SPAN 300: Cervantes' Don Quixote
Lecture 08 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXVII-XXXV. In this part of the Quixote, Cervantes makes a boast of narrative mastery by combining the sequential structure of the chivalric romance with the multiple story design of collections of novellas. The stories invented by the characters, who create meta-characters, lead to the revelation of other stories not being told, or being told obliquely. The relation among all the stories, including the main plot, is predicated on cuts and crisscrossing made possible by traumatic interruptions, which jostle the memory of the tellers and drive them to reveal other stories behind the one they tell, and making them disclose their inner thoughts. Memory is in all cases the key element a repository of recollections from the past and the structuring force of the self in the present. The whole network of stories, itself a superb display of narrative skill and variety, is one of the aims of Renaissance art, announced by the scene in which Dorotea is ogled (in parts) by other characters. As Gonzalez Echevarria explains, the Quixote leads us again to ask questions that are pertinent and relevant to our lives. Is living the acting out of roles? Are we characters in somebody else's fiction, and if so, are we bound by ethics? (from oyc.yale.edu)
| Lecture 08 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXVII-XXXV |
| Time | Lecture Chapters |
| [00:00:00] | 1. The Function of Memory in the Development of Characters |
| [00:08:57] | 2. The Network of Interrelated and Intertwined Stories |
| [00:23:58] | 3. Dorotea as the Object of Converging Gazes |
| [00:44:59] | 4. The Kingdom of Representations and the Theatricality of Life |
| [00:54:57] | 5. The Importance of Subtext |
| References |
| Lecture 8 - Don Quixote, Part I: Chapters XXVII-XXXV Instructor: Professor Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria. Transcript [html]. Audio [mp3]. Download Video [mov]. |
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