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The Epic Vision of Cervantes's "Numancia"

1984; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 36; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3207362

1086-332X

Emilie L. Bergmann,

Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

To use the adjective epic to describe Cervantes's dramatization of an event in the history of the Roman occupation of Spain is to say nothing new.' I would like, however, to examine the aspects of the play that place it generically in a narrative mode, making the classification epic not only a reference to its tone or the nobility of its subject matter, but to the play as text and performance that does not fit the predominant dramatic mode of its time. In spite of the play's perduration, unique among pre-Lope theatrical works, and its recurrent adaptations for the stage in this century, it has required substantial revision to present it effectively as theatre. Its author admitted ironically that it was performed at least once during his lifetime, and that his plays were not met with offerings of rotten cucumbers or other missiles familiar to acting troupes of his day.2 We are familiar with the dramatic genius and unerring sense of timing of entrances, exits, and silence interwoven with speech in Don Quijote and Rinconete y Cortadillo, and surprised at the lack of theatrical agility in the long speeches of The Siege ... or (as Cervantes titled it) The Destruction of Numancia. This essay employs two approaches to this problem in the play: first, demonstrating the narrative orientation of the work in terms of the discourse, and second, examining the specific modifications made in the text of the play in versions performed in this century, notably those of Jean-Louis Barrault at the Theatre Antoine in Paris, 1937; Rafael Alberti in Madrid, 1937 and Montevideo, 1943; and Jos6 Emilio Pacheco in Mexico, 1973.