QUIJOTES "A LO DIVINO" (1552-1601): LA BÚSQUEDA DEL SENTIDO DE LA VIDA EN LA ESPAÑA DE LOS HABSBURGO (CAPÍTULOS DE HISTORIA CULTURAL)

Abstract

In my dissertation I examine the little-known romances of chivalry "a lo divino" published in Spain between 1552 and 1601. Although derived from medieval texts, these sixteenth-century texts rewrite the literary genre of the romances of chivalry, mixing it with a number of classical, biblical and hagiographic narratives and imaginaries to create a new hybrid literary genre. Using an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective as well as extensive archival research, I focus on the ideological and social context that produced these texts, their intertextuality and their reception by their readers through the centuries on both sides of the Atlantic. Although the dissertation places considerable focus on one of these texts, "Cavallero Peregrino" (1601) by Alonso de Soria, it attends also to "Peregrinación de la vida del hombre or Caballero del Sol" (1552) by Villaumbrales and "Caballería celestial" (1554) by Sampedro, along with other texts. Illuminating an aspect of the sociocultural history of medieval and early modern Spain through the lens of these lesser-known texts and their iconography, I conclude that the romances of chivalry a lo divino served as a significant model of identity formation for the Spaniards --the knight a lo divino (in opposition to the Courtier, for instance)--and one that is perpetuated through the medievalizing national-Catholic dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Related to this issue, I argue that these texts played a central role in restructuring the debate between Catholics and Protestants regarding the meaning of life, a matter of significant cultural and theological interest during the sixteenth century.