WEBVTT

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Prof: So this is the
course on Cervantes' Don

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Quixote.

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from Comparative Literature and
the Spanish Department.

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Normally, in Spanish we go by
the first of the two last names,

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information.

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You will be getting tidbits
about Spanish culture such as

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the one I've just given you
throughout the course,

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even if this is not a culture
class or a language class,

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but it is important for you to
know them.

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You will also be getting a good
deal about Spanish history,

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both in the lectures and in the
assigned readings,

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and of course,
through the reading of the

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Quixote.

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You will also,
of course, have to learn a few

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titles in Spanish,
works of Spanish literature

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that I will be mentioning and
that you will learn in the

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course of the semester;
but that is to be expected,

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I guess.

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So in this course we are going
to read together one of the

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unquestioned masterpieces of
world literature,

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let alone the Western Canon,
as defined by my friend Harold

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Bloom in his popular book,
The Western Canon,

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where it appears at the very
top of the list,

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paired with Hamlet.

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The Quixote is a book
that will affect your lives,

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not just your understanding and
enjoyment of literature,

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I can anticipate that.

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The Quixote is the first
modern novel.

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I'll be talking a lot about the
novel, modern novel,

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and it will become clear as we
move along, because there is

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confusion.

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A novel in which,
according to Gabriel

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novelist,
a novel where there is already

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everything that novelists would
attempt to do in the future

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until today.

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Young Sigmund Freud formed the
Cervantes club with his friends,

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and the Quixote was
Jorge Luis Borges' obsession.

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Borges, as you may know,
was the great Argentine writer,

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famous.

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Ian Watt, the late British
scholar considered Don

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Quixote "one of four
myths of modern

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individualism,"
he called them,

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the others being Faust,
Don Juan and Robinson

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Crusoe,
in works by Goethe,

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Tirso de Molina and Daniel
Defoe,

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but this is not the most
important thing about the book.

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The Quixote has and has
continued to be read by millions

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of readers in every imaginable
language.

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And we will be asking
ourselves: Why?

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What is it that this book has
that is so meaningful to so

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many?

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I myself have answered the
question in this fashion in the

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introduction to the Penguin
Classics edition that we will be

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using in this course,
the Penguin Classics

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translation by John Rutherford.

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I say there,
in that introduction,

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the following:
"Miguel De Cervantes

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Saavedra's masterpiece has
endured because it focuses on

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literature's foremost appeal,
to become another,

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to live a typically embattled
self for another closer to one's

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desires and aspirations.

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This is why Don Quixote
has often been read as a

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children's book and continues to
be read by or to children.

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Experience and life's blows
teaches our limits and erode the

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hope of living up to our dreams,
but our hope never vanishes.

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It is the soul's pith,
the flickering light of being,

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the spiritual counterpart to
our DNA's master code.

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When the hero regains his
sanity at the end of Part II,

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he dies as the last chances of
living an imaginary life

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disappear, so must life itself.

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Don Quixote's serene passing
reflects this understanding.

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He knows that the dream of life
is over and as a Neo-Platonist

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and Christian his only hope now
is to find the true life after

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death."

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So much for my own quote...

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Sorry.

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For you, reading the
Quixote will be an event

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that you will always remember,
and Don Quixote and Sancho,

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his squire,
will become life long friends

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about whom you will think often.

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I can predict that,
safely--I think.

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So, what is the Quixote?

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A novel, you will say.

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Well, first of all,
the Quixote,

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if it is a novel,
is two novels.

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One published in 1605 and the
other in 1615.

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Together, they are known as
the Quixote --

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much more about the title in a
minute--

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and knowledgeable people refer
to them as Part I and Part II,

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or the 1605 Quixote and
the 1615 Quixote.

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So the first thing to learn--
and I like first things because

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I like to build on them from the
ground up--

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is that the Quixote
consists of two parts originally

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published separately ten years
apart: ten years apart.

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But what Cervantes wrote,
though, considered the first

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modern novel,
was not a novel as we know them

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today, because novels did not
exist as such yet.

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Novels developed in the wake of
the Quixote,

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so Cervantes could not have set
out to write a novel.

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In his time,
in Cervantes' time,

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there were chivalric romances,
stories about knight-errants--a

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lot more about that in the very
near future--

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pastoral romances,
stories about fake shepherds,

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picaresque lives--what we call
today confusedly picaresque

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novels--
and brief nouvelle or

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novella,
that is, long short stories of

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which Cervantes wrote quite a
few,

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and very good ones,
and we will read some here in

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this course, too.

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The modern novel would evolve
from translations and imitations

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of the Quixote,
particularly in France and

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England,
and would attain its current

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form in the eighteenth century.

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I am very much a historian and
I would like for you to have a

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clear historical,
chronological idea of the

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development of the novel and of
Cervantes' own career,

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so take note of these
chronological clarifications

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that I give you.

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Now, what may you know about
the Quixote?

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Many of you,
I suppose, come to this course

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intrigued by the name of an
author and the title of a book

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that you may have heard about,
but that, like most classics,

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not many have actually read in
its entirety,

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much less studied.

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As with most classics,
you have probably heard so much

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about the Quixote that it
feels as if you had read it.

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Many have heard the songs from
Man of La Mancha,

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"The Impossible
Dream," and so forth;

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perhaps you have even seen the
show.

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It's quite a good show,
by the way.

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I don't look down upon it.

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It is a version of the
Quixote in an American mode,

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very much an American mode,
but a very good one.

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So many of you have seen Man
of La Mancha,

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have heard the songs,
and maybe you have even read a

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comic book based on the novel.

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There are comic books based on
the novel.

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Others may have read it in a
high school class,

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parts of it,
some of you may have read it in

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a course like Directed Studies,
in conjunction with other

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western classics,
such as the Odyssey,

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the Aeneid and the
Divine Comedy.

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Whatever the case may be,
most of you are probably

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puzzled by the spelling and
pronunciation of the

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protagonist's name and the title
of the book.

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Let me clarify those as a
modest beginning,

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the first step having been to
tell you that the Quixote

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is two novels.

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Now, the second step is to tell
you about the name of the

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protagonist and how to pronounce
it and how we pronounce it in

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Spanish and how it's spelled,
and why.

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The way to pronounce it in
modern Spanish is Quihote,

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kee-ho-te.

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No gliding to the 'o.'

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No 'kee-hoe-te.'

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In Spanish we don't glide the
vowels; they are short and

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crisp.

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Why then, that vexing 'x' in
English?

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The reason is that when the
book was written in the last

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years of the sixteenth century
and the first of the

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seventeenth,
the sound of the 'j' in Spanish

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was still in the process of
moving from the /sh/ sound that

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it had thanks to the influence
of Arabic--

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more about that later--moving
towards the aspirated /h/ of

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modern Spanish,
that /sh/ sound was then

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written with an 'x' in the
still-to-be-codified spelling of

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the language.

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Spelling of modern European
languages was not codified until

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the eighteenth century.

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For instance,
the modern word for 'soap,' in

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Spanish,
many of you know who know some

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with an 'x,' and that 'x' is
still retained,

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Hence, the English,
seeing an 'x' in the middle of

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the title of Cervantes' book--
the book was translated very

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early into English:
published in 1605,

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the first translation appeared
in 1611;

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six years is very fast in the
seventeenth century--

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so the English,
seeing that 'x,' mispronounced

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it 'quic-shote,' with a sound
that it never had in Spanish.

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That is why you have the 'x' in
English, and the

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mispronunciation 'quixote.'

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You follow the history?

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Now, the French,
meanwhile hearing that /sh/

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rendered it 'qui-sho-t' which is
still the way they mispronounce

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it.

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The French call it 'Don
Quishot.'

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I will always say here
'Quijote' and hope that you will

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learn to do the same from now
on,

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at the risk of sounding a
little snobbish to English

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speakers.

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But Yalies can sound snobbish
if you...

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So now a few more basic,
very basic facts about the

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title of the book.

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The little of a book or a
painting is like the first

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interpretation by its author.

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It is a sort of what we would
call in literary criticism a

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meta-text, a text above the
text.

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Sometimes, though,
titles can be misleading,

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but they are always
interesting, and should be

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examined carefully making sure
that you gain access to the full

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title of the first edition,
not one that has been tampered

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with by editors or the reading
public later.

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For instance,
the Pickwick Papers,

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the novel by Dickens was really
called The Posthumous Papers

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of the Pickwick Club and it
is interesting why it is called

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so.

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Now, be careful also with the
translations of titles.

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I will tell you later about
some of the Quixotes'

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because translations of titles
sometimes are very misleading.

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A novel by Alejo Carpentier
called El Siglo de las

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Luces was translated as
The Explosion in the

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Cathedral.

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So you say, what?

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Because the editors thought
that The Age of

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Enlightenment would sound
like the title of a textbook or

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something,
so that's the way that they

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translated it.

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So you have to be very careful
if you're going to really read

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something carefully about the
title.

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So you go to the real title.

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Now, the full title of the
first part of Don

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Quixote--remember,
published in 1605;

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I want to engrave that date on
your mind--is as follows:

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El ingenioso hidalgo don
Quixote de la Mancha.

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You know that the 'u' was
rendered as a 'v' before the

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Latin.

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So El ingenioso hidalgo don
Quixote de la Mancha.

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This is a reproduction of the
actual title page of the first

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Quixote.

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You are seeing it, okay.

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We are fortunate enough to have
a copy of that first edition at

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Beinecke Library here at Yale.

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All right, so let us go over
those words one by one.

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I can assure you we are not
going to go over every word in

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the book one by one as I'm going
to do with the title,

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or it would take the rest of
our lives to finish reading

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the Quixote together!

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So 'ingenioso' does not
mean here exactly what it means

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today in Spanish.

16:41.200 --> 16:45.740
'Ingenioso' means today
something like 'acute,' 'witty,'

16:45.739 --> 16:47.569
'cute,' or 'inventive.'

16:47.570 --> 16:52.110
In 1611 Covarrubias
writes--now, Covarrubias is a

16:52.111 --> 16:58.171
name that you're going to be
hearing throughout the semester,

16:58.168 --> 16:59.298
and I'm going to put it on the
board,

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just the last name,
because it's very important.

17:02.639 --> 17:08.219


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He was a lexicographer who
published in 1611 the first

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dictionary of the Spanish
language,

17:30.298 --> 17:33.158
the first dictionary of the
Spanish language called

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Tesoro de la lengua
castellana o

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Spanish Language.

17:41.618 --> 17:45.898
It's very convenient that
Covarrubias published that

17:45.904 --> 17:50.024
dictionary in 1611,
right in between the two parts

17:50.020 --> 17:54.470
of the Quixote,
1605,1615; the dictionary comes

17:54.472 --> 17:55.652
in 1611.

17:55.650 --> 17:59.820
So Covarrubias gives us
Cervantes' Spanish.

17:59.818 --> 18:05.328
So this is why it is such an
important book for the reading

18:05.326 --> 18:08.646
of Cervantes' Don
Quixote.

18:08.650 --> 18:11.120
The title itself is
interesting, because it shows

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that Castilian and Spanish are
one in the same thing.

18:13.950 --> 18:19.850
I'll talk about that a little
more later--he writes about

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ingenio:
"We commonly call

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ingenio a natural force
of the mind that inquires that

18:27.272 --> 18:30.582
which through reason and
intelligence can be found

18:30.579 --> 18:33.889
through all sorts of sciences,
disciplines,

18:33.894 --> 18:38.264
liberal and mechanical arts,
subtle inventions and deceit.

18:38.259 --> 18:42.649
Hence, we call engineer
(ingeniero) he who builds

18:42.654 --> 18:46.814
machines to fight off the enemy
and to attack him.

18:46.808 --> 18:53.968
Ingenioso is he who has
a subtle and sharp wit."

18:53.970 --> 18:58.640
So 'ingenioso' in the
title of Don Quixote,

18:58.640 --> 19:03.410
of the Quixote,
means 'a heightened kind of wit

19:03.410 --> 19:08.720
or understanding,' one that
verges on madness recalling what

19:08.720 --> 19:12.770
Plato said in The
Republic about poets,

19:12.769 --> 19:15.559
poets being slightly bad.

19:15.558 --> 19:18.278
A few years before the
publication of Don

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Quixote, of the
Quixote,

19:20.690 --> 19:25.860
in the year 1575 within
Cervantes' lifetime,

19:25.858 --> 19:35.918
Juan Huarte de San Juan--you
don't have to remember this name

19:35.915 --> 19:39.945
so much--
a medical doctor published a

19:39.945 --> 19:44.315
very important book called
Examen de ingenios para las

19:44.318 --> 19:47.598
ciencias,
and so a very long title.

19:47.598 --> 19:55.148
It is 'Wits Examined' would be
the translation of that title in

19:55.154 --> 20:00.764
which he studies different kinds
of madness.

20:00.759 --> 20:05.839
So Examen de ingenios
meant--of Huarte de San Juan--an

20:05.836 --> 20:10.486
examination of various kinds of
madness of the kind that

20:10.490 --> 20:12.690
Covarrubias mentioned.

20:12.690 --> 20:16.410
So this is to give you the
context of the word

20:16.409 --> 20:21.199
'ingenioso' in the title
El ingenioso hidalgo don

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Quixote de la Mancha.

20:23.598 --> 20:27.998
Now, 'hidalgo' is a
contraction of 'hijo de

20:28.001 --> 20:32.661
algo,' which in Spanish
means 'son of something.'

20:32.660 --> 20:36.160
Of course, we are all sons of
daughters of something.

20:36.160 --> 20:40.160
But what that meant was you are
the son of someone of some

20:40.164 --> 20:44.224
distinction,
of a worthy lineage,

20:44.220 --> 20:48.870
and Covarrubias again,
says it means:

20:48.866 --> 20:52.156
"The same as noble,
with an ancient pure

20:52.157 --> 20:53.427
lineage."

20:53.430 --> 20:56.410
In other words,
pure of cast,

20:56.410 --> 21:00.030
of origin, of ilk,
of tradition.

21:00.028 --> 21:03.498
An hidalgo,
as you will discover reading

21:03.500 --> 21:07.500
the first chapter of the book is
a petty nobleman,

21:07.500 --> 21:12.320
someone belonging to the lower
nobility or aristocracy.

21:12.318 --> 21:17.958
It is important here to note
that Cervantes does not call Don

21:17.957 --> 21:22.277
Quixote here a
'caballero,' a knight.

21:22.278 --> 21:25.328
The novel is at the most basic
level,

21:25.328 --> 21:31.438
the story of a petty nobleman
who becomes by din of his own

21:31.440 --> 21:37.760
self invention a knight worthy
of using the 'Don' that

21:37.759 --> 21:40.499
is given in the title.

21:40.500 --> 21:43.190
In 1615, however,
in the second part of the

21:43.192 --> 21:46.492
Quixote--
and we will look at that title

21:46.494 --> 21:50.844
page when we come to it--
Don Quixote is called a

21:50.838 --> 21:56.928
'caballero' for a variety
of reasons that I will explain

21:56.929 --> 21:59.089
at the proper time.

21:59.088 --> 22:02.838
Now, 'don,' D-O-N,
is a form of address like

22:02.836 --> 22:07.106
'sir,' 'sire,' that not everyone
had a right to expect.

22:07.108 --> 22:09.988
Don Quixote did not,
or Alonso Quixano,

22:09.990 --> 22:12.060
the man who became Don Quixote,
did not,

22:12.058 --> 22:15.338
by virtue of his modest station
in life,

22:15.338 --> 22:19.418
but he takes on the
'don' as part of his self

22:19.420 --> 22:20.380
invention.

22:20.380 --> 22:23.180
'Hidalgos,' in other
words, did not have the right to

22:23.175 --> 22:25.305
the 'don.' 'Don,'
of course,

22:25.308 --> 22:30.988
derives from the Latin
'dominus,' 'sir,' 'lord,'

22:30.991 --> 22:32.151
'master.'

22:32.150 --> 22:35.800
Your readings in Elliot,
Imperial Spain,

22:35.800 --> 22:39.770
one of the books for the
course, will give you much

22:39.769 --> 22:42.229
further background on this.

22:42.230 --> 22:46.880
Now, 'Quijote' as you
will learn reading the first

22:46.876 --> 22:51.636
chapters of the book,
too, is said to be a derivation

22:51.637 --> 22:55.897
of 'quijada,' jaw,
or 'quesada,' something

22:55.902 --> 23:01.012
having to do with cheese,
or 'quejana' something

23:01.005 --> 23:04.435
having to do with complaint.

23:04.440 --> 23:07.210
'Quijano' or
'quijana' could be,

23:07.211 --> 23:10.171
it is said that it is last
name, one of them,

23:10.170 --> 23:13.040
'Quijano' is the last
name of Alonso Quixano,

23:13.039 --> 23:15.179
the man of who becomes Don
Quixote,

23:15.180 --> 23:19.390
the hidalgo who turns himself
into Don Quixote.

23:19.390 --> 23:22.990
These names echo those words
mentioned before,

23:22.990 --> 23:27.070
'quijada,'
'quesada,' and so forth.

23:27.068 --> 23:31.118
They are not very high sounding
or ennobling words,

23:31.115 --> 23:35.565
quite the contrary--I hope no
one here has the last name

23:35.567 --> 23:37.427
Quijano or Quijana.

23:37.430 --> 23:39.430
It happened to me in one of
these classes,

23:39.430 --> 23:44.130
as I was explaining this,
that a Hispanic young woman in

23:44.134 --> 23:47.474
the class had the last name
Quijano,

23:47.470 --> 23:49.610
and I had to profusely
apologize.

23:49.608 --> 23:52.998
But I'm just trying to explain
the title of the novel,

23:53.003 --> 23:56.723
but I am hoping that none of
your last names is Quijano.

23:56.720 --> 24:00.810
Now, the '–ote'
ending, O-T-E,

24:00.806 --> 24:05.666
suffix is a suffix that in
Spanish always refers to

24:05.670 --> 24:11.410
something base or grotesque and
sounds it: 'gordote,'

24:11.410 --> 24:17.120
from 'gordo' is a fatso;
'grandote' from

24:17.122 --> 24:21.732
'grande' is a hulking big
guy, a lummox;

24:21.730 --> 24:26.820
'feote' from
'feo,' is an ugly cuss,

24:26.818 --> 24:29.738
so 'Quijote,' then,
was meant to sound abasing and

24:29.740 --> 24:32.990
ridiculous,
particularly when paired with

24:32.986 --> 24:38.106
'don,' with which it
forms a kind of oxymoronic pair,

24:38.106 --> 24:40.186
'Don Quijote.'

24:40.190 --> 24:44.460
'Don' is high sounding,
and Quixote has all of these

24:44.461 --> 24:46.231
negative connotations.

24:46.230 --> 24:50.190
It also has echoes of
'Lanzarote,' one of the

24:50.190 --> 24:54.420
knight-errants that Don Quixote
reads about,

24:54.420 --> 25:00.340
and it has also been discovered
that it is the name of a part of

25:00.339 --> 25:06.969
the armor covering the leg,
but the important background is

25:06.971 --> 25:09.431
what I gave before.

25:09.430 --> 25:12.240
Now, 'Mancha,' 'la
Mancha,' is a region in

25:12.240 --> 25:14.880
central Spain,
in Castile, that encompasses

25:14.883 --> 25:17.733
parts of the provinces of
Toledo, Ciudad Real,

25:17.732 --> 25:19.192
Cuenca and Albacete.

25:19.190 --> 25:24.820
There are maps of Spain on the
website and geography is very

25:24.818 --> 25:30.448
important in the Quixote,
particularly in Part II.

25:30.450 --> 25:35.170
This is a novel that is very
rooted in a given geography.

25:35.170 --> 25:39.550
Now, La Mancha is flat,
arid and monotonous.

25:39.548 --> 25:42.488
Its main products used to be
cereals and wine,

25:42.490 --> 25:45.880
but the important thing here is
that it is not,

25:45.876 --> 25:48.746
or it was not until Cervantes'
work,

25:48.750 --> 25:55.660
a particularly desirable place
to be from.

25:55.660 --> 26:00.150
'Mancha' also means
stain in Spanish.

26:00.150 --> 26:03.390
It all sounds like a put down.

26:03.390 --> 26:11.700
Being from La Mancha was like
being from Bridgeport,

26:11.700 --> 26:17.730
or Buffalo, or Brooklyn,
or Podunk.

26:17.730 --> 26:21.990
Now, of course,
this has all changed with the

26:21.986 --> 26:26.236
book,
and now the name has and the

26:26.243 --> 26:31.703
region has a poetic air,
and there are theme parks in La

26:31.701 --> 26:34.641
Mancha with windmills and all in
Spain,

26:34.640 --> 26:40.410
of course, but that was not
what Cervantes intended when he

26:40.409 --> 26:43.989
had Don Quixote be from La
Mancha.

26:43.990 --> 26:49.130
It was to be in contrast to
other knights who came from more

26:57.848 --> 27:01.238
from England,
and then, Don Quixote de la

27:01.244 --> 27:02.014
Mancha.

27:02.009 --> 27:04.869
You see, this is what is
supposed to be meant by the

27:04.871 --> 27:05.321
title.

27:05.318 --> 27:08.688
You wouldn't have suspected
this if I hadn't told you,

27:08.692 --> 27:12.262
because you are still under the
influence of Man of La

27:12.255 --> 27:13.205
Mancha.

27:13.210 --> 27:18.550
Now, the issue of Don Quixote's
spurious 'don' is

27:18.554 --> 27:22.834
significant in a broader
historical sense.

27:22.828 --> 27:26.658
By the sixteenth century,
the glory days of the nobility

27:26.656 --> 27:27.836
were long gone.

27:27.838 --> 27:31.798
Noblemen were no longer much
engaged in the military,

27:31.801 --> 27:36.451
except that the highest ranks
had never seen actual combat.

27:36.450 --> 27:39.800
Wars were fought by
professional armies.

27:39.798 --> 27:44.328
There was little chance for the
nobility to exercise marshal

27:44.326 --> 27:49.156
like activities which were left
now to jousts and to hunting.

27:49.160 --> 27:52.850
War became sports for the
aristocracy.

27:52.848 --> 27:58.088
The nobility was on the whole
on a downturn in Spain because

27:58.093 --> 28:02.273
of policies initiated by the
Catholic Kings,

28:02.269 --> 28:06.129
Ferdinand and Isabella,
to curtail the power of the

28:06.128 --> 28:07.208
aristocracy.

28:07.210 --> 28:11.010
Now, certain groups at the
highest level cluster around the

28:11.011 --> 28:15.211
courts of the descendants of the
Catholic Kings just had a lot of

28:15.208 --> 28:17.028
power,
but on the whole,

28:17.028 --> 28:21.048
the nobility is on the decline,
more noticeably so in La

28:21.054 --> 28:25.634
Mancha, which had a sparse
population of hidalgos as

28:25.631 --> 28:29.421
opposed to northern regions of
the peninsula.

28:32.288 --> 28:37.338
knight-errantry,
was a way of reviving the past,

28:37.338 --> 28:41.548
of reliving a past of splendor
and glory,

28:41.548 --> 28:45.928
now only really available
through reading the chivalric

28:45.931 --> 28:49.911
romances which portrayed a
medieval world when the

28:49.905 --> 28:53.715
aristocracy was truly involved
in warfare,

28:53.720 --> 28:57.140
or in sports,
such as hunting--of which Don

28:57.138 --> 29:01.858
Quixote was fond as you will
learn in the early chapters of

29:01.861 --> 29:02.921
the book.

29:02.920 --> 29:07.210
We will have much more on
chivalric romances as I promised

29:07.205 --> 29:08.405
in the future.

29:08.410 --> 29:12.730
Now, what about the language of
the Quixote,

29:12.734 --> 29:15.854
what language did Cervantes
write?

29:15.849 --> 29:18.229
You say: in Spanish;
yes, but we're in the

29:18.234 --> 29:20.504
sixteenth, seventeenth century.

29:20.500 --> 29:25.480
In the sixteenth century
Spanish was undergoing its last

29:25.481 --> 29:30.371
significant linguistic
revolution, its last significant

29:30.373 --> 29:31.373
change.

29:31.368 --> 29:35.158
And at the time that the
Quixote was written and

29:35.163 --> 29:39.033
published, pronoun and verb
forms were still in relative

29:39.027 --> 29:39.657
flux.

29:39.660 --> 29:44.690
But Cervantes' Spanish does not
sound to the modern Spanish ear

29:44.689 --> 29:48.989
as archaic and arcane as
Shakespearean English does to

29:48.989 --> 29:51.179
modern English readers.

29:51.180 --> 29:54.840
I have a difficult time
understanding Shakespeare on the

29:54.838 --> 29:57.698
stage sometimes with my American
English.

29:57.700 --> 30:00.020
It does sound,
the Spanish of Cervantes,

30:00.019 --> 30:03.339
does sound quaint,
and the book's fame gives

30:03.344 --> 30:07.524
Cervantes' Spanish today a
formal sound that it did not

30:07.518 --> 30:11.538
have to its contemporaries for
whom the book was not,

30:11.538 --> 30:14.088
of course, still a classic.

30:14.088 --> 30:16.958
If read out loud,
the Quixote is more

30:16.957 --> 30:20.627
comprehensible to current
speakers of Spanish from Spain

30:20.625 --> 30:24.025
and Latin American than
Hamlet is to a modern

30:24.026 --> 30:26.356
British or American audience.

30:26.358 --> 30:30.318
But, what language was it that
Cervantes used?

30:30.318 --> 30:35.148
Well, he wrote in Castilian or
Spanish, which are the same,

30:35.151 --> 30:38.151
as we learn in Covarrubias'
title.

30:38.150 --> 30:43.210
Americans have the mistaken
notion that they speak Castilian

30:43.210 --> 30:48.270
in Spain, and we don't know in
the rest of Latin America.

30:48.269 --> 30:53.019
It is the same language.

30:53.019 --> 30:56.559
Castilian was the language of
Castile,

30:56.558 --> 31:00.588
land of castles,
because as the re-conquest--

31:00.588 --> 31:02.598
you will learn what the
re-conquest is,

31:02.604 --> 31:05.364
that is, the re-conquest of
Spain from the Moors--

31:05.358 --> 31:11.008
advanced in central Spain,
as this re-conquest advanced,

31:11.009 --> 31:14.669
castles were built to secure
the territories,

31:14.666 --> 31:16.076
hence, Castile.

31:16.078 --> 31:19.868
And then Castile became,
as you will read in Elliot,

31:19.868 --> 31:24.698
the most influential region,
political and military above

31:24.700 --> 31:29.070
all of the peninsula,
and with the unification of the

31:29.068 --> 31:33.218
peninsula under the Catholic
kings it tried to impose its

31:33.221 --> 31:35.671
language on the rest of Spain.

31:35.670 --> 31:43.410
So you know what the difference
between a language and a dialect

31:43.405 --> 31:44.015
is?

31:44.019 --> 31:52.299
A language is a dialect with an
army, so a language is the

31:52.298 --> 32:00.868
language of a region with enough
power to impose it on other

32:00.867 --> 32:04.497
people and become so.

32:04.500 --> 32:09.970
So there were--and are--other
languages in Spain:

32:09.967 --> 32:12.367
Catalan,
Galician, Basque,

32:12.374 --> 32:16.044
Valencian, but the Catholic
Kings and their descendents

32:16.040 --> 32:19.780
imposed Castilian on the
peninsula as much as they could

32:19.776 --> 32:23.236
and on the vast territories of
the New World,

32:23.240 --> 32:27.250
what is today Latin America,
because the discovery and

32:27.250 --> 32:30.430
conquest were mainly Castilian
projects.

32:30.430 --> 32:35.820
Spanish is more uniform as a
result of these policies today

32:35.817 --> 32:37.487
than English is.

32:37.490 --> 32:45.550
So what is spoken in the Bronx,
Mexico City and Madrid?

32:45.548 --> 32:49.528
Castilian, which is Spanish,
is what's spoken,

32:49.528 --> 32:52.178
it's spoken in those places.

32:52.180 --> 32:58.630
So you can erase that American
prejudice from your mind if you

32:58.628 --> 33:00.108
ever had it.

33:00.108 --> 33:03.368
It is true--I mean,
I had a colleague at Cornell,

33:03.368 --> 33:07.728
a very distinguished American
medievalist who would ask me,

33:07.730 --> 33:10.880
"In what language do you
write your scholarship,

33:10.880 --> 33:11.850
Roberto?"

33:11.848 --> 33:12.928
I said, "What do you mean?

33:12.926 --> 33:13.966
In English and Spanish."

33:13.970 --> 33:16.730
He was worried that if I didn't
write in English being in Latin

33:16.730 --> 33:18.960
America,
I didn't have a language of

33:18.957 --> 33:23.067
culture in which I could write,
because he didn't think that in

33:23.067 --> 33:25.887
Latin America we had a language
of culture.

33:25.890 --> 33:28.530
It is an American prejudice.

33:28.528 --> 33:31.458
Well, if Spanish is undergoing
its last transformation in the

33:31.462 --> 33:34.742
sixteenth century,
this was also a turbulent

33:34.743 --> 33:40.483
century for Spain in political,
religious, social and artistic

33:40.483 --> 33:41.133
terms.

33:41.130 --> 33:46.260
Consider that in the sixteenth
century Spain settled the new

33:46.260 --> 33:49.130
world and beyond,
the Philippines,

33:49.132 --> 33:54.092
and organized a vast imperial
bureaucracy to rule it.

33:54.088 --> 33:58.248
Spain also controlled parts of
Italy and the low countries,

33:58.250 --> 34:02.180
and Spain itself was adjusting
to the unification brought about

34:02.183 --> 34:05.043
by the marriage of Ferdinand and
Isabella,

34:05.038 --> 34:08.708
she from Castile,
he from Aragon.

34:08.710 --> 34:10.700
They created the first modern
state--

34:10.699 --> 34:14.739
by the way, you will find in
the Quixote characters

34:14.735 --> 34:17.775
that come from various regions
of Spain,

34:17.780 --> 34:20.170
most memorably,
at the very beginning,

34:20.170 --> 34:23.390
a Basque who speaks broken
Spanish because,

34:23.389 --> 34:26.359
even today, there are regions
in Spain,

34:26.360 --> 34:27.670
as you now if you've been to
Spain,

34:27.670 --> 34:32.460
where Spanish is really not the
language spoken;

34:36.099 --> 34:37.129
and so forth.

34:37.130 --> 34:40.440
Now, in the religious sphere,
Spain became the defender of

34:40.443 --> 34:43.373
the Catholic Church,
which was breaking up in the

34:43.373 --> 34:46.053
rest of Europe as a result of
The Reformation.

34:46.050 --> 34:50.500
Remember, the Reformation is a
sixteenth century event,

34:50.500 --> 34:53.940
Spain was the bastion of
orthodox Catholicism,

34:53.940 --> 34:56.410
and this effected tremendously
its political,

34:56.409 --> 34:59.289
social and literally life.

34:59.289 --> 35:04.209
In 1492 the Catholic Kings
expelled the Jews from Spain,

35:04.210 --> 35:06.380
and then, in 1613,
the Moriscos,

35:06.382 --> 35:09.682
the descendents of the Arabs
who were still,

35:09.679 --> 35:15.659
left, and we will be speaking
about that,

35:15.659 --> 35:19.989
and there will be distinct
echoes of all of these movements

35:19.985 --> 35:22.665
and political events in the
novel.

35:22.670 --> 35:26.160
One could say that the
Quixote is not only the

35:26.161 --> 35:30.491
first modern novel,
but the first political novel

35:30.489 --> 35:36.579
in that it reflects very clearly
political controversies of its

35:36.583 --> 35:37.373
time.

35:37.369 --> 35:40.569
In the social domain,
there was a significant

35:40.574 --> 35:43.274
population drain to the New
World,

35:43.268 --> 35:46.398
social mobility,
caused by the deliberate

35:46.396 --> 35:51.316
erosion of the aristocracy by a
crown bent on centralization and

35:51.320 --> 35:52.260
control.

35:52.260 --> 35:57.090
You will find as you read the
book that the characters move

35:57.085 --> 36:01.995
through areas that are really
depopulated, and this reflects

36:01.996 --> 36:04.406
this demographic reality.

36:04.409 --> 36:09.349
The new bureaucracy provided
ways to attain wealth and power

36:09.351 --> 36:13.461
that threatened the status of
the old and powerful

36:13.458 --> 36:17.648
aristocratic families,
as well as the traditional

36:17.652 --> 36:22.112
independence of provinces and
fiefdoms that dated back to the

36:22.114 --> 36:23.234
Middle Ages.

36:23.230 --> 36:27.450
In the literary world,
Spain's greatest splendor came

36:27.449 --> 36:31.219
at this moment,
in the waning of the

36:31.224 --> 36:38.404
Renaissance and the emergence of
new modern forms and genres.

36:38.400 --> 36:42.130
The sixteenth century opened
actually just before the

36:42.125 --> 36:46.375
sixteenth century,
in 1499, with the publication

36:46.376 --> 36:50.636
of Celestina or La
Celestina--

36:50.639 --> 36:56.469
that is a word that you should
learn here...

36:56.469 --> 37:03.029
1499--and was followed by the
emergence of the picaresque in

37:03.030 --> 37:06.590
El Lazarillo de Tormes.

37:06.590 --> 37:11.170
Lazarillo de Tormes was
the first--what we call--a

37:11.172 --> 37:13.222
picaresque novel,
1554.

37:13.219 --> 37:21.929


37:21.929 --> 37:28.049
And there emerged what came to
be known as the Spanish

37:28.047 --> 37:32.777
comedia for the Spanish
theater.

37:32.780 --> 37:35.920
They were not all comedies,
but they were called the

37:35.920 --> 37:40.340
comedia,
and these were written by Lope

37:40.336 --> 37:43.466
de Vega--
a name that you might want to

37:43.474 --> 37:47.474
keep in mind because he was a
very prolific writer who was

37:47.474 --> 37:49.304
also Cervantes's rival.

37:49.300 --> 37:53.580


37:53.579 --> 37:58.329
He may have written seven
hundred plays.

37:58.329 --> 38:00.799
How many did Shakespeare write?

38:00.802 --> 38:01.842
Thirty-some?

38:01.840 --> 38:03.680
Lope would write those in a
month.

38:03.675 --> 38:04.505
It's amazing.

38:04.510 --> 38:10.240
He was an amazing writer,
very powerful,

38:10.235 --> 38:18.305
and Cervantes had a very tense
relationship with him.

38:18.309 --> 38:20.949
In poetry, the sixteenth
century saw Garcilaso de la

38:20.954 --> 38:23.294
Vega,
a name you will see in the book

38:23.293 --> 38:25.673
many times,
and his many followers,

38:25.668 --> 38:29.488
the late great blossoming of
the Petrarchan tradition,

38:29.489 --> 38:33.389
you know Petrarch,
and the development from that

38:33.393 --> 38:37.713
Petrarchan tradition of a
powerful strain of mystical

38:37.713 --> 38:42.143
poetry,
particularly in the verse of

38:42.135 --> 38:42.495
St.

38:42.501 --> 38:44.951
John of the Cross.

38:44.949 --> 38:48.509
So the sixteenth century and
seventeenth centuries are what

38:48.509 --> 38:52.129
are called in Spanish literary
history as the Golden Age.

38:52.130 --> 38:54.910
It was also the golden age in
painting.

38:54.909 --> 38:57.669
If you have been to the Prado
Museum in Madrid,

38:57.670 --> 39:01.380
you will see what I mean,
and we will be talking a great

39:01.375 --> 39:04.945
deal about a Spanish painting
here, particularly about

39:06.360 --> 39:10.900
Now, our little philological
excursion about the title of the

39:10.898 --> 39:15.668
book already reveals a number of
things about the Quixote

39:15.666 --> 39:17.176
and about Spain.

39:17.179 --> 39:19.369
You may wonder, Arabic?

39:19.369 --> 39:22.729
What do the Arabs have to do
with Spain?

39:22.730 --> 39:26.890
Well, the Arabs occupied Spain
for eight centuries,

39:26.889 --> 39:29.789
from 711--these are good dates
to remember--

39:29.789 --> 39:36.089
to 1492, when Granada fell,
and that was last bastion of

39:36.085 --> 39:39.805
Arab power in Spain,
and it was taken by the

39:39.809 --> 39:41.659
Catholic Kings Ferdinand and
Isabella.

39:41.659 --> 39:47.369
But the Arabs left an indelible
mark upon Spanish history and

39:47.371 --> 39:49.181
Spanish language.

39:49.179 --> 39:53.589
It was not an occupation in the
sense that we envision

39:53.588 --> 39:56.498
occupations in the modern
period.

39:56.500 --> 39:59.190
Historians speak of a
convivencia,

39:59.190 --> 40:03.070
that is, a living together of
these Christian and Muslim

40:03.074 --> 40:06.754
cultures which involved fighting
with each other,

40:06.750 --> 40:08.930
but fighting amongst the
Christians,

40:08.929 --> 40:11.789
and the Muslims allied with
Christians together with

40:11.786 --> 40:13.126
Muslims, and so forth.

40:13.130 --> 40:15.320
But they were there for eight
centuries,

40:15.320 --> 40:19.840
and one could say that the
Arabic component in the broader

40:19.842 --> 40:24.372
sense is the main difference
between Spain and the rest of

40:24.367 --> 40:25.237
Europe.

40:25.239 --> 40:29.059
The title of the book already
alludes to that difference

40:29.059 --> 40:33.089
because of that 'x,' but you
will see it in many other ways

40:33.090 --> 40:34.410
as you read it.

40:34.409 --> 40:38.669
Now, you can also glean from
what I have said that the

40:38.670 --> 40:42.930
Quixote was translated very
early into other European

40:42.931 --> 40:46.761
languages which,
as already mentioned,

40:46.764 --> 40:52.514
1611 for the English and it
went on to be translated in

40:52.512 --> 40:54.962
France and so forth.

40:54.960 --> 40:56.710
The Quixote became very
rapidly,

40:56.710 --> 41:01.840
that first edition in 1605,
a European best seller,

41:01.840 --> 41:04.690
turning Cervantes,
who was, as you will read when

41:04.692 --> 41:08.022
you read from the assigned
readings in the case book,

41:08.018 --> 41:13.108
a minor figure,
suddenly into a great success.

41:13.110 --> 41:17.390
It never brought him the
financial rewards that he

41:17.387 --> 41:21.137
desperately needed,
but it turned him into a

41:21.141 --> 41:22.191
success.

41:22.190 --> 41:26.160
They say that at the beginning
in the early years the

41:26.161 --> 41:30.351
Quixote was read almost
universally as a funny book.

41:30.349 --> 41:33.609
It's obviously a misreading,
it is much more than just a

41:33.608 --> 41:34.378
funny book.

41:34.380 --> 41:41.080
Now, let us turn now in this
sort of introduction to basics

41:41.081 --> 41:45.701
to the title,
to the protagonists name in

41:45.702 --> 41:47.092
English.

41:47.090 --> 41:50.370
All of you, no doubt,
have read or heard the word

41:50.365 --> 41:54.525
'quixotic' and surely have a
general notion of its meaning.

41:54.530 --> 41:57.550
Someone who is a Quixote,
says the Oxford English

41:57.550 --> 42:00.970
Direction is--quote:
"an enthusiastic visionary

42:00.967 --> 42:03.567
person like Don Quijote or Don
Quixote,

42:03.570 --> 42:07.230
[the way that they write it]
inspired by lofty and

42:07.231 --> 42:11.491
chivalrous but also unrealizable
ideas" --Unquote.

42:11.489 --> 42:14.389
Hence, 'quixotic' is,
quote:

42:14.389 --> 42:18.159
"to strive with lofty
enthusiasm for visionary

42:18.155 --> 42:19.205
ideas."

42:19.210 --> 42:25.500
How many authors or books or
characters have entered common

42:25.500 --> 42:27.670
usage in this way?

42:27.670 --> 42:32.220
Actions or people can be
Dantesque, Kafkaesque,

42:32.222 --> 42:36.382
Rabelaisian,
but are any of these as common

42:36.378 --> 42:38.158
as 'quixotic'?

42:38.159 --> 42:44.129
'Dantesque' always refers to
the Inferno and conveys a

42:44.132 --> 42:47.222
sense of gloom,
of fire burning,

42:47.217 --> 42:51.297
sinners and all of that is
Dantesque.

42:51.300 --> 42:55.560
'Kafkaesque' describes the
situation in which a labyrinth

42:55.557 --> 42:59.737
of forces appears to control
your life and it is applied

42:59.739 --> 43:01.869
mostly to bureaucracies.

43:01.869 --> 43:05.509
Yale's bureaucracy is becoming
Kafkaesque,

43:05.510 --> 43:08.730
I can assure you of
that--'Rabelaisian,' less

43:08.728 --> 43:11.948
common,
means uncontrollable appetites,

43:11.952 --> 43:16.782
most of the time referring to
gluttony: 'He had a Rabelaisian

43:16.775 --> 43:17.655
dinner.'

43:17.659 --> 43:22.809
But you risk really sounding
snobbish if you say that you had

43:22.813 --> 43:26.853
a 'Rabelaisian dinner,' even if
you are a Yalie,

43:26.851 --> 43:31.721
but not saying 'quixotic';
'quixotic' is really part of

43:31.717 --> 43:33.187
the common usage.

43:33.190 --> 43:37.990
If pressed, I bet any one of
you could give a TV Guide

43:37.990 --> 43:42.610
abstract of the book,
even though who haven't read a

43:42.610 --> 43:43.970
word of it.

43:43.969 --> 43:46.999
It would go something like
this--I made this up:

43:47.000 --> 43:49.310
"Middle-aged many believes
that he can become a

43:49.306 --> 43:52.156
knight-errant like those he has
read about in chivalric romances

43:52.155 --> 43:53.915
and takes to the road with
Sancho,

43:53.920 --> 43:57.280
a peasant, as his squire to set
the world aright,

43:57.280 --> 43:59.990
suffers many defeats but
remains unbowed."

43:59.989 --> 44:01.699
That's the whole novel,
right there,

44:01.699 --> 44:04.579
encapsulated,
and you can put that in a TV

44:04.576 --> 44:09.026
guide or something--
I have the fantasy that you can

44:09.025 --> 44:13.615
do that with any book no matter
how complicated.

44:13.619 --> 44:17.949
Try it with the Bible or
The Odyssey or something

44:17.951 --> 44:18.791
like that.

44:18.789 --> 44:21.839
But I think with the
Quixote it works,

44:21.836 --> 44:26.126
and that is what people have in
their imaginations about the

44:26.130 --> 44:27.240
Quixote.

44:27.239 --> 44:31.889
Now, general knowledge of this
kind is the aura that surrounds

44:31.889 --> 44:33.109
most classics.

44:33.110 --> 44:35.890
It can become a temptation not
to read them.

44:35.889 --> 44:38.199
As a result,
this sort of vague knowledge

44:38.199 --> 44:41.549
also has an undeniable influence
on those who read them.

44:41.550 --> 44:45.460
It is nearly impossible to read
a classic innocently,

44:45.458 --> 44:48.388
unless you are a complete
illiterate.

44:48.389 --> 44:54.509
Besides, if you have read--in
some ways,

44:54.510 --> 44:56.390
you have read Don
Quixote if you have read

44:56.387 --> 44:58.147
The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn,

44:58.150 --> 45:00.170
or if you have read Madame
Bovary,

45:00.170 --> 45:02.100
or if you have read Kafka's
Metamorphosis,

45:02.099 --> 45:04.659
because of the influence in
the Quixote in all of

45:04.659 --> 45:07.589
those works is so great that in
a sense you have read it through

45:07.590 --> 45:08.010
them.

45:08.010 --> 45:11.640
Very few literary characters
have this aura.

45:11.639 --> 45:14.709
I wonder, Hamlet,
of course, Faust,

45:14.711 --> 45:19.321
remembering what Ian Watt said,
King Lear, Don Juan,

45:19.320 --> 45:21.580
Oedipus come to mind.

45:21.579 --> 45:23.789
Can you think of any others?

45:23.789 --> 45:27.979
There are few within each
literary tradition.

45:27.980 --> 45:31.410
For instance,
Huckleberry Finn in the

45:31.409 --> 45:33.219
American context.

45:33.219 --> 45:35.359
Jean Valjean,
perhaps, in France.

45:35.360 --> 45:39.550
Why is it that Don
Quixote has such currency as

45:39.552 --> 45:41.612
a kind of literary myth?

45:41.610 --> 45:45.680
I think that there is hardly
another secular book to which we

45:45.679 --> 45:49.409
come with more preconceived
notions and expectations.

45:49.409 --> 45:53.029
It is also one of the very few
great works of world literature

45:53.034 --> 45:56.604
that is also a children's book,
as I said in the paragraph of

45:56.601 --> 45:57.791
my introduction.

45:57.789 --> 46:00.309
I read it first,
it was read to me,

46:00.306 --> 46:03.116
as a children's book the first
time.

46:03.119 --> 46:07.539
Now, is it akin to a modern
secular Bible?

46:07.539 --> 46:13.059
Miguel de Unamuno,
the Spanish philosopher,

46:13.059 --> 46:15.739
read Don Quixote as if
it were a kind of secular

46:15.735 --> 46:18.895
Bible,
and I have the feeling that my

46:18.896 --> 46:21.656
friend Harold Bloom does the
same;

46:21.659 --> 46:24.949
a kind of new gospel,
a gospel for the modern age.

46:24.947 --> 46:25.617
Why not?

46:25.619 --> 46:29.489
You have to get something out
of the Quixote relevant

46:29.487 --> 46:32.627
to your own lives,
I think, or you're going to be

46:32.632 --> 46:35.192
wasting your time here,
believe me.

46:35.190 --> 46:39.530
I can't tell you what that is,
you'll have to find out for

46:39.530 --> 46:43.720
yourself, but why can't it
suggest something relevant to

46:43.719 --> 46:44.329
you?

46:44.329 --> 46:49.249
Or, why has it for so many over
so many years?

46:49.250 --> 46:53.040
Now, I gave my explanation in
that first paragraph to my

46:53.043 --> 46:57.053
introduction to the Penguin
Classics, but let me give you a

46:57.045 --> 46:58.835
more detailed one now.

46:58.840 --> 47:02.510
Whatever other more subtle and
specialized answers we give to

47:02.505 --> 47:05.005
this question throughout the
semester,

47:05.010 --> 47:08.190
the only way to respond to it
is to say that Don

47:08.186 --> 47:11.486
Quixote embodies the most
modern of predicaments:

47:11.489 --> 47:14.409
the individual's
dissatisfaction with the world

47:14.411 --> 47:18.441
in which he lives,
and his struggle to make the

47:18.442 --> 47:20.712
world in his desire mesh.

47:20.710 --> 47:24.940
I mean this world,
not a world yet to come,

47:24.936 --> 47:26.946
a promised heaven.

47:26.949 --> 47:30.719
Why is this a modern
predicament or crisis?

47:30.719 --> 47:37.199
Because the world is no longer
a given by the time Cervantes

47:37.201 --> 47:38.191
writes.

47:38.190 --> 47:41.480
The western conception of the
universe,

47:41.480 --> 47:44.790
which was up to about sixteenth
century largely based on a

47:44.791 --> 47:47.641
combination of Aristotle and the
Bible,

47:47.639 --> 47:50.589
that is to say,
scholasticism and the work of

47:50.588 --> 47:52.798
Aquinas has been proven faulty.

47:52.800 --> 47:56.150
Think of one major change,
the first part of the

47:56.150 --> 48:00.110
Quixote is published in 1605
barely over a hundred years

48:00.106 --> 48:04.066
after the discovery of America,
a hundred a thirteen,

48:04.065 --> 48:07.075
to be exact,
and the confirmation that the

48:07.081 --> 48:10.531
world is round,
which proved beyond argument or

48:10.530 --> 48:14.700
doubt that much of the legacy of
the ancient world in the Middle

48:14.699 --> 48:16.619
Ages was open to question.

48:16.619 --> 48:20.649
Think of a second major change,
the Reformation had challenged

48:20.648 --> 48:24.608
the authority of the Catholic
Church and made political gains

48:24.612 --> 48:27.192
in many important European
nations.

48:27.190 --> 48:30.630
Don Quixote is not as a
struggle between the individual

48:30.630 --> 48:33.720
and the gods,
a fight against cosmic abstract

48:33.721 --> 48:37.491
forces as in Greek tragedy,
it is not as in Dante's human

48:37.492 --> 48:40.592
desire transformed into the
yearning for a sublime

48:40.588 --> 48:44.438
transcendental vision cast in a
universe of perfect coherence,

48:44.443 --> 48:46.343
the machine of the world.

48:46.340 --> 48:49.180
It is, instead,
the struggle of an individual

48:49.184 --> 48:53.004
against the intractability of a
world in which he lives,

48:53.000 --> 48:58.850
a world redolent with the
imperfections of the material,

48:58.849 --> 49:04.109
caught in a temporal flow that
carries it further and further

49:04.108 --> 49:09.278
away from ideals that seem to
exist only in the individual's

49:09.280 --> 49:10.070
mind.

49:10.070 --> 49:12.980
As Hamlet says:
"The world is out of sorts

49:12.976 --> 49:15.436
and I am here to make it
right."

49:15.440 --> 49:19.230
This is what Don Quixote says.

49:21.369 --> 49:25.289
the great Hungarian critic]
is the epic of a world that has

49:25.291 --> 49:27.321
been abandoned by God."

49:27.320 --> 49:31.650
The novels hero's psychology is
demonic.

49:31.650 --> 49:34.990
The objectivity of the novel is
the mature man's knowledge,

49:34.989 --> 49:38.349
that meaning can never quite
penetrate reality,

49:38.349 --> 49:42.129
but that without meaning
reality would disintegrate into

49:42.132 --> 49:45.032
the inessential,
into the nothingness of

49:45.029 --> 49:46.549
inessentiality."

49:51.829 --> 49:55.319
who was a neo-Kantian,
but I think the important thing

49:55.322 --> 49:59.412
to remember from that is that
it's a world abandoned by God.

49:59.409 --> 50:03.399
That it is not a God-centered
world any more,

50:03.396 --> 50:07.106
as in Dante,
that the Quixote moves

50:07.112 --> 50:08.202
through.

50:08.199 --> 50:12.219
There are other less abstract
definitions of the

50:12.224 --> 50:16.414
Quixote, global definitions
that I am fond of.

50:16.409 --> 50:19.529
The one by Larry Nelson that I
quote in my introduction,

50:19.530 --> 50:22.270
too, which goes:
"In crudest terms,

50:22.273 --> 50:26.763
the formula of Don Quixote may
be expressed as the pairing of a

50:26.757 --> 50:31.307
tall thin idealist with a short
fat realist and setting them off

50:31.313 --> 50:33.343
on a series of hazards.

50:33.340 --> 50:37.050
In previous fiction,
pairs of characters had almost

50:37.050 --> 50:39.870
always been young friends or
lovers.

50:39.869 --> 50:43.359
This new, however,
simpler arrangement together

50:43.358 --> 50:48.058
with the motif of bad literature
influencing life constitutes a

50:48.059 --> 50:52.079
primal and influential glory for
Cervantes."

50:52.079 --> 50:56.239
A corollary issue to the
question of the individual's

50:56.239 --> 51:01.279
maladjustment to the world is
another crucial modern concern;

51:01.280 --> 51:04.760
the perception of reality and
the organization of that

51:04.759 --> 51:08.829
perception into something that
can be considered the truth,

51:08.829 --> 51:12.159
the way that modern criticism
has labeled this in the

51:12.161 --> 51:14.041
Quixote is perspectivism.

51:14.039 --> 51:17.499
The interpretation of reality
depends on the perspective of

51:17.503 --> 51:20.363
the individual,
meaning in gross terms that

51:20.362 --> 51:23.802
one's interpretation of the
world is colored by one's

51:23.795 --> 51:26.365
background station in life
reading,

51:26.369 --> 51:28.329
desires, and experience in
general.

51:28.329 --> 51:32.119
There is a hilarious series of
episodes when Don Quixote takes

51:32.117 --> 51:35.257
a basin from a barber,
puts it on his head and says

51:35.264 --> 51:38.894
that it is Mambrino's helmet,
a famous helmet from the epic

51:38.885 --> 51:39.585
tradition.

51:39.590 --> 51:43.810
And in one of the episodes at
the inn,

51:43.809 --> 51:49.469
there ensues a scholastic like
discussion about whether this

51:49.469 --> 51:54.699
thing is a basin or a helmet,
which is, of course,

51:54.702 --> 52:00.332
a funny reenactment of the
issue of perspectivism,

52:00.329 --> 52:04.379
what for Don Quixote is a
helmet, to others it's a

52:04.376 --> 52:05.776
barber's basin.

52:05.780 --> 52:10.000
This is at the core of the
book, at the core of much of the

52:10.003 --> 52:12.723
humor in the book;
this idea of the various

52:12.715 --> 52:13.445
perspectives.

52:13.449 --> 52:18.439
Don Quixote sees giants and
Sancho sees windmills,

52:18.438 --> 52:23.628
and the clash repeats itself
throughout the book.

52:23.630 --> 52:27.120
But this points to a very
important issue at the

52:27.119 --> 52:32.489
beginnings of modern philosophy,
having to do precisely with the

52:32.489 --> 52:36.329
perspective of the individual on
reality,

52:36.329 --> 52:42.979
and not a perspective that has
to be determined by received

52:42.981 --> 52:43.901
ideas.

52:43.900 --> 52:48.390
So these are some of the issues
that will come up during the

52:48.394 --> 52:51.524
semester as we read the
Quixote.

52:51.518 --> 52:59.088
Please do the reading as I have
set it out in the syllabus.

52:59.090 --> 53:00.500
The syllabus,
as you know,

53:00.501 --> 53:01.631
is on the website.

53:01.630 --> 53:08.180
You can download it from the
website, and there you will find

53:08.184 --> 53:11.684
all of the readings in detail.

53:11.679 --> 53:16.539
I want to go over very briefly
over that syllabus,

53:16.539 --> 53:22.519
although you don't have it,
and also want to have you meet

53:22.516 --> 53:28.596
with the two TAs so you can
begin to try to set up meetings

53:28.597 --> 53:30.797
for the sections.

53:30.800 --> 53:34.300
Now, let me go over the
requirements for the course,

53:34.302 --> 53:38.352
too, because I am sure that you
are eager to learn what your

53:38.353 --> 53:40.073
requirements will be.

53:40.070 --> 53:45.460


53:45.460 --> 53:51.500
Now, a mid term and a take home
final exam;

53:51.500 --> 53:54.680
four two-page papers.

53:54.679 --> 53:57.189
For years I have been using
this technique.

53:57.190 --> 54:00.530
Four papers,
but each paper is only two

54:00.532 --> 54:04.052
pages, 500 words,
no more and no less.

54:04.050 --> 54:08.050
Two pages, because I want
something crisp and to the

54:08.047 --> 54:09.377
point: an idea.

54:09.380 --> 54:13.250
I will give you the topics of
the paper for which you can

54:13.253 --> 54:17.613
devise your own particular topic
but so you don't have to begin:

54:17.610 --> 54:20.840
'the Quixote,
the novel written by Miguel de

54:20.835 --> 54:22.875
Cervantes...' No,
you're writing for me.

54:22.880 --> 54:29.020
I'm giving you what I hope to
be a sharp, original take on the

54:29.021 --> 54:33.251
topic that I give you,
so four of those.

54:33.250 --> 54:36.520
And then, you are required to
come to class.

54:36.518 --> 54:40.528
We will have discussion after
my lectures in the last fifteen

54:40.534 --> 54:45.854
minutes of the class,
and you are required to come to

54:45.847 --> 54:51.077
the sections as well,
where you will be graded on

54:51.083 --> 54:54.123
your performance in the section.

54:54.119 --> 54:56.549
The grade distribution,
you will find it in the

54:56.554 --> 54:59.154
syllabus, it's forty percent the
short papers,

54:59.150 --> 55:01.530
twenty percent the midterm and
twenty-five final exam,

55:01.530 --> 55:03.280
fifteen attendance,
and so forth.

55:03.280 --> 55:07.500
You can get it and it is rather
conventional.

55:07.500 --> 55:09.820
Do you have any questions?

55:09.820 --> 55:10.680
Yes.

55:10.679 --> 55:11.949
Student:  Where are the
books available?

55:11.949 --> 55:15.259
Prof: The books are
available at Barnes and Noble

55:15.255 --> 55:17.475
and under the number of the
course.

55:17.480 --> 55:22.120
And the books are three:
the Quixote in

55:22.123 --> 55:26.873
translation, the Imperial
Spain, and the

55:26.869 --> 55:32.339
Casebook that I edited
with the criticism.

55:32.340 --> 55:36.320
Now, there is also available a
Spanish edition of the

55:36.317 --> 55:40.147
Quixote if you are going to
read it in Spanish.

55:40.150 --> 55:43.890
It's the same one that is
available for Spanish 660,

55:43.885 --> 55:46.225
that is, the graduate seminar.

55:46.230 --> 55:49.270
You can buy both if you want to
play around with them.

55:49.268 --> 55:52.068
I have to say that I am not
entirely happy with

55:52.068 --> 55:55.168
Mr. Rutherford's translation
even though I wrote the

55:55.172 --> 55:56.332
introduction.

55:56.329 --> 56:01.669
I'm not happy with any of the
translations.

56:01.670 --> 56:04.820
There really isn't a
translation as good as

56:04.822 --> 56:09.252
Smollett's, from the eighteenth
century, and Rutherford,

56:09.250 --> 56:13.140
what I wrote in the
introduction--and I had a bitter

56:13.143 --> 56:16.883
exchange through the publisher,
because I wanted him to change

56:16.880 --> 56:19.680
a few things,
but he's an Oxford professor

56:19.681 --> 56:23.511
who's very antiquated and he
didn't change it--

56:23.510 --> 56:30.450
But I will be pointing out the
shortcomings of his translation

56:30.447 --> 56:32.607
as we move along.

56:32.610 --> 56:35.020
But I mean, that's what we have
to deal with,

56:35.018 --> 56:37.228
because if you're going to read
it in translation,

56:37.230 --> 56:40.950
the translation by Edith
Grossman that has also

56:40.947 --> 56:44.097
circulating a lot,
Edie is my friend.

56:44.099 --> 56:47.689
It's a little better perhaps,
but I like this one because it

56:47.690 --> 56:50.230
has my introduction,
which I think is better than

56:50.230 --> 56:52.470
Harold Bloom's for Edie's
translation-- Harold is a very

56:52.472 --> 56:55.552
dear friend of mine--
so this is why I chose,

56:55.552 --> 56:59.762
again, to go with the
Rutherford translation.

56:59.760 --> 57:01.520
So, any other questions?

57:01.519 --> 57:03.039
The books are there.

57:03.039 --> 57:06.659
The website has all of the
information you could possibly

57:06.657 --> 57:07.107
want.

57:07.110 --> 57:10.640
My office hours are on Fridays,
from ten to twelve.

57:10.639 --> 57:17.879
I am not particularly fond of
e-mails because I don't want you

57:17.878 --> 57:19.658
to,
up at two in the morning,

57:19.657 --> 57:22.297
say: I have to e-mail Professor
Gonzalez about this idea that I

57:22.304 --> 57:23.164
have for a paper.

57:23.159 --> 57:25.669
Don't expect that I'm going to
answer the next day,

57:25.672 --> 57:27.332
because I get a lot of e-mails.

57:27.329 --> 57:34.989
And so I am much more fond of a
personal meeting.

57:34.989 --> 57:39.909
You come to my office,
and we talk about this,

57:39.905 --> 57:40.665
okay.

57:40.670 --> 57:43.830
Any other questions?

57:43.829 --> 57:47.569
Well, if not,
we are going to now pause so

57:47.572 --> 57:52.502
that you meet with Elena and
Dina who are distinguished

57:52.501 --> 57:54.561
students,
Elena in Spanish and

57:54.561 --> 57:56.441
Portuguese, and Dina in
Comparative Literature.

57:56.440 --> 58:00.930
Elena, as I said,
is from Alicante,

58:00.934 --> 58:02.394
in Spain.

58:02.389 --> 58:05.909
Dina is from Russia.

58:05.909 --> 58:07.529
Are you from Moscow itself?

58:07.530 --> 58:15.070
No, no, you are from somewhere
in the backlands of Russia.

58:15.070 --> 58:16.610
Siberia, perhaps?

58:16.610 --> 58:18.590
Student:  Almost, almost.

58:18.590 --> 58:22.700
Prof: So could you meet
with them now,

58:22.697 --> 58:26.337
and try to begin to set up a
meeting?

58:26.340 --> 58:28.860
Because I know it's very
complicated so I'm giving you

58:28.855 --> 58:29.325
some time.

58:29.329 --> 58:29.709
Okay.

58:29.710 --> 58:35.000