Description:
This book attempts to study the Quijote through the twin themes of consciousness and the search for truth and objective reality. It is based on those philosophers who dealt with the question of consciousness, Heidegger and Husserl. The book is a study of the existential choices which the characters, including Don Quijote, make. The book’s methodology is also based on the application of consciousness studies, namely, the work of David Lodge and Juan Bautista Avalle-Arce. A very important source for the ideology of the book is the work of Americo Castro, whose writing on Don Quijote are of prime importance.

Consideration is given to Don Quijote’s change from a country gentleman to a faux caballero andant, modeled in part on Amadis de Gaula. Don Quijote gives up the comfortable but uninvolved life as a country gentleman in favor of his proyecto vital.

A very important part of the book is that dealing with the Captive (el cautivo). Cervantes’s purpose with these chapters (XXXIX - XLI) is to fictionalize his own experiences in the prison of Algiers. A particular detail about these chapters is the conversion of the Arabic young lady to Christianity, but Cervantes shows that her decision is also the cause of much grief on the part of her father. Consideration is given to a particular concern of the body as a projection of the wounds Cervantes suffered in Lepanto.

Another important aspect of the Quijote is the belief that nothing is final and that Cervantes will show that nothing can be seen as a final truth. The reader is never sure what games Cervantes will play with his audience keeping them on tenterhooks as he goes from one experience to another. Cervantes will also show how the characters approach their lives and how the decisions they make will touch upon others. Also important for this book is the rejection of the concept of the Quijote as being a part of the ‘funny book’ syndrome.

Another urgent aspect of the Quijote is its contact with the external situation of the history, economics and politics of the time. Such a situation of the decadence of the country is the background, often silent, to the Quijote.


TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction......9

1. Consciousness and Don Quijote......11

2. Cervantes and Consciousness: The Christian and Muslim Worlds Juxtaposed......17

3. Consciousness, Don Quijote and the Muslim World......45

4. The Unendeng Quest for Truth and Objective Reality......57

5. Cervantes’s Don Quijote: Now You See it and Now You Don’t......65

6. Cervantes and Consciousness: ‘YUo sé quién soy, ‘ El caballero de los leones and Ricote el Morisco......81

7. Cervantes and the ‘Funny Book Syndrome’......93

8. Cervantes, Lepando and the Concepto of Wounding, Pain and Suffering......123

9. History, Society and Economics of the 16th and 17th Centuries with Reference to Don Quijote......149

Concluding Remarks......179

Selected Bibliography......181