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SPAN 300: Cervantes' Don Quixote

Lecture 06 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXI-XXVI. Important meditations about the nature of literature and the real take place in the chapters commented on in this lecture. Reality appears strange enough even to Don Quixote in the episode of the corpse, where death becomes a presence. Don Quixote appears aware that his adventures are being written as we read them. His relationship with his squire is further developed in the episode of the fulling hammers. Mambrino's helmet exemplifies the modern radical doubt about the power of the senses to grasp reality, while the episode of the galley slaves represents a satire of autobiographical writing. Cervantes portrays a society that the sixteenth-century reader recognized as his own, in which Gines de Pasamonte, a low-class slippery criminal and author, represents the new generation of writers who break with the strictures of Renaissance mimesis. The descent in social status of the author, Gines, appears to be accompanied by an increase in inventiveness and a rise in the importance of the author. This episode is a meditation on the creation of new genres, such as the picturesque, not derived from the classics but from experience, as well as on the topic of perspectivism. (from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 06 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXI-XXVI

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. The Nature of Literature and Reality; Narrative Technique
[00:13:23] 2. The Focus on Characters Marginal to Society
[00:19:36] 3. The Nature of the Real in the Mambrino Episode
[00:31:30] 4. Intimations of a Character's Subconscious
[00:39:05] 5. Considerations on the Creation of a New Genre
[00:47:18] 6. The Proliferation of Books in Relation to the Author

References
Lecture 6 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXI-XXVI
Instructor: Professor Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov].

Go to the Course Home or watch other lectures:

Lecture 01 - Introduction
Lecture 02 - Don Quixote, Part I: Front Matter and Chapters I-X
Lecture 03 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters I-X (cont.)
Lecture 04 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XI-XX
Lecture 05 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XI-XX (cont.)
Lecture 06 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXI-XXVI
Lecture 07 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXI-XXVI (cont.)
Lecture 08 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXVII-XXXV
Lecture 09 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXVII-XXXV (cont.)
Lecture 10 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXXVI-LII
Lecture 11 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXXVI-LII (cont.)
Lecture 12 - Don Quixote, Introduction to Part II
Lecture 13 - Don Quixote, Part II: Front Matter and Chapters I-XI
Lecture 14 - Don Quixote, Part II: Front Matter and Chapters I-XI (cont.)
Lecture 15 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters XII-XXI
Lecture 16 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters XII-XXI (cont.)
Lecture 17 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters XXII-XXXV
Lecture 18 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters XXII-XXXV (cont.)
Lecture 19 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters XXXVI-LIII
Lecture 20 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters XXXVI-LIII (cont.)
Lecture 21 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters LIV-LXX
Lecture 22 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters LIV-LXX (cont.)
Lecture 23 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters LXXI-LXXIV
Lecture 24 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters LXXI-LXXIV (cont.)