolen his library turned the giants into windmills at the last minute. (Part One, Chapter VIII)
-          The narrator suddenly declares that the historical account from which he is working (translating) “cuts off” and so the action (a great battle) is interrupted and then re-continued when Cervantes finds another manuscript (in the following chapter). (Part One, Chapter VIII)
-          Quijote mixes ingredients into a famous “Balsam” and drinks the potion, which makes him vomit but feel better the next morning. Sancho also takes the potion and gets ill, and feels no better. Quijote explains the balsam does not work on Sancho because he’s a squire, not a knight. (Part One, Chapter XVII)
o   SparkNotes analysis: The graphic accounts of Don Quixote’s and Sancho’s vomiting constitute Cervantes’s basest humor. Cervantes later justifies the inclusion of such bawdy episodes, stating that a successful novel contains elements that appeal to all levels of society. This crude humor seems out of place, especially when compared to the delicate humor of Sancho’s story in Chapter XX. Critics often focus on this disparity, but Cervantes may be using this contrast to draw our attention to the differences between romantic ideals and reality. He highlights reality by emphasizing its physical aspects, reminding us about the inconsistency between the way things play out in Don Quixote’s dreams and the way they play out in the real world.
Don Quixote’s explanation for why the Balsam of Fierbras does not work for Sancho underscores the characters’ perception of class and privilege. Don Quixote seems to believe that bad things cannot happen to knights because they belong to a higher class, one that the mundane world cannot touch. The fact that he persistently attributes all of his misfortunes to an enchantment emphasizes his faith that mortal forces cannot touch him. This class distinction extends to gentlemen as well, who play by a different set of rules than members of the lower class. Cervantes’s attitude toward such class distinctions appears mixed: even though Cervantes includes numerous classist remarks, he pokes fun at Don Quixote’s claim of being separate and superior. Ultimately, Cervantes undercuts the idea that one’s class signifies one’s worth. He criticizes people in all classes in an effort to humanize everyone.
-          The priest and the barber try to trick Quixote into coming home by disguising themselves as a damsel in distress and her squire (Part One, Chap. XXVI-XXVII)
-          The stories of Cardenio and Dorothea
o   The story of Cardenio – “the Ragged Knight of the Sorry Countenance” – crazy naked man who fell in love with Lucinda; one of his friends, Ferdinand, fell in love with her too. Quixote interrupts his story and they fight and Cardenio refuses to finish the story. Cardenio later finishes telling his story to Sancho when they randomly meet up again. (Part One, Chap. XXIII-XXIV, XXVII)
o   Dorothea’s story – Ferdinand (same dude from Cardenio’s story) had sex with her and promised to marry her, then bailed to go marry Lucinda (Cardenio’s lady love). Dorothea wants revenge and agrees to help priest, barber, and Sancho with Quixote (Chap. XXVIII-XXX)
o   Ferdinand, Lucinda, Cardenio, and Dorothea are all reunited and they couple off into F & D and L & C – happy climax (Chap. XXXVI)
-          The story of the man who was a captive in Algiers but escaped – mirrors Cervantes’s true life captivity during his time as a soldier, and his fanciful wishes to escape at the time (Part One, Chap. XXXIX-XLI)
-          Sancho and Quixote talk about the publication of a book by a Moor (Cide Hamete Aubergine) recounting their adventures (Part Two, Chap. II)
-          Sancho tries to convince Quixote that three dirty village girls are Dulcinea and her ladies in waiting, claiming that they have been enchanted to be ugly (Part Two, Chap. X)
o   Example that shows that Sancho is able to use Quixote’s madness against him
-          An “enchanter” (hired by the Duke and Duchess) tells Sancho he must whip himself 3,300 times to rescue Dulcinea from her enchantment (Part Two, Chap. XXXV)
-          Quixote and Sancho ride on a “famous” wooden “horse,” that is supposed to take them on a flying journey to unknown lands (Part Two, Chap. XL-XLI)
-          Sancho’s “governorship” of a non-existent territory, during which he proves himself to be a very fair and good leader, despite his low social class (Part Two, Chap. XLII-XLV, XLVII, XLIX, LI, LIII)
-          Duke and Duchess release a bag of cats with bells on their tails into Quixote’s room as he composes a sonnet to Dulcinea, scaring him and ultimately injuring him as one cat attacks his face (Part Two, Chap. XLVI)
-          Mention of counterfeit sequel to the text by two random characters who have read it, it is greatly criticized by all parties (Part Two, Chap. LIX)

Article – “Manipulation of Narrative Discourse: From Amadís de Gaula to Don Quixote” – Shannon M. Polchow (JStor)
-          Abstract: There is no doubt that Miguel de Cervantes was heavily influenced by the romances of chivalry. While it is apparent that he found chivalric adventures and situations to parody in Don Quixote, he also found inspiration in their narratological structures. Current narratological studies of Don Quixote reveal that the text contains numerous narrative voices, including the extradiegetic voice of the supernarrator and the intradiegetic voices of the historian, translator, and Cide Hamete Benengeli. Looking specifically at Amadís de Gaula, one will see how these voices illustrate a common narratological link between Don Quixote and the chivalric tradition.
-          There are many side characters in Don Quixote, with their own stories to tell. These extra characters are all involved in the telling of Quijote’s own story. They have their own adventures (less violent but still as exciting as Quijote’s), which intertwine with Quijote’s huge adventure
-          Debate about who is the narrator of Don Quixote
o   First 8 chapters have a single narrative voice – however, this is suddenly interrupted when the narrator says that the manuscript he is translating doesn’t finish the story he is recounting (in the middle of a dramatic battle)
o   James A. Parr (An Anatomy of Subversive Discourse) – many narrators:
§  First voice (Chap. 1-8) is voice of the researcher/historian, who is searching for a reliable text (to translate); he is “assigned the pose of an objective observer, but he is also given the liberty of first-person commentary”
§  Second voice (that interrupts the narration at the end of chap. 8) is the “editorial voice” or the “supernarrator” – “He does not write or translate, nor is he a character within the text. He is an anonymous figure who acts primarily as the editor of the text”
§  Numerous metadiegetic narrators – characters within the text that narrate their own adventures, etc. (examples: Cardenio, Dorotea, and the Captive)
§  Second author – author introduced by the supernarrator at the end of Chapter 8, enters into narratological scene in chap. 9 and describes how he found the manuscript and had it translated by some morisco
§  Cide Hamete Benengeli – not a true narrator, but a presence. Everything that he might state is filtered through the voice of the supernarrator.
§  Dramatized author of prologue of 1605
§  SUMMARY: researcher/historian, supernarrator, metadiegetic narrators (other characters), second author, Cide Hamete Benengeli, 1st prologue author
-          The Historian (researcher) – Chapters 1-8
o   “Other versions of Don Quixote’s tale exist. His is not the first rendition of the tale, nor will it be the last.”
o   He seeks to accurately recount Don Quixote’s adventures (under pretense that Quixote truly existed)
o   The historian is not Cervantes’s invention – strategy was utilized in chivalric narrative (For example: historian figure appears in the prologue of Amadís de Gaula) – idea of the desire to preserve and maintain old texts, and create a more reliable version for future readers
-          The translator (the morisco)
o   Translator does not appear in the text, but his comments are filtered through the supernarrator
o   Idea of translation is present in libros de caballerías also – idea that this strategy gives the texts a more authoritative grounding as researched accounts
-          Cide Hamete Benengeli
o   “Cide Hamete is not a narrator for he never speaks directly to a narratee… His voice reaches us through that of the translator, which is in turn filtered by the supernarrator”
o   At one point, the “second author” directly cites Cide Hamete Benengeli’s translated text, thus passing his narrative responsibility over to Cide. Something similar occurs in Amadís, when a narrator hands over his narration to a fictional character.
§  In Quixote: “the narrator relates the tale of the fictional character Cide, originally in Arabic, in Don Quixote
-          The Supernarrator
o   He frequently interrupts the flow of narration in order to interject a commentary about the organizational structure of the story
§  This is especially frequent in Part Two, in which the editor/supernarrator continuously interrupts narration to alternate between simultaneous plot lines (Sancho and Quixote’s different goings-on)
o   The supernarrator also intrudes to offer his own personal interjections
§  “¡Válame Dios…!”
o   Other interruptions made to clarify the current situation
o   Sometimes appears to reaffirm his position as the true narrator of the story
§  Use of “Digo” to add authority to his voice – idea that what one reads in the text is being filtered through his perspective
-          Many narrative voices of Amadís
o   Historian/translator who also takes on editorial tasks (like Cervantes’s supernarrator)
o   Most of the narration is in third person, but a first person voice frequently interrupts. The first person voice clarifies information that he wants the reader to know.
-          *** Article’s conclusion and summary:
o   Cervantes was greatly influenced by the libros de caballerías
o   He found chivalric adventures and situations to parody in Don Quixote
o   He also appropriate the complex narratological structure of various books of chivalry
§  (especially use of historians/translators and the supernarrator or editorial voice)

Article: “Use of Madness in Cervantes and Philip K. Dick” – Kenneth Krabbenhoft (JStor)
-          Cervantes as a master of Spanish baroque fiction – “a tradition devoted to probing the relationship between the imagination and reality, madness and sanity, the telling of stories and their reception”
-          Don Quixote was the first important work of prose fiction to view reality as a kind of fiction, and fiction as a kind of reality: Don Quixote converts the world to his own point of view through the sheer force of his madness”
-          Cervantes’s use of multiple and often unreliable narrators
-          Cervantes has influenced works across the globe centuries later in the questioning of reality and the use of multiple narrators or unreliable narrators
-          Quixote is the author/creator of his own insanity – he has some control over it, yet surrenders to the fake reality that he himself has created as a better way to live
-          Quixote’s obsession with disenchanting Dulcinea reveals the Spanish hero’s way of battling injustice and evil
-          Idea that Quixote’s “madness” attracts the reader (and other characters)
o   The main characters recognize that their story has been recorded for entertainment (in Part Two, Chap. 2)
o   Quixote’s madness “doesn’t belong to him any more: it has become the shared property of his readers”
o   Now that other characters (such as Duke and Duchess) know about Quixote’s madness, they use it to manipulate him
-          Quixote’s disillusionment
o   When the Duke and Duchess’s deceitful manipulations/illusions become physically painful for Quixote (Part Two), “he begins to internalize his humiliation and despair and doubt his ability to disenchant Dulcinea”
o   Twist on Spanish baroque motif of desengaño – combination of disillusion with psychology of defeat – “making Don Quixote’s separation from his illusions tantamount to questioning his worth as knight errant”
o   Quixote’s death – both conforms to conventions of chivalric novel that Cervantes parodies, and demonstrates the bitter consequences of his disillusionment