Don Quixote and the Baroque: A Literary Journey

Part of Don Quixote

DQ First Departure: Chapters 1-6

Alonso Quijano, believing himself a knight, seeks an appropriate name, chooses a lady, and names his horse. The adventures of the knight always go wrong. After being beaten, a neighbor recognizes him, and he returns to the village.

Second Exit: Chapters 7-52

They seek a servant. Sancho and DQ come to Sierra Morena.

Second Part of Don Quixote

Third Exit: 74 Chapters

DQ and Sancho leave their village and travel towards Barcelona in Aragon. After arriving in Barcelona, DQ duels with the Knight of the White Moon on the beach, loses, and is obliged to return to his village for a year. Shortly after arriving, DQ falls ill, recovers his sanity, and dies.

Intent of Don Quixote

Cervantes wrote Don Quixote as a critique of chivalric books. This criticism stemmed from Erasmian supporters of serious and didactic literature. Cervantes chose parody as the most effective form of criticism.

DQ: The Character

DQ is the model of a noble, idealistic, and kind individual, yet alienated from the real world by his belief in chivalry. In his first departure, he becomes unreal, like a character from a chivalric book. After being beaten, he believes it to be a romance. In his second departure, DQ transforms reality into a chivalrous universe in his mind. In his third departure, DQ sees reality as it is, but other characters deceive him with the world of chivalry, attributing it to enchantments.

Sancho: The Squire

Sancho represents the common man, possessing great wisdom, practicality, and materialism. At the same time, he is gullible and throughout the work becomes "Quixotized," even proposing to DQ, as he is dying, to imitate the lifestyle of literary shepherds. Sancho frequently uses proverbs.

The Baroque

Historical Context

• Loss of Portugal
• Revolt of Catalonia
• Struggles against France
• Loss of Flanders
• Bad harvests, plague
• Depletion of American precious metals (due to shipwrecks or theft)
• Bankruptcy

Baroque Culture

A period of splendor, with literature in its golden age. The Baroque is bright and ornate, reflecting a climate of insecurity.

Themes of Baroque Literature

• Decline (social or individual)
• Forfeiture (deterioration of things or people)
• Evanescence (rapid passing of time)
• Love
• Death

Baroque focuses on the difficult and the ornate.

Góngora

From a noble family, with lawyers, clergymen, and enlightened individuals. He began a career in law and held ecclesiastical positions inherited from his family. In 1609, he became a priest and served as a chaplain to the king. He traveled to Madrid and Valladolid, although he spent much of his life in his homeland. His rivalry with Quevedo was famous at the time, as both used harsh compositions.

Góngora invented a brilliant, poetic, religious, and elitist language. His poetry aims to transform reality through metaphors.

His learned poetry intensified in 1609 when he retired from the court in Córdoba, disillusioned. There, he wrote the Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea and the Solitudes, which aroused conflicting reactions among the public, ranging from admiration to rejection.

• Intensification of lexical cultismos (e.g., "emulator," "candid") and syntactic hyperbaton (long sentences with complicated subordinate clauses).
• Accumulation of beautifying metaphors.
• Abundance of mythological allusions and conceptista games.

Quevedo

Quevedo wrote extensively in both poetry and prose, across almost all forms and genres. He combined popular and high culture, a serious tone, and a burlesque conceptista style. Quevedo's poetry showcases typical Baroque contrasts:

• His lyrical poetry is grimly reflective and profound, dealing with topics such as love, death, the decline of Spain, disappointment, and the transience of life.
• His burlesque poetry refers to trivial, anecdotal issues, testing his ingenuity.

Life

Born in Madrid, he studied humanities and theology. He was involved in court intrigues, which led to exile and imprisonment for three years. After leaving prison, he fell ill and soon died. He was a friend of Cervantes and Lope de Vega, and an enemy of Góngora.

Work

Quevedo's work, like Góngora's, is varied. In addition to his verse, he translated classical poets such as Anacreon and Martial and wrote prose works of all kinds.