Purdue University Monographs in Romance Languages (vols. 1–42, 1980–1992)
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Purdue University Monographs in Romance Languages (vols. 1–42, 1980–1992)
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Collection Contents
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Imitación y transformación
More LessAunque en Italia la imitación como ejercicio literario formaba ya parte integrante de la preceptiva poética, para los escritores castellanos del siglo XVI representaba una manera nueva de aproximarse tanto a los clásicos greco-latinos como a los italianos más recientes. La imitatio enlaza a España con la actualidad circundante, y el renacimiento literario que resulta de su práctica queda delineado no sólo por su contexto geopolítico sino por su dinámica interna. El Cinquecento italiano tiene su base en la excelencia literaria que habían logrado anteriormente Petrarca y Boccaccio en el Trecento; la participación de España en esa misma excelencia coincide, en parte, con una visión del país como poder político universal.
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Intimate, Intrusive and Triumphant
More LessIn both the real and the symbolic sense, the action of the Liaisons is writing letters, which is to say, giving the phrase an ontological twist, that writing is its own subject. Letters in an epistolary novel recount and reenact simultaneously, without distinction. Doing and telling are congruent, interchangeable, identical activities. The Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont are the principal characters in this novel because they know best how to use the word. They control and direct others through their writing. From our perspective, however, to listen well is an even more critical and fundamental activity than writing well. The ultimate victor in this novel of seduction and deception is not necessarily the one who writes best but rather he, or she, who reads best. Concentrating on the reader places the entire epistolary exchange in a new light and accentuates the use of the word as an instrument of power and the letter as a tool for domination.
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