Lexington Books
Pages: 168
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-4985-2265-6 • Hardback • July 2016 • $103.00 • (£79.00)
978-1-4985-2266-3 • eBook • July 2016 • $97.50 • (£75.00)
Daniel Lorca is assistant professor of modern languages and literatures at Oakland University.
1. How Did Cervantes Remove the Authority of a Genre?2. The Skeptical Story of Don Quijote and Don Quijote’s Dogmatism
By encouraging readers to see the work through the lens of Cervantes’s contemporaries, Daniel Lorca adds an important wrinkle to scholarship about Quixote. Graduate students and researchers wishing to wrestle with the thorny issues posed by the novel will find the work of particular interest. The book is remarkably succinct, which is an advantage.... By encouraging us to read Don Quixote according to the mental framework of Cervantes’s contemporaries, Lorca adds another layer to our understanding of the ingenious gentleman from La Mancha.
— Renaissance Quarterly
Lorca sheds new light on the philosophical dimensions of Don Quijote by positing neo-stoicism and skepticism as integrated forces in the work. He demonstrates the impact of late Enlightenment readings on our current interpretation of the novel, as a corrective to excess focus on the legacy of Romanticism. His comparative analysis of the epistemological practices employed by Don Quijote and Marcela enhances our understanding of both characters and of Cervantes’ parody of romance narrative.
— Barbara Simerka, Queens College, CUNY
Lorca’s book is remarkably succinct and categorical about its findings. . . Although it is always difficult to prove authorial intention, by proposing to read Don Quijote against the moral and ethical horizons of its time, Lorca has added one more challenge to our current understanding of Cervantes’ cuerdiloco protagonist. His book will be useful to critics interested in the philosophical currents of the sixteenth century, in moral philosophy, specifically in the context of the differences between early modern ethics and more current modes of thinking, and finally to those interested in the history of ideas.
— Bulletin of Spanish Studies
Lorca sheds new light on the philosophical dimensions of Don Quijote by positing neo-stoicism and skepticism as integrated forces in the work. He demonstrates the impact of late Enlightenment readings on our current interpretation of the novel, as a corrective to excess focus on the legacy of Romanticism. His comparative analysis of the epistemological practices employed by Don Quijote and Marcela enhances our understanding of both characters and of Cervantes’ parody of romance narrative.
— Barbara Simerka, Queens College, CUNY
Daniel Lorca's analysis sheds fresh, revealing light on Cervantes and the early modern philosophical discourses that inform Don Quijote. He lays out his questions and develops his arguments with admirable clarity. This is a rigorous, erudite contribution to Cervantine studies.
— Christopher Weimer, Oklahoma State University