The Curious and Neglected Tale of La señora Cornelia

Abstract

Of Cervantes' Novelas ejemplares, La senora Cornelia is probably the most neglected. In a valiant attempt to rescue it from obscurity, Peter Dunn uncovered the tale's importance to a full understanding of the moral and philosophical structures that inform Cervantes' works. This essay sets out to show that the tale has another, complementary identity worthy of attention, an identity constituted by the manner of its telling rather than by its ideological framework. While La senora Cornelia reveals a vision of larger patterns of transcendental values and eternal verities, the fascinating detail of the text reveals the strong perception, not that truth does not exist, but that reality is never fully readable because reality, like fiction, is arbitrary. Cervantes, the writer who relishes detail, with wry amusement shows here how irrelevant detail can be. This is a text rich in tonalities and mischief, that makes fun of both idealistic and realistic modes of fiction.De las Novelas ejemplares, La senora Cornelia...