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SPAN 300: Cervantes' Don Quixote

Lecture 22 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters LIV-LXX (cont.). As we approach the end of the novel, Cervantes compresses and combines elements from different types of romances (morisco, Greek, pastoral) in what seems to be an attempt to create a new literary genre; the modern novel. In the episodes in Barcelona, the prank with the talking head makes literal the figure of prosopopeia; Don Quixote's visit to the printing shop explores the very origin of the book; the sign the boys hang on Don Quixote's back also reduces him to language. Avellaneda's misreading of the Quixote coincides with that of the duenas who punish Sancho, and is also ironically represented in Altisidora's dream. By taking literature to its limits, by incorporating Avellaneda's book into the Quixote, by rejecting bookish knowledge in favor of experience, Cervantes seems to point to the idea that there is no position from which to stand outside of the world of fiction. The only way out would be through a voluntary act of the will, equivalent to the one Don Quixote makes after being defeated by the Knight of the White Moon.
(from oyc.yale.edu)

Lecture 22 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters LIV-LXX (cont.)

Time Lecture Chapters
[00:00:00] 1. Episodes in Barcelona
[00:17:30] 2. Avellaneda's Spurious "Quixote"
[00:33:42] 3. Don Quixote's Defeat by the Knight of the White Moon
[00:39:01] 4. Episodes Leading to the Contagion of Madness from Character to Character
[00:46:11] 5. Altisidora's Infernal Vision
[00:52:57] 6. Experience over Bookish Learning

References
Lecture 22 - Don Quixote, Part II: Chapters LIV-LXX (cont.)
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.)