Literature student explains: Don Quixote 

Hi! Spanish literature student here. I've studied Don Quijote a lot on my degree and masters, so I'll add a few things to the video, which was exceptionally well done!🙆‍♀ - Indeed, Cervantes wasn't born in Madrid, but in Alcalá de Henares. At that time Madrid (the city) didn't have a university, it was in Alcalá. That means that Cervantes lived in the cultural area of Madrid, wherever the printing press was; he grew up surrounded by different types of literature, but mainly the ones that were divulged around the student circles; chivalry novels and sheperd novels (idk how to translate this). As for the picaresque novel, the only model he probably had was 'Lazarillo de Tormes', the original picaresque novel which I really really recommend reading :) - Chivalry novels were all the buzz at that time. They all followed a particular model, and were quite repetitive, but were incredibly famous around the 16th century, when Cervantes was born. But by the start of the 17th century, they were looked down on and didn't really get as much fame as they used to. The thing is, there are two interpretations of Don Quijote critics have taken: some think the novel is nostalgic for chivalry novels since it shows a deep sadness at the fact that reality could never be as the world in those novels (even if Don Quijote repeats all the chivalry novels' patterns perfectly, they all think he's just crazy and make fun of him). Other critics think it's a parody, in which Cervantes makes fun of everyone who still reads and follows the chivalry novels' protagonists' behaviour. It's difficult to tell, honestly! Even when you read it in the original spanish. - The thing that made the novel as famous as it is was the title. It's actually genius. I'll try to explain it as well as I can, but it's indeed very difficult. We have to understand the chivalry novel tradition before understanding the title. A few examples of chivalry novel titles are "Los cuatro libros del virtuoso Amadís de Gaula", "[...] crónica del muy valioso y esforzado príncipe y caballero de la ardiente espada Amadís de Grecia", etc. So the adjectives that normal knights get are "virtuous", "brave", "bold", "knight of the flaming sword", etc. This first aspect contrasts enormously with the "ingenious" Don Quijote gets; the title points out the knight's wit, not his braveness, boldness or virtues. Nowadays this means nothing to us, but at that time people who had read lots of chivalry novels noticed this. Another aspect was the title 'hidalgo'; even though there were many hidalgos at the time, all the knights in chivalry novels were princes and high-ranking nobility. In the original document that requests permission to publish the novel (1604), the title is only "El ingenioso hidalgo"; Cervantes probably didn't want the attention to fall upon the name, but ultimately changed it. Don Quijote's name is also quite special: the knight's names are also very refined: "Amadís", "Esplandián", "Florisando", etc. Quijote, as you said, is part of the armour, but also the way it sounds is funny in Spanish, and the -ote suffix is also quite parodic or bad-sounding. Chivalry novel knights also took place in far away and idealised places; the fact that this 'hidalgo' was from la Mancha contrasted even more with knights like "Amadís de Grecia". I suffered a lot through my Don Quijote read, but honestly, it's a very relevant novel to understand the rest of Spanish literature. I think 'La Celestina', 'Lazarillo de Tormes' and 'Don Quijote' all build Spanish literature, and the rest that has ever been written takes everything from them. Sorry for the long comment! I just love talking about all this

Your pronunciation of the original full title is perfect.

It's the saddest, funniest and deepest book ever. Philosophie and Literature. But it doesn't criticizes Christianity, it's in part a parabola of an elder Jesus without crucifixion, and a paradox. The crazy man is the wiser, and the realist people had low morals. Love your work, and how you explain the opposite archetypes of Quixote and Sancho. Your references to the other writers and context are gold. I didn't know about some of them.

Une grande œuvre, un de mes meilleurs livres à vie . Merci pour la vidéo.

Aw! New video = happiest christmas ever, thank u! And i love that book.

Thanks, you've shown me reasons why this book is still so popular. I'd never got that, having seen it as an outdated satire though I've only read extracts and never studied it. Don't know where that idea came from but this psychological approach is much more engaging. The Shakespeare parallel is interesting too. Often writers and artists have been taught at school and University in isolation, and that drains some of the life from them.

The opening paragraph of Don Quixote must have become a model for novels with a similar wide 'panoramic' view. I'm thinking of Fielding's Tom Jones ("In that part of the western division of this kingdom which is commonly called Somersetshire, there lately lived, and perhaps lives still, a gentleman whose name was Allworthy,...") and Manzoni's _I promessi sposi_ (In translation: "That arm of Lake Como, which, reaching towards the south between two uninterrupted mountain chains, finds its shore-line broken by projecting spurs into a constant succession of bays and creeks, contracts at length quite abruptly and assumes the form and flow of a river between a headland on the right and a goodly expanse of shore-land on the other side..."). They have in common the view of a region followed by a zoom in, and then (as happens in Manzoni too after a longer topographical delay) a focus on a character. Also perhaps style is imitated: the long and leisurely sentences.

You have a lovely voice and your content is lucid and well-thought out.

Haha no way, I have a video on Cervantes scheduled to come out in a few hours 😂 Can't wait to watch this vid

My second favorite book of all time. These characters are truly real to me, I love to revisit it.

Here in Cali it's xmas eve, and your discussion of lit is my best present... New subber!

Just been reading Hudibras by Samuel Butler; a long forgotten gem, inspired by Don Q, but depicts the moral hypocrisy of both Royalists and Puritans of Cromwell's England. I think you would enjoy it.

This has become my favorite channel! I am American but have studied in Europe (and Africa). You are selecting all the books I love or would love to read. Thanks for sharing your studies with us!

A very famous mock heroic epic, Hudibras, was written in the mid 1600's (1663 for the first part ) by Samuel Butler . It was directly patterned on Don Quixote.

Thanks for sharing this video. I have a copy of the book, when I am done with In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust, I intend on reading Don Quixote.

Hello Maria! :) I've never read it, never had a desire to, I'll admit that I had a preconceived notion about it that set my mind never to but now I'd like to read it! Thanks Maria!

What an amazing video, thank you for making it!! I think everything you discussed was interesting and relevant. The part about Columbus is a funny and helpful illustration of the influence of a text on a person. I hope you will do more videos like this about very important, foundational texts. I would love to read it one day but often there is only so much time, and watching a video like yours really makes it easy to remember what the book is about and why it is relevant. It is very satisfying to get a kind of grasp of how everything fits together and to learn about this influential and how it connects to other books. It makes it more fun and more easy to understand other books in my opinion. The influence of books on characters often comes up in books and I am thinking for instance of the creature in Frankenstein who reads Milton's Paradise Lost thinking it to be a real story and likening himself to Satan. Also a book like Don Delillo's Libra where the main character Lee is influenced by books he reads at the library. There are passages explaining this impact as something secret. It is interesting as well because it is a fictional account of a person who really existed. Here's one of the passages: "He kept the Marxist books in his room, took them to the library for renewal, carried them back home. He let classmates read the titles if they were curious, just to see their silly faces crinkle up, but he didn't show the book to his mother. The books were private, like something you find and hide, some lucky piece that contains the secret of who you are. The books themselves were secret. Forbidden and hard to read. They altered the room, charged it with meaning. The drabness of his surroundings, his own shabby clothes were explained and transformed by these books. He saw himself as part of something vast and sweeping."

I had not heard before that explorers around the time of Christopher Columbus were searching for the Garden of Eden. I must explore this. --

Very interesting presentation. It made me think of Montaigne’s scepticism, which was not like our modern, post-Cartesian variety, but religious in character, deriving from Renaissance Platonism or really neo-Platonism and the superintelligible. You can catch it in Shakespeare as well, particularly in “Hamlet” and “Macbeth”, or “The Tempest” for that matter. The third figure it reminded me of, who I thought you would mention as being influenced by Cervantes, is Calderon in “Life Is a Dream”. I don’t think any of them would have agreed with the notion that this emphasis upon the distinction between appearance and reality, or romance and reality, or dream and reality, was the psychological equivalent of paganism breaking through the formerly placid surface of orthodox religion, but it did continue to be an age of witch trials and inquisitions. It still does.

I have not listened to the video yet - saving it for next week to listen to at work, but I know it is going to be a good one! I have put off Don Quixote for so long. I don't know what it is about it, but when I look at it on my shelves, there are always other books I'd rather read. Part of it is the length - while I have read and loved large books in the past (War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Les Misérables, The Brothers Karamazov), lately, I have short reading attention span. Also, the synopsis never really pulled me in. I will be curious to see if i change my mind after watching your video :). If I do get to it, it probably won't be 2024 as my 2024 big book that I want to tackle is the Tale of Genji (another book I have put off for way too long) Happy holidays ! 💚

I recently found your channel and I love how you explain everything so easy! I’m really curious, could you recommend me some underrated/less known novels or plays where the female protagonist has interesting deep monologues? I’m trying to get into reading again and that’d help me a lot ❤ if you could make a video about it that’d be awesome as well!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience

Hello, great video. Don Quixote is a library book. ❤🎉 Thanks. Have a nice week.

merry christmas 😍

👏🖤

fantastic commentary

Hello from a listener in Bordeaux. Do you have a podcast channel? I'm really enjoying listening to your videos. Thanks!

Out of curiosity, do the German/foreign translations imitate old language? We in Spain must read the original language. Although Spanish hasn't changed so much since, it can be hard to resd sometimes due, above all, toe changes in the meaning of words, vocabulary not in use any longer or knowledge not shared anymore with the contemporary readers.

Thanks. I would like to learn Spanish, Have Olive oil Groves, Have Sestas every day and drink coffee ☕. What is the Drama and message we are trying to know and understand? I read an intresting Qoute, in a book? and it was intresting how in a few words, it was trying to explain the Wealhh of N.America and the Poverity of S.America in the lastt Century. 'Those who went to North America went seeking God, those who went to South America was seeking Gold' We love Romance, but, we cant ignore the economic aspects of Culture and Civilization. How can we have and taste the lovely Austrian Chocolate 🍫 you mentioned in one of your utube vidios? Wishing you, A Happy 🎄 🎁 Christmas and A Prospers 2024.

If you want to laugh still more, try and read The Life of El Lazarillo de Tormes., anonymous.

Difficult book to love or hate. Quite a few great writers have disliked this book, some hate it. I was glad when it was over.

Schade das du über die deutsche Sprache lachst uns ins lächerliche ziehen möchtest. Das ist nicht schön von dir. Viele Menschen aus deiner Heimat. Deutsche lieben die Literatur. Und wir haben Göthe und Hesse und viele viele andere. Es ist nicht angebracht das du über deutsche lachst in deinen Videos das empfinde ich als rassistisch.warum genau du das?