Description
Book SynopsisA study which highights the ironic intrusion of novelistic elements in Persiles y Sigismunda, subverting its categorization as pure romance fiction. The lengthy Byzantine romance Persiles y Sigismunda, which Cervantes completed only days before his death in 1616, has conventionally been considered a relatively pure example of romance fiction. This study of genre in thePersiles questions that view by analysing the novelistic or realist aspects of the work. An extensive comparison with examples of Byzantine romance from its Greek origins to its Renaissance evolution highlights the degree to which Cervantes departs from the established canon, notably in the characterisation of the heroine and the significance of the protagonists' wedding, where Cervantes upsets the reader's expectations of a conventional happy ending by consistent use of an ironic mode typical of the work. Multidimensional characters, contrasting perspectives and ironic manipulations produce a kind of 'generic hybridisation' which exposes the fallacies of this type of fiction. MARIA ALBERTA SACCHETTI holds a doctorate from University College London.
Table of Contents> Acknowledgements CHAPTER I PERSILES Y SIGISMUNDA: A QUESTION OF GENRE. AN INTRODUCTION 0 CHAPTER II THE BYZANTINE ROMANCE: ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT 00 CHAPTER III ROMANCE AND THE PROBLEM OF CHARACTERISATION: AURISTELA 00 CHAPTER IV THE ROLE OF IRONY AND THE QUESTION OF THE ENDING 000 CHAPTER V CHARIKLEIA, AURISTELA AND SOME SECONDARY FEMALE CHARACTERS OF THE PERSILES 000 CHAPTER VI THE HEROINE IN THE WORKS OF TATIUS, REINOSO AND CONTRERAS 000 CHAPTER VII PERIANDRO AND SOME SECONDARY CHARACTERS 000 CHAPTER VIII IRONY, REALISM AND THE PICARESQUE IN THE PERSILES 000 CONCLUSION 000 BIBLIOGRAPHY 000 > Index 000
