Itinerarios cervantinos by Víctor Ivanovici

Abstract

Reviewed by: Itinerarios cervantinos by Víctor Ivanovici Jennifer Darrell Ivanovici, Víctor. Itinerarios cervantinos. Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana Benjamín Carrión, 2016. Pp. 356. ISBN 978-9-97862-873-7. Víctor Ivanovici has written Itinerarios cervantinos as a travel log of sorts, a record of his scholarly pursuits in and around the world of Cervantes. His critical work has not been devoted entirely, nor even primarily, to Cervantes; rather, he has spent most of his career pursuing interests ranging from Greek surrealist poetry to translation studies. A true polyglot, Ivanovici has published books and articles in Romanian, Greek, Spanish, and French, and he also works with Italian, Catalan, and Portuguese in his translations. He frames this book as a personal itinerary of his thought on Cervantes, and the broad range of his scholarly expertise suggests that he is well-positioned to offer fresh insights on Cervantes's work inspired by his familiarity with literary canons not typically connected with the Spanish master. Ivanovici divides Itinerarios cervantinos into two primary sections. The first, "Parajes, paisajes, personajes," focuses primarily on the Novelas ejemplares. In the first essay, "Una novela de familia," Ivanovici argues that in La Gitanilla, Cervantes performs an intentional misreading of his literary precursors to conceal any evidence of their influence. The following essay, "De cara al cristianismo cósmico," suggests that the magical elements present in several Novelas ejemplares represent a fusion of folkloric religious rituals with the courtly love tradition. Finally, in "Locuras heróico-bucólicas en la Arcadia quijotesca," Ivanovici examines Cervantes's introduction of violence into the pastoral mode through an analysis of five pastoral episodes in Don Quixote. The second main section, "El Quijote como forma abierta (cuatro aproximaciones)," delves into the heart of Cervantes's masterpiece. The first essay, "De la mímesis a la parodia," analyzes the distinctions between classical and baroque literature, calling attention to the shift from imitation to parody. In "El arte de novelar," Ivanovici discusses the perspectivism created in Don Quixote by the juxtaposition of three narrative voices: Don Quixote's, Sancho Panza's, and the narrator's. In "El arte del palimpsesto," he suggests that Cervantes creates a literary palimpsest in the Quixote through the interplay between the novel's various, often conflicting, levels of interpretation. In the final essay of this section, "Héroe y personaje," Ivanovici performs a typological reading of the novel's characters. Ivanovici concludes his book with a brief "Despedida" that traces three ways in which the Quixote's legacy has endured: through its critical reception, the influence it has had on other literary works, and translations of the text. Methodologically, Ivanovici aims to follow Cervantes in his "tanteos y rodeos," and there is no doubt that he accomplishes this goal. Ivanovici not only covers many topics, as previously outlined, but he also employs a wide range of critical approaches, beginning with psychoanalysis, and moving on through Marxism, Russian formalism, structuralism, literary semiotics, and new historicism. While he often abruptly sheds one critical method for the next, which can be disorienting, it is ultimately beneficial that Ivanovici does not limit himself to a single approach, as important work can be done in the liminal spaces between competing schools of literary analysis. For example, Ivanovici's analysis of La Gitanilla is enriched by his blending of insights drawn from psychoanalysis and Marxism, as his reading of Preciosa's sexuality in terms of its use and exchange value adds weight to his argument that the protagonist's latent desires are not oedipal, but rather center on marriage as the fulfillment of her social and sexual desires. Ivanovici's analysis of La Gitanilla is but one of many thought-provoking arguments in his book. While he is not the first to comment on the multiple levels of fiction and reality in Don [End Page 646] Quixote, his approach is unique. He performs a semiotic analysis of the novel as a series of signi-fiers that give rise to multiple, often contradictory, signifieds, ultimately leading him to conclude that Cervantes's critique is directed at the readers of chivalric tales, not the books, since the works are only problematic for those who...