In
Don Quixote Cervantes draws upon the
classical tradition according to which melancholy, prevalent in old age, had a
positive effect upon memory and imagination. Don Quixote's memory of his
readings feeds his fantasy, taking precedence over sense perception. His
memory, like his imitation of models, is selective; he recalls the aspects of
his reading most appropriate to the occasion and attempts to reenact them.
Solitude stimulates Don Quixote's memory and imagination. He occasionally makes
use of the techniques of artificial memory (composition of place, etc.) which
were so popular in the Renaissance, but these also come in for their share of
ridicule and are shown to be far less interesting than spontaneous, natural
memory, which is constantly suffering the distortions brought about by
imagination and experience. Thus Cervantes displaces the novel's focus from the
allegorical to the psychological. In the 1615 Second Part Cervantes achieves
prodigious effects by bringing into play not only Don Quixote's memory but
those of the narrator, the other characters, and the reader. The Second Part
also emphasizes the contrast between collective and individual memory, between
the imitation of models and the impulse towards originality. Memory without
imagination is worthless.
La influencia
de Cervantes en los héroes de las novelas de Sir Walter Scott ha sido
comentada frecuentemente por los críticos de ambos escritores; pero se
ha pasado por alto el hecho de que el
Quijote también le sirvió a
Scott como modelo narrativo. Del
Quijote tomó los motivos del viaje
y de la venta, del manuscrito hallado, y también la estrategia de la
textualidad autoconsciente. Estas técnicas contribuyen de manera
importante a la relación entre historia y ficción en las novelas
históricas de Scott.
Este estudio
examina, desde una perspectiva teórica, los entremeses de Cervantes a
partir de los elementos novelísticos que les dan su carácter
original y único. Debido a la fuerte presencia en estas obras de una
profundidad temática, la interiorización de personajes, la
sátira, y el comentario social, los entremeses cervantinos pertenecen a
lo que Mijail Bajtin ha llamado «drama novelizado», y rechazan las
convenciones teatrales del teatro menor de la época. Uno de los rasgos
principales de tal novelización es la irresolución
temática y estructural que demanda la colaboración del espectador
o lector para resolver un tema principal o una acción abierta. Por lo
tanto, la irresolución novelística se puede entender como una de
las causas principales del fracaso de estos entremeses como obras teatrales y
su éxito como textos literarios.
While a
psychological interpretation can never explain a text, it can help us to
identify the anguish that triggered the writing of the text. The three stories
of madmen in the prologue and in Chapter One of the 1615
Quijote are all examples of
schizophrenia, illustrating two fundamental characteristics of that disorder:
(1) the schizophrenic finds it extraordinarily difficult to adapt to change,
because he identifies completely with his environment and finds a way to
control or master it: and (2) the schizophrenic is almost entirely incapable of
associating the representation of a word with the representation of a thing.
The madman who thinks he is Neptune is unconsciously unwilling to leave the
asylum, because he has identified completely with his environment and with the
role he plays in it. The two stories of madmen and dogs in the prologue are
both based on a schizophrenic's literal interpretation of figurative language.
These two madmen identify not with their physical surroundings but with their
peculiar relationship with dogs. The madman of Seville (the one who inflated
dogs) represents Cervantes himself, while the madman of Cordova (who dropped
stones on dogs, and later wrongly considered all dogs pointers) represents
Avellaneda.