Un chevalier errant à la recherche du Nord. Le boréalisme dans Don Quichotte de Cervantes

Abstract

There are few studies on the concept of nordicity in Spanish-language literary texts. Hardly any of them focuses on the works of Miguel de Cervantes, apart from interpretations of his novel Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, whose plot is partly set in Europe’s most northern reaches. However, borealization, as a process of deterritorialization and reterritorialization of images of the North used by the South itself, can be an effective means of unearthing complex and contradictory significances of the relationships between characters, landscapes, and national values. The article analyses how the knight-errant Don Quixote explores the landscape of La Mancha as a borealized realm in which he attempts to find his North amidst the contradictory values of a nation.