The Quixote code: Reading between the lines of the Cervantes novel

This study in two parts reexamines the notion that Don Quixote was originally seen as no more than a humorous story, and suggests that due to a variety of factors, a closer, more exegetical reading of the text may well be appropriate. In the first section of this work, focus is placed on the long history of the reception of the Cervantes novel as containing some deeper truth beneath the literal surface of the novel. This is complemented by a review of some examples of when several esoteric readings—done without academic rigor and adequate contextual research—have struck dramatically off-target and have read not between the lines but completely outside of the text of Don Quixote. The second part of this study proposes a new line of exegetical inquiry into the Cervantes classic, incorporating recent research in the field of cognitive science in tandem with contextual historical research to ask different questions and direct attention to areas heretofore only cursorily addressed. The novel is examined in the context of its historical moment—a time when the Spanish Inquisition was at its most catechizing, and had increased the scope of its sites to include Protestant Christians along with its traditional fare of Muslims and Jews in its campaign of forcible conversions to Catholicism. During this era, burning at the stake, torture, and imposed exile were routine techniques to deal with reluctant proselytes—and the world of literature was scrutinized for any messages of dissent from church doctrine—resulting in the creation of the first blacklist of banned books, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. In this second half of the study, a construction of a theory of mind of Cervantes is used to examine how, when confronted by an environment of religious oppression and intolerance and challenged by a policy of censorship, the author may have resorted to encoding a subversive discourse via ekphrastic descriptions of images connected to prohibited texts, religious movements, and schools of thought below the surface of his masterpiece. Indeed, the very names of the characters in Don Quixote, as well as the inspiration for several of the most iconic (mis)adventures of the novel are discussed and shown to have possibly been drawn from precisely these types of images. Of particular significance, the most (in)famous symbol of conflict of all time, originally used to symbolize resistance to religious oppression—the Ichthys of the early Christian church of Rome—is proposed as a possible source of the name Quixote based on paleographical characteristics, principles of cryptography, recent studies in visuality, and the particular wording of passages contained within Don Quixote

The Rhetorical Strategies of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

This dissertation explores the rhetorical components of the famous novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Cervantes’ novel continues to be celebrated around the world four hundred years later. His two main protagonists epitomize opposite virtues, but their love for one another, and the promise of an ínsula, creates a bond that overcomes their differences. Don Quixote, the mad knight, values lofty ideas idealized in chivalric romance. Conversely, Sancho, the simple squire, values tangible materials he can see and touch in his own life. While the two characters first appear to be contrary in nature, by the journey’s end, as displayed in their speeches, have grown and learned from one another. Analyzing how these two rhetors develop throughout the course of the novel is the aim of this dissertation. By developing their models, I show the essence of their rhetorical strategies as example for real life practice. Literature provides what Kenneth Burke calls “an equipment for living.” On the one hand, the essence of Don Quixote’s rhetoric romantically transcends tragic situations inspiring heroic action to provide catharsis and experiences for learning. Readers can use his failures and successes as equipment for living, as he stubbornly challenges opposition and never backs down. On the other hand, Sancho’s rhetoric prudently imitates those around him, transcending lofty ideas into grotesque realism. He is the perfect sidekick: loyal, compassionate, critical, and funny. Both Don Quixote’s and Sancho’s rhetorical strategies act as resources for approaching changes in society. Coupled together, the persuasive skills of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza provide great insight for students of rhetoric as these two characters create rhetorical strategies for confronting impious change in society

The Subtle Arbitrios of Cervantes: Don Quijote as a Cautionary Tale for Leaders

Miguel de Cervantes was clearly a man who had an interest in leadership. He sought leadership positions for himself during his life, and his works often include treatments of leadership issues. However, there are only three studies of leadership in his most important work, Don Quijote, and all are seriously flawed due to their failure to interpret passages from the novel in their context. This study uses a historical-grammatical hermeneutic to correct this error. Through a close reading of the text, this study demonstrates that Cervantes has encoded warnings for leaders in Don Quixote

Phraseology in Corpus-based transaltion studies : stylistic study of two contempoarary Chinese translation of Cervantes's Don Quijote

The present work sets out to investigate the stylistic profiles of two modern Chinese versions of Cervantes???s Don Quijote (I): by Yang Jiang (1978), the first direct translation from Castilian to Chinese, and by Liu Jingsheng (1995), which is one of the most commercially successful versions of the Castilian literary classic. This thesis focuses on a detailed linguistic analysis carried out with the help of the latest textual analytical tools, natural language processing applications and statistical packages. The type of linguistic phenomenon singled out for study is four-character expressions (FCEXs), which are a very typical category of Chinese phraseology. The work opens with the creation of a descriptive framework for the annotation of linguistic data extracted from the parallel corpus of Don Quijote. Subsequently, the classified and extracted data are put through several statistical tests. The results of these tests prove to be very revealing regarding the different use of FCEXs in the two Chinese translations. The computational modelling of the linguistic data would seem to indicate that among other findings, while Liu???s use of archaic idioms has followed the general patterns of the original and also of Yang???s work in the first half of Don Quijote I, noticeable variations begin to emerge in the second half of Liu???s more recent version. Such an idiosyncratic use of archaisms by Liu, which may be defined as style shifting or style variation, is then analyzed in quantitative terms through the application of the proposed context-motivated theory (CMT). The results of applying the CMT-derived statistical models show that the detected stylistic variation may well point to the internal consistency of the translator in rendering the second half of Part I of the novel, which reflects his freer, more creative and experimental style of translation. Through the introduction and testing of quantitative research methods adapted from corpus linguistics and textual statistics, this thesis has made a major contribution to methodological innovation in the study of style within the context of corpus-based translation studies.Imperial Users onl

Phraseology in Corpus-Based Translation Studies: A Stylistic Study of Two Contemporary Chinese Translations of Cervantes's Don Quijote

The present work sets out to investigate the stylistic profiles of two modern Chinese versions of Cervantes’s Don Quijote (I): by Yang Jiang (1978), the first direct translation from Castilian to Chinese, and by Liu Jingsheng (1995), which is one of the most commercially successful versions of the Castilian literary classic. This thesis focuses on a detailed linguistic analysis carried out with the help of the latest textual analytical tools, natural language processing applications and statistical packages. The type of linguistic phenomenon singled out for study is four-character expressions (FCEXs), which are a very typical category of Chinese phraseology. The work opens with the creation of a descriptive framework for the annotation of linguistic data extracted from the parallel corpus of Don Quijote. Subsequently, the classified and extracted data are put through several statistical tests. The results of these tests prove to be very revealing regarding the different use of FCEXs in the two Chinese translations. The computational modelling of the linguistic data would seem to indicate that among other findings, while Liu’s use of archaic idioms has followed the general patterns of the original and also of Yang’s work in the first half of Don Quijote I, noticeable variations begin to emerge in the second half of Liu’s more recent version. Such an idiosyncratic use of archaisms by Liu, which may be defined as style shifting or style variation, is then analyzed in quantitative terms through the application of the proposed context-motivated theory (CMT). The results of applying the CMT-derived statistical models show that the detected stylistic variation may well point to the internal consistency of the translator in rendering the second half of Part I of the novel, which reflects his freer, more creative and experimental style of translation. Through the introduction and testing of quantitative research methods adapted from corpus linguistics and textual statistics, this thesis has made a major contribution to methodological innovation in the study of style within the context of corpus-based translation studies

QUIJANO AS QUIJOTE: DECODING MADNESS THROUGH PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORY

This thesis approaches Alonso’s Quijano’s conversion into Don Quijote from the point of view of a psychologist. The aim of this thesis is to explain the cognitive and psychological experiences that move Alonso Quijano to become Don Quijote and its impact in the development of our current studies of the mind. Thus, one specific question will direct my project although this question will be addressed using a multidisciplinary psychologist approach. The research question is “How can Alonso Quijano’s psychological experiences and interpretations of the real world be explained today?” This question will be addressed by referencing five episodes in the novel which, in conjunction with psychological theory, will provide support for the argument of this thesis. My own academic formation and my course work in the graduate program in Hispanic Studies have shown me that there are various concepts that can be used to analyze and study the main character of this novel in terms of its futurities, that is, as a path to explore and trace the genealogy of many of our contemporary questions in regard to the human mind and its cognitive development. Therefore, the aim of this research is to contribute to Alonso Quijano’s studies by providing a behavioral and cognitive psychologist approach to the dichotomous Alonso Quijano/Don Quijote state of mind and, in this way, to provide another bridge of conversation between the humanities and the social sciences

Crip Native Woman: The Hispanic American Philippines and the Postcolonial Disability Cultures of US Empire.

This dissertation examines how Filipino intellectual cultures, “ilustrados”, and postcolonial enlightenment discourses assert political sovereignty through self-fashioning as able-minded subjects. I argue that Spanish and US colonialisms fracture the masculinist project of Philippine sovereignty thus prompting tropological investment in the “crip native women” whose impairments are either discursively rehabilitated to fix the problem of uncertain male autonomy or is deemed “too queer to rehabilitate” by more proper subjects. My dissertation is a work of literary-cultural critique that postulates an archive of the “Hispanic American Philippines” holding in tandem the intersections of both Spanish and US colonialisms—an intersection that has been largely under-theorized in Filipino Studies and US Empire Studies. Redeeming a postcolonial disability position of “linguistic incapacity” whereby Filipinos are historically unable to access Filipino Spanish writing, I analyze works by José Rizal, Franz Fanon, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Teodoro Kalaw, José Reyes, and Miguel Syjuco, in order to demonstrate how indigeneity, disability, and postcolonialism are co-constituting cultural fields across the multiple imperialisms and multiple languages of the Philippines, Filipino America, and a transpacific re-articulation of the U.S. Mexican Borderlands--all sites subject to the same colonial projects of both the United States and Spain. “Crip Native Woman” posits the queer-of-color analytic “postcolonial cripistemology” to understand how cognitive and physical incapacities are tied to the queerness and racialized femininity of the native subject across a multilingual archive of comparative imperial encounter. In doing so, I suggest that the “Hispanic American Philippines” is productive ground for more sustained comparative work across the fields of American Studies, Asian American Studies, Latina/o Studies, Disability Studies, and postcolonial criticism.PhDAmerican CultureUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/133359/1/jcbolton_1.pd

The Traveling Serialized Adventures of Kid Quixote: Rehumanizing the Experiences of Immigrant Children During the Trump Administration

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

Homecoming Festivals: The Re-accentuated Image of Don Quixote in Western Novel

The publication of Don Quixote (1605, 1615) impacted significantly the dynamics of Western literature. The renowned novel, which builds upon a considerable number of characters and episodes, is considered one of the most read and most analyzed pieces of literature in the world. This novel opens a wide platform for socio-political criticism, religious and cultural discussions, and literary analyses. For these reasons, critics read and study, and writers mention and imitate Cervantes’ novel up until today. A multitude of significant novels written by a variety of eminent authors share characteristics with Don Quixote, and thus become “quixotic.