The Cervantes Days of Castro del Río end with a passionate invitation to read “Don Quixote”

The afternoon session allowed us to address a wide variety of issues. They concluded with a invitation from Alfonso Guerra himself has enter into this work which brings to the reader “the pleasure of knowledge, the consolation of laughter and the enthusiasm of the truth”. The one who was vice president of the government with Felipe González, took it upon himself to approach the great work of Cervantes not as a philologist or a writer, but as a passionate reader of this work which he read several times throughout his life.

The Sevillian politician recalled at the start of his speech that “Don Quixote” is perhaps the universal work most appreciated by writers around the world, as a survey by the Swedish Academy showed at the time, but as he explained, “it continues to be little read among us.”

He remembered the anecdote of a lunch with writers like Garcia Marquez and Carlos Fuentes in which the two authors, key figures in the rise of Latin American literature in the 20th century, showed their admiration for Cervantes’ great work as a collection of all subsequent literature. He also alluded to the admiration for this novel by authors as diverse as Gustave Flaubert, Herman Melville or Mark Twain, among others.

The analysis of the novel then focused on Guerra’s speech, who explained that it is not only a parody of chivalrous novels but also a romance or adventure novel. However, according to him, what stands out most is “the mystery” that surrounds it due to the ambiguities and literary games of the text. “It is an enigma on the part of the author himself who is included as a character in the work” or of its origin because it was “generated in a prison”, as Guerra explains. In this sense, he highlighted how the work has had an influence not only on writers but also on painters like Diego Velázquez or contemporary filmmakers like Woody Allen, since it is the first work that breaks the boundaries between reality and fiction.

THE philologist and professor at the University of Seville Lola Pons He also looked at “Don Quixote” during the afternoon session, particularly the unique way in which this novel and the Cervantes himself influenced history words and in general in the whole story after their writing. Pons also explained that Cervantes’ use of language had literary purposes and that is why he included in Don Quixote’s way of speaking words and formulas of expression that were already out of use at the time of the writing of the novel. “Don Quixote spoke strangely and readers of his time knew it,” the professor explained.

Out of curiosity, he pointed out that the speaking model with which Cervantes gave his famous character ended up becoming a old spanish speaking modelwhich influenced historical novels when they began to proliferate in Spain in the 19th century under the influence of Anglo-Saxon literature.

Closing of Juan Echanove

THE professor’s lecturewell known for her informative essays on the history of the Spanish language, has also analyzed how many words related to the work of Cervantes ended up entering the dictionary of the Royal Academy of Language or in the common language fluent. He cited, for example, adjectives like Cervantino or Cervantista, verbs like quixotizar or adverbs like quixote. Characters such as Dulcinea, Maritormes or Sancho Panza have also remained archetypes that define certain traits of people.

Another curiosity he mentioned is that words born to Don Quixote like Barataria ended up on real maps, because there are two cities with this name in the United States and in Trinidad and Tobago, and others which by the time of Cervantes were already out of use as “talante” or “soez” were reused regularly and thus reached the present day.

The last event of the Cervantes Days of Castro del Río was performed by the actors Juan Échanove and Lucía Quintana, who recited a large number of fanciful passages. The mastery of the two interpreters put the finishing touch to these days where for two days we lived in Castro del Río, like the city of Cervantes that it is, a celebration of literature and the Spanish language and a celebration of genius of the great writer. .of the Golden Age.