: Pierre L. Ullman
: A Contrapuntual Method For Analyzing Spanish Literature
: Digitalia
: 9780916379520
: 1
: CHF 45.00
:
: Allgemeine und Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft
: English
: 271
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: PDF

This volume demonstrates how literary critics seeking to establish a structure for certain works of Spanish literature can classify their symbols according to the first two essays of Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism. The present study essays the method with two episodes from Don Quixote, Lope de Vega's El caballero de Olmedo, Gallego's“ Oda a la muerte de la Duquesa de Frías,” Zorilla’s Don Juan Tenorio, Galdós’' Torquemada en la hoguera, Clarín’s“& excl;Adiós, Cordera!,” Palacio Valdés’ José, Valle-lnclán's“R sarito,” and two vignettes from Juan Ramón Jiménez' Platero y yo. 

“The book under review will be of value to anyone studying the titles listed above. Ullman's interpretations are too powerful to be ignored by any scholar researching a work he studies here.”-Stephen Miller, Hispanic Review.
Introduction (p. 1)

The careful study of a national literature provides insight into its culture and yields, among other things, an understanding of its symbols, helping us to determine how the literature and the society affect one another. Spanish literature is one of the greatest accomplishments of the Western world. It developed in a repressive civilization engaged in a centuries-long conflict to maintain Christian monogamous principles in the face of successive invasions of Moslem fundamentalism.

As a result of this struggle the values of Spanish Christianity hardened and its symbols were twisted. Hence it became literature`s role to give back to this symbolism its paradoxicality, for which purpose writers developed complex means of expression to imbue their symbols with broad polyvalence. When the symbols of a civilization become so distorted that its intellectuals have to exert themselves extraordinarily to twist them back into shape, the literary critic needs a scale on which to adequately measure the torque.

So, noticing that Galdos`s protagonist, Francisco de Torquemada, is referred to as a usurer, a devil, a saint, an inquisitor, a Jew, a victim, and as the father of a Christ child who is also an Antichrist (all in the same story!), we ask ourselves whether there might exist some method to sort out such metaphors.

The first two essays of Northrop Frye`s Anatomy of Criticism, give us the wherewithal to develop such a method. The first,"Historical Criticism, Theory of Modes," was greatly inspired by Oswald Spengler`s epochs of Culture and Civilization in The Decline of the West,1 and thus provides a way to connect literary research to historiography. The second essay,"Ethical Criticism, Theory of Symbols," is based on the four levels of mediaeval Biblical exegesis, and hence is well suited to symbolism derived from the ideological tradition predominant in Spain. Moreover, there is a link between the two essays, for Frye points out the parallelism between the five modes of historical criticism (myth, romance, high mimetic, low mimetic, and ironic) and the five phases of symbolism (anagogic, mythic, formal, descriptive, and ironic).

The four mediaeval levels are the literal or historical, the allegorical, the moral and tropological, and the anagogic. Frye adapted these four levels to literary criticism to define the four higher phases. Then, below the descriptive, he added the literal phase, because for a literary critic the word"literal" has a totally different meaning from that understood by the Biblical exegete.

In the literal phase, motifs are juxtaposed and unpredicated, in the descriptive phase, metaphor is looked upon as if it were simile, in the formal phase, the symbol is an image, in the mythic phase it is an archetype, and in the anagogic phase it is a monad.

It has occurred to me—and perhaps to others-that this scheme could be applied to the most frequent metaphor in Christendom,"Our Father, which art in Heaven." In the descriptive phase, where all metaphors are looked upon as similes, God is like a father, the word"father" merely stands for"God" and the two are thus interchangeable, so that it would make no difference if we substituted"God" for"Father" in the prayer.
Contents7
Introduction9
Chapter I: The Parallel Contrapuntal Method of Literary Analysis19
Chapter II: Noble Washbasins: Two Episodes in Cervantes's: Don Quixote47
Chapter III: Flawed Valor: Lope de Vega's: El caballero de Olmedo65
Chapter IV: Adoring an Aphrodisian Christ Figure: Gallego's65
Chapter IV: Adoring an Aphrodisian Christ Figure: Gallego's65
8765
Chapter V: A Rebel Nobleman under a Bourgeois God: Zorrilla's: Don Juan Tenorio111
Chapter VI: The Ironic Villain as Protagonist: Galdós's: Torquemada en la hoguera129
Chapter VII: The Cow as a Mock Christ Figure in Antifeminist Psychology: Clarín's129
Chapter VII: The Cow as a Mock Christ Figure in Antifeminist Psychology: Clarín's129
169129
Chapter VIII: The Male Cinderella and Other Motifs: Palacio Valdés's: José198
Chapter IX: Murderous Incest: Valle-Inclán's198
Chapter IX: Murderous Incest: Valle-Inclán's198
225198
Chapter X: Pantheistic Epiphanies: Juan Ramón Jiménez's: Platero y yo239
Works Cited249
Onomastic Index259
A259
B259
C260
D261
E261
F261
G262
H263
I263
J263
K264
L264
M264
N265
O265
P265
Q266
R266
S266
T267
U267
V268
W268
Y268
Z268