Spanish I: Peninsular Literature Before 1700

Session Organizer: Deborah Skolnik
University of Chicago
d-skolnik@uchicago.edu

Érase que se era...: Sancho Panza y la tradición oral

A don Quijote se le secó el cerebro de tanto leer y sus lecturas caballerescas le inspiran a tomar por suyo el oficio de la caballería andante. Siguiendo las convenciones literarias de su género predilecto, se encuentra con personajes de otros tipos de novelas, e interpreta sus experiencias de acuerdo al criterio de los textos que tan bien conoce. Es un caso en extremo de lo que Leo Spitzer llama la influencia que el libro tiene sobre la vida. Somos formados en gran parte de los textos que consumimos. El hecho de que Sancho Panza sea analfabeto no lo libera de este tipo de influencia. El también es formado de textos; textos de la tradición oral. Tanto las convenciones que Sancho sigue para contar sus propias historias como los refranes que pronuncia a cada rato e, inclusive, los personajes que conoce en Barataria proceden de la “oralidad.” Fijémonos ahora en esta faceta del Quijote.

Nicole Bach
Jefferson College
nbach@jeffco.edu

The Duality of Passion and Suffering in Francisco de Quevedo’s Poetry

This essay will analyze the dual nature of love—passion and suffering—that evokes the artistic inspiration as well as erotic frustration, in Quevedo’s poetry. On one hand, this Spanish poet does not merely imitate the Petrarcan Neo-Platonic movement of his time, while focusing more on carnal desire. On the other, he also takes advantage of pain inflicted by love. Frustration of love does not become intensified, not due to unrequited love, but due to the physical absence of female lover. This lack of female figure inspires Quevedo in his poetic creation and at the same time leads him into implicit autoeroticism. Therefore, instead of transcendentalizing women, the poet employs a number of sensual and at times burlesque elements to portray his lovers. It is quite intriguing to study how passion and suffering is represented in Quevedo’s contradictory poetry of love.

Yonsoo Kim
Boston College
kimym@bc.edu

Jonah’s Whale and Converso Redemption in the Guzmán de Alfarache II

References to the Book of Jonah surface in liminal episodes of the Guzmán de Alfarache II (1604), when the pícaro must decide whether to continue on the path of corruption that the text associates with his converso background or to choose spiritual renewal. For most of the novel, he elects the former—reminders of the storm and the whale while serving the ambassador in Rome and on the way back to Spain only reinforce the dire prediction that Guzmán will never seek the repentance provided by Jonah’s example, mired in the textual implications of inherited Jewish traits along with the perceptions of his New Christian ancestry. The stark contrasts between the confessions of the pícaro during his galley conversion and Jonah’s prayer for forgiveness in the whale seem to indicate that Guzmán will remain a lost soul, but another reference to the biblical story at the very end of the conversion chapter hints that he has the capacity for spiritual change one day. In this way, the Guzmán de Alfarache II reinforces the concept of universal grace promoted at the Council of Trent while still defining conversos by negative characteristics supposedly passed along through Jewish bloodlines.

Deborah Skolnik
The University of Chicago
d-skolnik@uchicago.edu