Don Quixote
Description
Close reading and analysis of Don Quixote along with selected works form the Novelas ejemplares and the Entremeses. This course will focus on questions of literary, linguistic, cultural, and historical heterogeneity in Don Quixote. Drawing on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, we will examine the Quixote as an example of “heteroglossia,” i.e. as a work situated within a context of multiple, competing, and transitional discourses. We will examine the social and historical context of Cervantes’ ployglot universe, and we will look at the Quixote as a dialectical response to pre-existing literary forms. From an aesthetic perspective we will focus on Don Quixote as an example of the European baroque. Along with the works of Cervantes, we will read selections from major Renaissance works inside of Spain and outside, including Erasmus’ Praise of Folly, Montaigne’s Essais, the Lazarillo de Tormes, and El Abencerraje. Students will be required to complete a final paper for the course and to present an in-progress report during the course of the semester.
Syllabus
Week 1, August 29
Introduction: Reading Don Quixote
Course method, aims, and requirements
For historical background, consult: Barry Ife, “The Historical and Social Context” (in Cambridge Companion)
Week 2, Sept. 5
DQ, I: ch. 1-8
Ramón Menéndez-Pidal, “The Genesis of Don Quixote” (in Casebook)
Lloréns, “La intención del Quixote” (in reader)
Primera salida
El escrutinio de los libros
La identidad de Don Quixote
Week 3, Sept. 12
DQ, I: ch. 9-16
Castro, “El cómo y el por qué de Cide Hamete Benengeli”(in reader)
Wardropper, “Don Quixote: Story or History?” in Casebook
Cascardi, “Secularization and Literary Self-Assertion in Don Quixote” (in reader)
Don Quixote y los cabreros
Marcela y Grisóstomo
Maritornes
Week 4, Sept. 19
DQ, I: ch.16-26
Spitzer, “Linguistic Perspectivism in the Don Quijote” (in Casebook)
Los rebaños
El cuerpo muerto; los encamisados
Los galeotes y Ginés de Pasamonte
Discurso sobre la edad de oro
El cuento de Lope Ruiz y Torralba (Sancho)
Don Quixote en Sierra Morena
Cardenio
Versos de Don Quixote a Dulcinea
La estrategia del Barbero y del Cura
Week 5, Sept. 26
DQ, I: ch. 27-32
Lazarillo de Tormes
Rico, “Vuestra Merced recibe una carta” (in reader)
El Cura, el Barbero, y el disfraz
El informe de Sancho sobre Dulciunea
Las historias de Cardenio, Luscinda, Fernando, y Dorotea
Don Quixoe escribe a Dulcinea
Week 6, October 3
DQ, I: ch. 33-38
Cervantes, Novelas ejemplares: “El Celoso extremeño”
Cervantes, Entremeses: “El juez de los divorcios”; “El viejo celoso”
Historia del “Curioso impertinente”
Week 7, October 10
DQ, I: ch. 39-52
McKeon, “Cervantes and the Disenchantment of the World” (in reader)
Historia del Cautivo y de Zoraida
Discursos teóricos; novela y “romance”
Leandra y Vicente de la Rosa
Don Quixote vuelve a casa
Week 8, October 17
DQ, II: ch. 1-13
Cascardi, “Cervantes and the Invention of the Novel” (in Cambridge Companion)
Sansón Carrasco
Sancho y Teresa Panza
“Dulcinea”
Week 9, October 24
DQ, II: ch. 14-24
Montaigne, Essais (photocopy)
El Caballero del Verde Gabán
En la Cueva de Montesinos
El Primo humanista
Week 10, October 31
DQ, I: ch. 25-35
Cervantes, Entremeses: “El Retablo de las maravillas”
Erasmus: Praise of Folly (photocopy)
Girard, “Triangular Desire” (in reader)
George Haley, “The Narrator in Don Quixote” in (Casebook)
Los rebuznos
Maese Pedro
El barco encantado
Dulcinea encantada
Week 11, November 7
DQ, II: ch. 36-41
Mazzotta, “The Ludic Perspective: Don Quixote and the Italian Renaissance” (in reader)
La Dueña Dolorida
Carta de Sancho a Teresa
Trifaldí
Clavileño
Week 12, November 14
DQ, II: ch. 42-53
Nabokov, “Cruelty and Violence” (in reader)
Adrienne Martin, “Humor and Violence” (in Cambridge Companion)
Sancho gobernador de Barataria
Los Duques
Los consejos de Don Quixote
Los gatos
Carta de Don Quixote a Sancho en la ínsula
Week 13, November 21
DQ, II: ch. 54-65
El Abencerraje
Guillén, “Literature as Historical Contradiction” (in reader)
Ricote
Tosilos
Roque Guinart / Claudia
En Barcelona
Don Antonio Moreno
La imprenta
Ana Félix
Week 14, November 28
DQ, II: ch. 66-74
El Caballero de la Blanca Luna
El cuerpo de Altisidora
La muerte de Don Qiuxote
Week 15, December 5
Conclusión, fin.
Terry Gilliam, Lost in La Mancha (film)