Philip Stevick, ed. The Theory of the Novel . The Theory and Practice of Self-Conscious Literature . This course is an in-depth study and analysis of Cervantes's novel Don Quijote as the beginning of the modern novel and the principal example of metafiction in the Western World in the early 17th century, the Cervantine leitmotiv and narrative technique, and the novel's national and international artistic appeal.
Class is seminar style.
Selected criticism is read to introduce the fundamental theoretical constructs of metafiction and provide the student with the necessary tools to analyze the novel as self-conscious literature. The themes of insanity and heroism, the dynamic interplay of reality and illusion, parody and irony, and the medieval theory of humors are presented as distinctive features of the historical and social context of Imperial Spain. The novel, in short, is taught as the premier cultural expression of Golden Age Spain. Students engage in a semester-long analysis of Cervantes's novel to illustrate how these themes are indicative of a baroque world view and how they are reflected in the work's narrative structure and point of view, system of values, characterization in general and the protagonist's psychic development in particular. One oral presentation based on the research essay.