Amy Gill
English 410
July 9, 2008
Essay Proposal
Exploring Identity Transformation in Don Quixote
This essay will attempt to understand the purpose of Cervantes’ experimentation with shifts in an individuals worth and class status. The essay will also aim to examine the significance of these shifts in Cervantes’ time. Through the exploration of the implications of the transformation of characters into imaginary and improved people the political, social, and gender situations of the Renaissance will be explored. Don Quixote appears to be transforming the lower class to elevated status in order to demonstrate the political and societal situation at the time. In regards to prostitution, which was legal in the time of Cervantes, transforming the women into princesses appears to be elevating them in order to demonstrate their true worth as apposed to the view that society held of women, who had little to no control over their own lives. In terms of Sancho the concept of a good ruler appears to be in question. Further, with Quixote’s view of the world the nature of reality is questioned. Through the transformations in this text I hope to demonstrate the manner in which the text, Don Quixote, interacts with the situation that was present in Cervantes’ time.
Works Cited
Boruchoff, David A., On the Place of Madness, Deviance, and Eccentricity in Don Quixote. Hispanic Review, 70.1 (2002): 1-23.
Corteguera, Luis, R., Sancho Panza Wants an
Corteguera explores the idea of the reversal of established order and questions the nature of good rulers.
Danow, David K., Under the Sign of a Lie: Fiction within Fiction in Don Quixote and Anna Karenina. Semiotica: Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies, 151 (2004): 201-218.
Danow presents the idea that people create a fictional world in order to make sense of their own lives.
Earle, Peter G., In and Out of Time (Cervantes, Dostoevsky, Borges). Hispanic Review, 71.1 (2003): 1-13.
Earle explores the idea that the world created by Don Quixote may be psychologically closer to reality than people may think.
Munoz Molina, Antonio. Becoming Don Quixote. World Literature Today: A Literary Quarterly of the
This article takes the view that the transformations seen in Don Quixote are reflective of social pressures and the power they hold to force individuals to conform. Further, this text also discusses the dangers present in self-invention and self-delusion, while considering the boundary that exists between them.
Schmidt, Rachel. Women in the 1905 and 1916 Cervantes Centenary Activities. Romance Quarterly, 52.4 (2005): 294-311.
Schmidt discusses the limited opportunities that were available to women and highlights the lack of control that they had over their own lives. This article presents the idea that altering identity is a way to a means to sanitize the female figure in Don Quixote.
Vollendorf, Lisa. Cervantes and His Women Readers. Romance Quarterly, 52.4 (2005): 312-327.
Vollendorf’s article connects the transformation of women as a means to reflect the change that was taking place in the roles of women. Women were seen as becoming more empowered and individual.
1 comment:
Hi Amy,
As I mentioned in class, I do worry that this topic is yet too broad. You will want to narrow it down significantly to focus on either class, politics, or gender. It might be easiest to begin with a specific textual moment or character that draws you, then decide which of your three nodes it seems to address.
I'd like to see one more version of this before you begin to write the essay. Why don't you email me a new potential thesis / paragraph sometime this week before class? Or come see me during office hours and we'll see if we can make this more focused together.
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