Baroque Prose: Picaresque Novels and Didactic Literature

The Baroque Prose: Picaresque Novels

Guzman de Alfarache

Mateo Aleman's Guzman de Alfarache was published in two parts. It presents two planes: the discursive narrative of a rogue's life and the constant moral reflections of the narrator, which obey a didactic purpose. Guzman is presented as an autobiography that selects events determining the protagonist's evolution. The novel reflects the author's religious beliefs: man has free will and, despite the evil of existence, can achieve salvation through divine grace. The didactic purpose covers various aspects of life, emphasizing issues like honor and money. The work combines plain style, slang, and colloquial expressions with worshipful language, syntactic complexity, and varied expressive resources. On the doctrinal and evaluative levels, the discourses stand as universal.

Life Story of El Buscon

Francisco de Quevedo's El Buscon is classified as a picaresque novel because it is a fictional autobiographical account of a miserable person. However, it introduces many changes to the genre that challenge this classification:

• The protagonist expresses a constant desire for social advancement.
• He shows no repentance for his misdeeds, recounting his life in chronological order without moral justification.
• He encounters many characters in a marginal, miserable, and degraded world, lacking values, seen from an outside, distorted perspective.

Themes include the protagonist's shame regarding his family, the drive to thrive, and the presence of violence. Quevedo utilizes sharpness of wit and a burlesque purpose, though some interpret it as having a moralizing intent. Quevedo puts the text at the service of extraordinary verbal creation.

Didactic Prose of Quevedo

Los Suenos (Dreams)

Los Suenos was censured and corrected, later published under the title Juguetes de la ninez (Childhood Toys). It is a collection of stories presenting a satire of social groups and individuals who exemplify reprehensible conduct.

El Alguacil Endemoniado (The Devil Constable)

A dialogue develops between the narrator and the devil, who has possessed the body of a sheriff. The devil describes the sheriff's evil deeds and recounts the punishments of those in hell.

El Sueno del Infierno (The Dream of Hell)

In a beautiful natural area, two paths emerge: one represents virtue and the other represents sin.

Didactic Prose of Gracian

El Criticon

Published in three parts, this book is an allegory of human life, equating the ages of man with the seasons. The fictional plot follows Critilo, an old man who was wrecked and rescued by a young, wild Andrenio, whom he teaches to speak. Together, they ship to Spain, and during the journey, Critilo tells him his life story. The narrative explores the world and instinctual drives as they make a long voyage through real and symbolic places—a pilgrimage along the road of life. The work offers a pessimistic vision of the world and criticizes society. The style combines the clarity of sentences with the use of an artificial, sophisticated language.