Guzmán de Alfarache in light of San Antonio de Padua : Another look at Alemán's cosmovisión
2006; Routledge; Volume: 83; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Italiano
10.1080/1475382062000346153
ISSN1478-3428
Autores Tópico(s)Medieval and Classical Philosophy
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1Benito Brancaforte, 'Guzmán de Alfarache': ¿Conversión o proceso de degradación? (Madison: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, 1980). 2Richard Bjornson, The Picaresque Hero in European Fiction (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1977), 43–65. 3Michel Cavillac, Pícaros y mercaderes en el Guzmán de Alfarache (Granada: Univ. de Granada, 1994). 4Peter Dunn, Spanish Picaresque Fiction: A New Literary History (Ithaca: Cornell U. P., 1993), 44–71, 134–52, 175–97. 5These and all other references to Alemán's hagiography are taken from Libro de la vida de San Antonio de Padua (Tortosa, 1622 [1st ed. 1604]) (Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, R/34901). 6'Es el temor del hombre honra de Dios, y quien teme a Dios, afirma en el su esperança; y assi el que le buscare no tiene otra puerta para entrar, por ser el temor fundamento de la Fé, principio de sabiduria, y vinculo de la oracion' (fol. 53). 7Such criticism seems to go against a principal rhetorical strategy of hagiography, a purpose of which is to convince the reader of God's grace through repeated depictions of miracles. I would not, however, claim that Alemán is being 'ironic' here. Such statements are consistent with traditional opprobium over Judaism's failure to recognize the 'true messiah'. Moreover, Alemán attributes the Jews' demands for miracles to idle curiosity, which is condemned throughout the work. 8Indeed, Alemán claims to have been the beneficiary of San Antonio's favour on many occasions, obligating him to write the hagiography as an homage to his protector. Cavillac points out that, beyond illustrating his deep gratitude, such autobiographical references may be seen as Alemán's attempt to suggest a 'preuve d'élection divine' (Michel Cavillac, 'Le San Antonio de Padua et le "Roman Familial" de Mateo Alemán a L'Heure de L'Atalaya', Bulletin Hispanique, 93:1 [1991], 107–33 [p. 114]). Alemán's reasons for wanting to do so will be discussed below. 9'The fact that their author is the same suggests either insincerity—a hypothesis I reject—or an inner conflict whose exterior manifestation is the attempt to ignore the radical differences between the two protagonists' (Carroll Johnson, Inside 'Guzmán de Alfarache' [Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1978], 4). 10'En fait, le culte de saint portugais lui permet de mettre en scène et de légitimer son propre roman familial' ('Le San Antonio de Padua et le "Roman Familial" de Mateo Alemán', 124). 11'Sous les malices "ad hominem" perce en réalité (comme le suggère J. M. Oltra) une diatribe idéologique d'autant plus haineuse contre le groupe des réformateurs mercantilistes que celui-ci, vers 1602–1604, avait pratiquement perdu la partie avec l'avènement du duc de Lerme' ('Le San Antonio de Padua et le "Roman Familial" de Mateo Alemán', 130). 12Henri Guerreiro, 'La tradición hagiográfica antoniana de los Libros I y II del San Antonio de Padua de Mateo Alemán. Aproximación a su estructura y sus fuentes', Criticón, 32 (1985), 109–96. 13See Cavillac, Pícaros y mercaderes, and Anne Cruz, Discourses of Poverty: Social Reform and the Picaresque Novel in Early Modern Spain (Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1999). 14See Pícaros y mercaderes. In addition to the socio-economic concerns mentioned above, Alemán also employs some economic vocabulary in his theological commentary in the San Antonio. The devil, for example, has 'mal crédito,' and is a 'mercader alçado' (II, Ch. 18). 15 Spanish Picaresque Fiction, 134–53 and 47–52. 16The use of this term is significant. Brancaforte employs 'degradación' as the opposite of 'conversión', and describes Guzmán's degradation as a process of being debased by an unjust society, culminating in his abject assimilation of a hypocritical value system: 'Se observa en la novela un descenso, un proceso hacia la degradación, aunque el autor implícito encubra ese proceso, quizás para evitar su propia desintegración psíquica' ('Guzmán de Alfarache': ¿Conversión o proceso de degradación?, 198). While discussing the varied manifestations of the Nemo figure during the early modern period, Forcione points to a spiritually positive sense of 'degradation', one that may well be closer to what Alemán depicts than Brancaforte's psychological use of the term: 'El mensaje agustiniano de Nemo es aún más visible en el Elck de Bruegel, un dibujo que combina el tema de la admisión cristiana de la nada del ser con el tema del logro del conocimiento de sí por medio de la introspección y la reminiscencia' (Alban Forcione, 'El desposeimiento del ser en la literatura renacentista: Cervantes, Gracián y los desafíos de Nemo', NRFH, 34 [1985], 654–90 [p. 669]). The idea that redemption often involved a preliminary process of degradation (rather than an uninterrupted ascent), very familiar to the period in question, is sometimes seen as necessarily 'problematic' by modern readers. 17Mateo Alemán, Guzmán de Alfarache, ed., with introduction and notes, by Francisco Rico (Barcelona: Planeta, 1980), 397. 18'Que se me da que digas, ya no voy a la casa de conversacion a murmurar, ni a jugar, porque no se trata ya de vidas agenas en ella, ni se juega mas de un entretenimiento, alli entretengo el tiempo sin perjuyzio de tercero: y no se ofende Dios en que se dé algun espacio al animo; que los padres en el desierto afloxaron al arco la cuerda. No siempre se rezan las horas en la Iglesia, cada cosa tiene su tiempo. Lo primero que yo hago cada dia es, oyr Missa, y el rosario en la mano, me voy alli a passar la vida, hasta las horas del comer: Buelvo a la tarde otro rato, y si jugamos es cosa poca, y todo conversacion. Hermano (dexando aparte lo que juegas, que tu bolsa lo siente, tu muger lo llora, tu honra y tus hijos lo padecen) dime, para que son todas aquellas sillas, en que os assentays a la puerta de la calle, que se parecen las tablillas en los mesones, que dicen aqui se trata de vidas agenas […]' (fol. 162–63). 19In fact, Alemán has Guzmán discuss and illustrate comic principles consistent with El Pinciano's concept of fealdad, Huarte de San Juan's physiological accounts of laughter, and Aristotle's sense of moderation in eutrapelia. As a result, the humour in Guzmán de Alfarache is not limited to Schadenfreude: virtuosic word-play as well as grotesque farce abounds, joke delivery is expounded upon, as are the varying effects of laughter. I have discussed humour in Guzmán de Alfarache in my unpublished dissertation, 'Cervantes and the Humorist Vision: The Picaresque and Play in Four 'Novelas ejemplares' (Princeton, 1997). 21 Spanish Picaresque Fiction, 152. In the introduction to his edition of Guzmán de Alfarache, Rico comments: 'El elogio, en el San Antonio, II, x, del entendimiento y los sentidos no disuena en el conjunto del pensamiento de Alemán: una ilustre tradición avalaba el estudio de la miseria et dignitas hominis como términos no excluyentes entre sí' (40, n. 46). 20 Spanish Picaresque Fiction, 142. Although Cavillac sees a rather sharp distinction between the Counter-Reformation theology of the San Antonio and a progressive humanism in the Guzmán ('Le San Antonio de Padua et le "Roman Familial" de Mateo Alemán', 114), the contemporary issues Guerreiro points out in the hagiography (see above) suggest greater continuities. On the other hand, in addition to the strong currents of asceticism, the spectacle of shipwreck inducing the passangers to pray to their saints and promise pilgrimages to the relics (III, Ch. 9), or the endorsement of bulas (III, Ch. 2), would seem inimical to Erasmus' thought, or to that of the sceptical author of Lazarillo de Tormes. 22In accordance with Dunn's structural observations (backed up by many historical ones), I use here Frye's term for romance (see The Secular Scripture [Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. P., 1976]).
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