Curial e Guelfa y las novelas de caballerias espanolas

Abstract

Curial e Guelfa y las novelas de caballerias espanolas. By Montserrat Piera Madrid: Pliegos, 1998. 187 pages. Tirant lo Blanc: New Approaches. Ed. Arthur Terry. London: Tamesis, 1999. 142 pages. Defining Curial e Guelfa as a roman arturico o caballersco (48), Montserrat Piera examines at some length the changes from the norms for the genre offered by this work. Most of them have to do with inversions of gender roles: Guelfa is in control most of the time, and in fact the narrative voice tells us that it is her story; in an inversion of the Pygmalion myth, she forms Curial to her liking, raising him up from an inferior position to a status worthy of marrying her. Curial benefits economically from Camar as well, for as she commits suicide in imitation of Dido, she leaves her goods to him. Throughout much of the novel, he behaves badly; tempted by the lovely Laquesis, he returns to her after Guelfa's reprimand. Guelfa is associated with the Lady Fortune and seems to be in charge of turning the wheel of Curial's fate. Piera approaches the novel from a feminist perspective and has the theoretical framework to do so very well, yet she falls back on the usual disclaimers that the word and perhaps the concept is anachronistic, that hers is simply lectura 'femenina' de la en oposicion a la lectura 'masculina' imperante (136). But Piera makes such a strong case for the feminism informing this work that the reader begins to wonder from the very first chapter whether this is one more case of was a woman. Piera avoids that claim, wisely perhaps, since it cannot be more than speculation and the narrator's self-referential adjectives are masculine; but at the same time she goes so far as to claim that Guelfa, como 'creadora' de Curial puede ser considerada un alter-ego del autor (127). fact that Guelfa uses subversive tactics instead of open rebellion is intriguing as well: she is never aggressive, but utilizes los dos atributos que una sociedad patriarcal exige en una mujer 'ideal' para ejercer su poder y que son el silencio y la castidad (141). In any case, the consciousness underlying this text and Piera's analysis leave this reader, at least, tempted to include segments of Curial Cfe Guelfa in a course on women writers. Piera explores the negative criticism of the novel and finds that it has been the object of a curious double standard: is it too original, or not original enough? Like many medieval texts, it contains passages imitated from earlier sources, and yet the inversions or subversions of the typical narrations make it unique. anonymous author even refers readers to other texts: if you want a description of a wedding, read Guido de Colonna on Jason and Medea; if you're curious about Pere el Gran, you'll find him in the seventh chapter of Dante's Purgatory. One is left with the impression that our author wanted to rework texts that could be improved or that had a special interest, but for those great passages that many readers would be familiar with in any case, there was little point. Piera incorporates historical background, as well as other literature, into her work, helping the reader create a framework within which to place this compelling masterpiece. She explains her methodology: estudiar la relacion de Curial e Guelfa con sus subtextos para poder ahondar en las leyes genericas copiadas, transformadas, corregidas o ignoradas por el creador de la obra (83). She succeeds in this endeavor, and in writing a clear and readable text, marred only by repetition of her main points. Arthur Terry brings together nine essays by well-known medievalists in his collection, which is characterized by widely divergent approaches to Tirant lo Blanc. In The Chivalresque Worlds in T lo B, Jesus D. Rodriguez Velasco connects its ideologies to Roman models, combining military, political and administrative functions linked to the nobility. In the background are questions of virtue over lineage and struggles between the courtly and the monarchic as Tirant moves from a triumphant jouster to a military strategist. …