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SPAN 300: Cervantes' Don Quixote

Lecture 19 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters XXXVI-LIII << previous session | next session >>

Overview:

The developments of Part II of the Quixote are based and measured against Part I. In the episode of the afflicted matron, the story about Countess Trifaldi, and Clavileño, we see these expansions (the presence of love and death, the black color, the monsters, the clashing elements, the cross-dressing, the grotesque, the inclusiveness) which reach the limits of representation, in consonance with baroque aesthetics. The increasing presence of Virgil and to the Aeneid seem to point out that Don Quixote's task is somewhat equivalent to that of Aeneas, but Don Quixote's pursuit is not to found Rome, but to conquer himself. In part one we learned to look for the story behind the story, now, with all the pranks and stories made up by the duke's steward, we learn how a story is made.

Reading assignment:

González Echevarría, Cervantes' Don Quixote: A Casebook, pp. 241-264

Elliott, Imperial Spain, 1469-1716, chapter 9

Class lecture:

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