Cervantes' Persiles and the Travails of Romance

The collection of essays "Persiles" explores Cervantes' novel "Persiles" through new lenses, focusing on its engagement with geopolitical models of race, ethnicity, nation, and religion. It questions cultural pluralism in the Spanish empire and reevaluates the category of the "lo bárbaro," highlighting the challenges of a multiracial and multiethnic reality.

Format: Hardback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 27 August 2019
Publisher: University of Toronto Press

This collection of original essays presents fresh approaches to Cervantes' final novel, Persiles. Drawing inspiration from the influential Ethiopian Story (the Aithiopika) of Heliodorus, Persiles delves into geopolitical models of race, ethnicity, nation, and religion. Particularly relevant to the time, the novel raises questions about cultural pluralism within the Spanish empire and emphasizes the need to reexamine the concept of lo bárbaro/the barbarian, which encompassed not only Jews, Muslims, Gypsies, but also criollos, mestizos, and indios. This new multiracial and multiethnic reality posed a significant challenge to early modern Spain.

The contributors to this volume offer a diverse range of perspectives in spatial theory, psychology, subjectivity, visual culture, and literary theory. Their essays explore the complexities of identity, representation, and the boundaries between different cultures in Persiles and its historical context. By examining the novel through these various lenses, the contributors shed light on the enduring themes of power, prejudice, and the complexities of human relationships in the early modern world.

Overall, this collection provides a valuable contribution to the study of Cervantes and his works, offering new insights and perspectives on one of his most celebrated novels.

Weight: 662g
Dimension: 162 x 236 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781487504786