Miguel de Cervantes and the Political Turn of History (c. 1570–1615)

• Published in: Cervantes (Gainesville, Fla.) Fla.), 2014-09, Vol.34 (2), p.15-36
• Main Authors: Ezquerra, Alfredo Alvar, Montcher, Fabien
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Cervantes, Miguel de; Politics; Spanish literature
• ISSN: 0277-6995; 1943-3840; 1943-3840
• DOI: 10.1353/cer.2014.0015

[...]we may discover a Cervantes who was both preoccupied with and who played with the truth, veracity, and verisimilitude of what he recounted. [...]in the preface, López de Hoyos advocated for the reform of certain customs that had been corrupted by sin. [...]he insisted that the style should be appropriate to the quality of the deed being narrated (for this reason, funerals should be written with a leaden touch), although by warning that writing would be better disseminated in the vernacular Cervantes contradicted the principle of unifying style and subject. [...]the writing of biography could serve to praise the subject, or to cast infamy upon him or her. [...]the episode of the discovery of the lead boxes of the academicians of Argamasilla that contained prophecies essentials to the development of the story, closed a long list of discoveries that synthesized the many ways of composing " una nueva y jamás vista historia" during the early decades of the seventeenth century in the Hispanic Monarchy (1.52: f. 314r).