From: Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America
15.2 (1995): 106-07.
Copyright © 1995, The Cervantes Society of America
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The Novelas selected by Hart for analysis
are six: La gitanilla, La ilustre fregona, El amante
liberal, Rinconete y Cortadillo, El celoso extremeño,
and El coloquio de los perros. Most of the chapters included in the
book were published “in substantially different form” (vii) in
several journals between 1979 and 1990. The study concentrates on assessing
the exemplarity of the Novelas from the perspective of Cervantes's
contemporaries. In this context, the reader is often referred at key points
to the writings of Heliodorus, Ariosto, Castiglione, Tasso, Amyot, Montaigne,
Molière, and Erasmus. This comparative approach is one of the more
positive aspects of Hart's contribution. Nevertheless, although his approach
is overtly hermeneutical and comparative, Hart believes that “[t]oday
we are in a better position to appreciate all of the Novelas
ejemplares” (3), and he does not hesitate to refer throughout to
the combined authority of Mikhail Bakhtin (heteroglossia), Gérard
Genette (types of narrative), Northrop Frye (romance), William Empson (pastoral),
John Lyons and Timothy Hampton (exemplarity), and Susan Suleiman (ideological
fiction).
Hart's principal insight into the
Novelas consists in underlining their uniqueness by way of their ability
to produce admiratio In fact, in his brief and elegant chapters Hart
emphasizes repeatedly the oxymoronic nature of Cervantes's title and the
inherent possibility of diverse interpretations. For instance, in the case
of the romance Novelas, he demonstrates their traditional nature but
also their innovative treatment of common motifs and maxims. Cervantes's
double interest in the moral dimension and verisimilitude of his
Novelas gives rise to two types of admiratio. In the case of
El amante liberal, for example, Cervantes awakens wonderment in the
reader through the description of the setting and events of the plot, while
at the same time, according to Hart, he presents in Ricardo a novelistic
character who at the end of the story is no longer the man he was at the
beginning (55). Something similar occurs in the case of Rinconete; there
is traditional admiration because of the exotic setting and the manner in
which language is used during the role playing, while the reaffirmation of
his values at the end, the assertion of the individual's freedom, represents
a moral victory capable of producing a higher kind of admiration.
A similar strategy is followed in the case
of El celoso extremeño. The narrative process of defamiliarization
produces admiration to the extent that a comic situation becomes tragic.
The difference here is that the characters are not typical, they do not conform
to the role given to them by the folkloric tradition in which they originate.
The ending, to the extent that is contrary to all expectations, is not only
truly exemplary but also admirable. In the case of the Coloquio, there
is obvious wonder in the nature of the protagonists and the setting of the
story, but the key source of admiration here has to do with the crucial question
of the flexibility of the self, seen also in Don Quixote. Berganza fails
as a reformer, Hart observes, because he does not see his own limitations,
his inner limitations.
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| 15.2 (1995) | Review | 107 |
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Nevertheless, contrary to critical opinion, Hart recognizes hope in the ending
because the dogs' views are questionable; they fail to understand their own
experiences, and Cipión appreciates at the end only the
“artificio” of the story he has just heard.
Hart insists in his conclusion that the secret
of the Novelas is that “there is no secret, no single interpretation
tacitly endorsed by Cervantes but never openly revealed to his readers”
(110). I find this affirmation less satisfying that the fact that in his
critical practice Hart manages to find a sure path to at least one valid
question, that of the double source admiration of the Novelas as an
expression of their uniqueness and universality as classic texts.
| Eduardo Urbina |
| Texas A & M University |
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Prepared with the help of Sue Dirrim |
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| Fred Jehle jehle@ipfw.edu | Publications of the CSA | H–Cervantes |
| URL: http://www.h-net.org/~cervantes/csa/articf95/urbina.htm | ||