Unit 14

English 201:    Masterpieces of Western Literature

Background:

Moors: Cervantes lived from 1547-1616.  The Moors or Muslims were finally expelled from Spain in 1492 after centuries of struggle that left Spain the most militarist country in Europe at the time.  When you visit Italian churches, you think of museums, because of the architecture & visual art.  When you visit Spanish churches, you may well be reminded of an arsenal or of some military association, because pf the swords, the bleeding heart of Jesus, the crown of thorns, the weeping Virgin, the descent of the cross, & other images that stress blood.  Our introduction said that Cervantes was shot twice in a naval engagement against Muslim forces & that he was held as a slave in Algiers for 5 years.  He was one of 24,000 kidnapped Christians held as slaves & waiting to be ransomed, as Cervantes finally was in 1580.

Medieval Courtly Love: Don Quixote is a work that attempts to take medieval piety, expressed in the Cult of the Virgin, literally.  It asks, what if someone literally tried to slay dragons or do some such similar good works dedicated to a surrogate of the Virgin Mary?  The answer is Don Quixote, who is not charming or elegant or pious; he is insane.  What does this imply about medievalism?  It suggests that medieval piety, expressed in forms like Arthurian romance, was insane or at least a fantasy that looks insane from the emerging Renaissance perspective.

Readers: Our text says that Don Quixote is one of the longest novels ever written.  The entire novel (which I confess not to have read), is over a thousand pages long.  Boccaccio's Decameron is not quite so long.  The length results from popularity.  If a Renaissance work found a large readership, the author revised the work throughout his life time, making it ever longer.  That is what happened with Don Quixote.  What made Don Quixote go mad?  Romance novels.  Here "romance" means medieval romance or tales of knights slaying dragons to the love or approval of their lady.  Quixote even sells part of his estate in order to buy expensive books.  We are only 2 centuries removed from Boccaccio.  Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450.  A hundred years later it has produced libraries of popular work that drive Quixote insane!
 

Click on the next section: Explication above.