Writing in the Margin: Spanish Literature of the Golden Age

by Paul Julian Smith

Overview

This study, the first to apply a poststructuralist viewpoint to literature of the Spanish Golden Age, offers new insights into major texts. Beginning with a comparison of Renaissance and modern theories of discourse, the book examines lyric poetry, picaresque narrative, and drama by Góngora, Quevedo, Lope de Vega, Calderón, and Cervantes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198158479
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	04/14/1988
Edition description:	Reprinted
Pages:	230
Product dimensions:	8.70(w) x 5.84(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

University of London

Table of Contents

	The she-bear licks its cub: an emblem of the artistic process
	Abbreviations	ix
	Introduction: Rereading The Golden Age	1
1.	The Rhetoric Of Excess In Golden Age Theory	19
1.	The Spanish Difference	19
2.	Language and Vision: El dialogo de la lengua	30
2.	The Rhetoric Of Presence In Lyric Poetry	43
1.	Presence and Communication	43
2.	Garcilaso and Voice	49
3.	Herrera and Amplification	57
4.	Gongora and Absence	64
5.	Lyric as Supplement	72
3.	The Rhetoric Of Representation In Picaresque Narrative	78
1.	Pictorialism and Representation	78
2.	Lazarillo and Subjectivity	89
3.	Guzman de Alfarache and Writing	99
4.	The Buscon and Politics	110
5.	Picaresque and Parergon	119
4.	The Rhetoric Of Inscription In The Comedia	127
1.	Inscription and Prescription	127
2.	Lope and Nature	134
3.	Tirso and Desire	144
4.	Calderon and Honour	156
5.	Drama as Trace	166
5.	The Erasure Of Rhetoric In Cervantes	172
1.	Simplicity, Authority, Language	172
2.	Knowledge and Ignorance: El licenciado vidriera	185
	Conclusion: The Marginality Of Spanish Culture	202
	Bibliography	207
	Index	217

Editorial Reviews

"[An] excellent deconstructionist critical study....What this volume says of the picarespue novel, lyric poetry, the comedia, and Cervantes...will be of interest to deconstructionists....Others will find the volume challenging reading as well as one that will develop their critical vocabulary." —Choice

"Smith's valuable text, extremely dense with critical theory and new application of it, and discussion of previously published theory on the works and authors, may well accomplish the object of the author as stated in the conclusion."—Romance Quarterly

"An exceptionally ambitious work, and one cannot help but admire Smith's critical gifts and the breadth of his knowledge. This is a stellar performance....A major achievement and a testament to changing times in Hispanic critical circles."—The Comparatist

"Better than anyone else working in Spanish literature of the Golden Age, Dr. Smith has caught the spirit of the Derrid approach to produce exciting new readings of the Spanish classics; no one in our field can afford to ignore this brilliant book."—Elias L. Rivers, SUNY at Stony Brook

"A brilliant, somewhat difficult but ultimately accessible work."—Renaissance Quarterly

From the Publisher