Homer, Heliodorus, and Cervantes: Some Observations on Anagnorisis in Los Trabajos De Persiles Y Sigismunda (1617)

Abstract

For the contemporary reader, Aristotle’s concept of anagnorisis , or “recognition,” probably conjures thoughts of a hackneyed narrative tack by which an author might structure his fiction with a view to a “marvelous” if predictable conclusion. Yet, anagnorisis enjoyed privileged status in Renaissance literary theory and practice, being referred to as “the most important part” of the plot by one neo-Aristotelian. Closely reading Cervantes’s final work, a neo-Byzantine romance entitled Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda , one discovers two divergent approaches to writing recognition. For example, one observes Cervantes closely imitating specific scenes and techniques from Homer and others whose recognitions had become paradigmatic in neo-Aristotelian poetics. Quite the opposite, in the episode of Feliciana de la Voz, one observes Cervantes deconstruction of the recognition process. Recognition’s move “from ignorance to knowledge” is rendered problematic, as Cervantes obscures the reader’s access to the “truth” of things, an exegetical problem not unfamiliar to readers of Don Quijote .