Cervantes Lands a Left Hook: Baiting the Inquisition with Ekphrastic Subversion

Abstract

Este estudio utiliza el concepto de of (teoria de la mente) y toma en cuenta el contexto historico de Cervantes para considerar algunas posibles intenciones autoriales en la composicion del Quijote y reflexionar sobre las repercusiones que podrian haber resultado como consecuencia de esos propositos. En particular, se enfoca en las prohibiciones contra la Biblia en lengua vulgar como posible motivacion para algunos aspectos visuales de la primera novela moderna, y examina el uso potencial de la ecfrasis como referencia cifrada a varios simbolos cristianos. En especifico, el simbolo de Cristo llamado Ichthus (el pez) se pone bajo la lupa de la investigacion para indagar la posibilidad de que hubiera sido una fuente de inspiracion para el nombre Quixote, tomando en cuenta citas de la novela y las imagenes que podrian sugerir. Estos elementos visuales son considerados a la luz de recientes avances en el campo de la percepcion visual en cuanto a su impacto inicial en Cervantes, el proceso cognitivo en la imaginacion del autor, y la manera en la cual dichas impresiones podrian haberse manifestado en el consiguiente producto literario. ********** No MATTER HOW MANY advances there are in world of cognitive science, it is highly doubtful that totality of true intentions of any writer will ever be extrapolated purely from words of their texts. What was in (embodied) mind of human being of flesh and blood who authored novel when it was written will always be inaccessible to reader removed in time and place from author. However, the potential empirical difficulties of elucidating fact of matter--the executive intentions of creator--do not negate that there is a fact of matter (Swirski 139). Therefore, arriving at some level of incontrovertible knowledge about artist's thought cannot be only (or even primary) goal of using approaches informed by such research. Rather, taking into consideration of new information gathered by cognitive sciences (which examine how human perception functions and interacts with language) can be impetus for posing new questions that allow for fresh and original interpretations of texts, even those that have been examined and investigated for centuries. With any luck, these new lines of inquiry may bring us closer to understanding authorial objectives. For, as Umberto Eco argues, it is a dangerous critical heresy to read whatever we may want into a text, and it is paramount that reader always be moved by a profound respect for the intention of (5). This study takes as a starting point suggestion of several scholars that certain anti-Inquisitorial critiques (as well as possibly subversive ideas) are present in Don Quixote, written between lines of novel by its author Miguel de Cervantes. By constructing and adapting a working theory of mind of Cervantes, this investigation attempts to uncover ways in which he may have attempted to communicate messages that were decipherable by his intended audience, but which were capable of eluding censors and, thus, possible Inquisitorial retribution. Further, substantial research done on use of ekphrasis by Cervantes to allude to imagery from visual arts within text of his novel is employed to show how author may have utilized similar techniques to refer to images connected to proscribed texts of subversive themes. All of this is subjected to examination through lens of recent findings in cognitive science, with a particular focus placed on how humans process visual information, both as a percept and in imagination. In her groundbreaking study Why We Read Fiction, Lisa Zunshine asserts that detective novel exercises theory of mind of reader in a particularly focused way. If this is indeed case, then perhaps reverse is also true: that investigation of creative mind behind a work of fiction--as if it were deliberately manipulating metarepresentational abilities of reader in order to conceal an esoteric subtext comprehensible only to a select audience attuned to deciphering all of textual clues--could empower analyst to unmask a hermetic intention hidden below surface of a novel. …