—112→
Jehenson's Response125
University of Hartford
Professor Finello's objection to my review appears to be
three-fold. First, that I am simplistic in stating that he has made Sancho and
Dulcinea indistinguishable. On page 83 of his book we read: «Sancho
and Dulcinea [not Aldonza, be it noted] of course can be
counted among the novel's most significant rustic personages»
.
Second, that I am unfair in failing to note that Klaus Theweleit's view of
pastoral as a «game» is the basis of Part III of Finello's book. My
point is that Theweleit, following Norbert Elias (to whom Finello refers),
foregrounds pastoral's «game» not as playful but as an ideological
apparatus which, to quote my review, «produces
the very realities the 17th-century courtly society wanted the classes beneath
them to take for granted as 'reality'»
. Is it likely that Cervantes
was unaware of this power «play» as he set up his rural charades,
and finally led Don Quijote to the centers of ducal and bourgeois power and
illusion making? The question has to be posed. Lastly, Professor Finello finds
it unfair that when he lists Grisóstomo, Marcela, Cardenio, Basilio, and
the Gentleman in Green as «Arcadian figures» (p. 102), I call them
«a mixed bag». His response that Cardenio is «surely
associated with the pastoral» is symptomatic of the syncretic vagueness
and the analytical weakness to which my review drew attention.