At one point in Cervantes's Novela y coloquio que paso entre Cipion y Bergnnza,1 Cipion-the more literary-minded of the conversing dogs-likens Berganza's narration to an octopus, due to its monstrous proliferation of limb-like digressions. Cipion's criticism is closely aligned with Horace's observation in the Ars poetica that the haphazard combining of incongruous elements results in a book whose "idle fantasies are shaped like a sick man's dreams so that neither head nor foot can be assigned to a single shape" (7-8).2 What are we to make of the fact that the Coloquio, according to Cervantes's conceit, is communicated to us by a convalescing syphilitic: the ensign Campuzano? Might we be justified in assuming that the colloquy is simply an "idle fantasy," the phantasmagoric residue of this "sick man's dream"? Certainly, Campuzano's friend, the licentiate Peralta, is only too ready to dismiss it as a hallucinatory reverie, a tissue of "disparates" (Casaniiento enganoso, 537).Despite its unlikely cast of caviling dogs and philosophizing witches, the Coloquio is no more a Horatian "monster," the ill-begotten fruit of a syphilitic's dreams, than the Quijotc is a product of an "esteril y mal cultivado ingenio." Cervantes's use of such rhetorical devices to distance himself from the text and displace responsibility for its content is a common feature of his satire; however, the implementation of so many, and such elaborate, screening devices (the text as we have it is a belated transcription ot a conversation between two loquacious dogs preserved in the pocky memory of a convalescing syphilitic!) simply confirms what critics have long understood: the motley group of corrupt butchers, thieving gypsies, predacious shepherds, amateur impresarios, and the like-the familiar misfits of Cervantine satire brought to life by Berganza's tale-are all, in a sense, ancillary actors in a drama with moral and philosophical implications that extend well beyond this picaresque veneer.Though a first glance at the Coloquio satisfies a reader's formal expectations of satire through its studied counterpoising of canine "humanity" against human "bestiality" (a conventional ploy), further investigation reveals that this general pattern is trivial; what is essential-for it goes to the very heart of the text-is the disconcerting revelation that the Cohquio's dogs, for all their lauded humanity, engage in the most contemptible sort of human behavior, whereas the "bestial" Canizares (whose body, as we shall see, is described in strongly animalistic terms) exhibits the noblest aspects of human behavior.Critical essays on the Coloquio tend to confirm this strong inclination to give more heed to the sententious "circunloquios y rodeos" (568) of a dog, Berganza, than to the eloquent and straightforward reasoning of a witch: Berganza's hypocrisy, treachery, and ingratitude are too readily forgiven and Canizares's virtues too easily overlooked. Berganza's canine torm, apparent candor, and penchant for moralization compromise our ability to judge him impartially; we turn a blind eye to behavior that would be deemed inexcusable in a human. The pages that follow represent an attempt to "redeem" Canizares, reevaluate Berganza, and explore Cervantes's insights concerning the fundamentally paradoxical nature of evil.It is one of the peculiarities of humans and, it would seem, reasoning dogs, that they must rely on other peoples' testimony to account for their beginnings, for even though one is alive, the early years of life are-as Augustine famously notes in his Confessions-shrouded in a veil of amnesia; knowledge of one's origin and infancy is always secondhand and belated. Only the most dishonest-or self-deceived-autobiographer would presume to offer a first-hand account of such moments as his or her own birth, infancy, hours lost to sleep, and death. Disposed to privilege subjective experience, however spotty, over hearsay, Berganza begins his narrative-against Cipton's repeated objections-not with Canizares's account of his biological birth (as putative son of the "ganapan," Rodriguez, and the witch, Ia Monliela), but with his birth into consciousness. …

El Coloquio de los perros en la picaresca y otros apuntes

Cañizares's Textual Auto-da-fé: Inquisitorial Dogs and Martyred Witches in Cervantes's Novela y coloquio que pasó entre Cipión y Berganza

A partir de los estudios sobre la Corte en Espana, el presente trabajo desarrolla una nueva lectura e interpretacion del Lazarillo de Tormes. Tras exponer las nociones de Corte, sociedad cortesana y cortesano sobre las que se apoya, el articulo analiza tanto el marco narrativo de la carta-novela (el prologo, el «caso», «Vuestra Merced», etc.), como el contenido de la obra. La conclusion del estudio es la siguiente: el Lazarillo de Tormes constituyo, a mediados del siglo xvi, una cruenta satira anticortesana que, con intencion moral, cuestiono —desde las filas de la oposicion politica— todo un modelo de civilizacion, el cortesano, donde se imponia ya claramente a la altura de 1550 (al menos en el caso espanol) el ideario de las facciones cortesanas mas intransigentes.

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«Un oficio real»: el Lazarillo de Tormes en la escena de la Corte

Nous explorons dans ce travail les traces que le symbole de l'âne, appartenant a une longue tradition litteraire, a pu laisser dans les deux oeuvres majeures d'Alemân et de Cervantes L'analyse du concept de l'asinite, entre asinite positive et asinite negative, permet une confrontation inedite des deux textes et rend compte de l'originalite de deux ecritures qui trouvent la les fondements de leur modernite

De asnos y rebuznos. Ambigüedad y modernidad de un diálogo

Within the dynamics of the scam articulated in “El casamiento enganoso,” Campuzano’s syphilis plays a central role. This disease is the result of a double deceit and stems not just from his relationship to Dona Estefania, but also from his position as of man of arms. Taking this as its point of departure, this essay explores the inherent dialogue between the curriculum vitae of this would-be soldier (along with his daily routine in the militia) and the two literary models that Cervantes combines in this text: the picaresque novel and military autobiography.

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De soldados, putas y sífilis: Modelos y géneros literarios en torno al alférez Campuzano en "El casamiento engañoso"

Lo que pretendo en este trabajo es profundizar en el conocimiento de la forma y del significado de la obra cumbre del Renacimiento espanol. Tal tarea ha sido intentada por casi todos los que se han ocupado del Lazarillo desde presupuestos literarios muy diferentes. La bibliografia es tan numerosa que podria dar la impresion de que se ha escrito todo lo humanamente posible. Pero no es asi. Si me dispongo a aportar algo nuevo es porque estoy convencido de que no se ha llegado a explicar el significado ultimo de la obra. Creo que la mayor parte de las interpretaciones se han pasado, esto es, han ido mas alla de lo que penso el autor. Creo tambien que las metodologias utilizadas no han sido las adecuadas a la finalidad propuesta. En efecto, las modernas teorias literarias se acomodan mejor a la interpretacion de las obras actuales que a la de las renacentistas. Quiero decir que las obras renacentistas han de ser explicadas fundamentalmente con los instrumentos interpretativos de aquella epoca, si no se quiere caer en anacronismos. Ocurre igual que en la interpretacion de los hechos historicos o del pensamiento.

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El Coloquio de los perros en la picaresca y otros apuntes

Citations

Cañizares's Textual Auto-da-fé: Inquisitorial Dogs and Martyred Witches in Cervantes's Novela y coloquio que pasó entre Cipión y Berganza

«Un oficio real»: el Lazarillo de Tormes en la escena de la Corte

De asnos y rebuznos. Ambigüedad y modernidad de un diálogo

De soldados, putas y sífilis: Modelos y géneros literarios en torno al alférez Campuzano en "El casamiento engañoso"

Interpretación del Lazarillo de Tormes