Description
Book SynopsisWhat is the role of literature in the formation of the state? Anthony J. Cascardi takes up this fundamental question in Cervantes, Literature, and the Discourse of Politics, a comprehensive analysis of the presence of politics in Don Quixote. Cascardi argues that when public speech is constrained, as it was in seventeenth-century Spain, politics must be addressed through indirect forms including comedy, myth, and travellers'' tales.
Cervantes, Literature, and the Discourse of Politics convincingly re-engages the ancient roots of political theory in modern literature by situating Cervantes within a long line of political thinkers. Cascardi notably connects Cervantes''s political theory to Plato''s, much as the writer''s literary criticism has been firmly linked to Aristotle''s. He also shows how Cervantes''s view of literature provided a compelling alternative to the modern, scientific politics of Machiavelli and Hobbes, highlighting the potential int
Trade Review
'Cascardi provides illuminating commentary on the overlooked influence of political philosophy upon Cervantes's -- Barbara Simerka Renaissance Quarterly; vol 65:03:2012
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. What the Canon Said 3. Views from Nowhere 4. Controversies 5. The Practice of Theory 6. Politics Brought Down to Earth 7. Imagining the Nation 8. Civil Society, Virtue, and the Pursuit of Happiness 9. Free Speech? Notes Index
