Joseph V. Ricapito

Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares: Between History and Creativity

Miguel de Cervantess Novelas ejemplares , a collection of short stories in the tradition of Boccaccio, has a solid foundation in the history of Golden Age Spain. Joseph V Ricapito studies Cervantess work from the point of view of onovelized historyo or ohistory novelizedo. In line with current New Historical thought, he argues that literary production is largely from life and experience, and that Cervantes was acutely aware of the problems of his day.The novelas offer us a glimpse of Cervantess Spain and include a cataloguing of the social, political, and historical problems of the time. Ricapitc shows how Cervantes fictionalizes the problems of unpopular minorities like Gypsies and conversos (Jewish converts to Catholicism); the difficulties of social mobility in a Christian setting; the presence in society of differing and even outlandish individuals; and the oppressive role of honor, which was popularized by Lope de Vega and later formed a leitmotiv of Spanish drama. In his analysis of Cervantess creative response to history, Ricapito relates the novelas to the works of Lope de Vega and Mateo Aleman and shows how Cervantes brings to life many literary topoi and places them in a realistic, credible framework in which the historical presence is strongly felt. In Cervantess treatment of Spains waning prestige in Europe, we see his vision of human behavior. His view is stern, his critique is sharp, and he is sensitive to external stimuli.

La estructura del Guzmán de Alfarache de Mateo Alemán

Para quienes han seguido la fortuna del Guzman de Alfarache, la cuestion de la unidad artistica y de su estructura ha sido siempre un problema espinoso. A pesar de indagaciones serias y precisas por especialistas sensibles a este problema, la cuestion de la escision entre narration y moralizacion, anecdota, fäbula y sermon queda todavia muy urgente. El presente trabajo intenta estudiar el problema de la estructura del Guzman, tratando de mostrar que el Guzman es una obra de una unidad artistica a pesar de lo que han dicho muchos criticos; que los varios elementos de la obra no son exträneos a la vida del personaje, por lo menos no tan exträneos como se ha dicho; y que hay una relation entre las aventuras del personaje y las varias digresiones que ofrece el personaje-narrador.