Ziolkowski explores the religious implications of the figure of Don Quixote in Western literature from Cervantes to the present.While scholars and critics in the past have often called attention to the secularizing tendency of modern literature, to the numerous fictional adaptations of the Christ figure on the one hand, and the innumerable literary descendants of Don Quixote on the other, this study is the first to examine a lineage of characters in whom the images of the alleged savior and the mad knight are combined.After ...
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Ziolkowski explores the religious implications of the figure of Don Quixote in Western literature from Cervantes to the present.While scholars and critics in the past have often called attention to the secularizing tendency of modern literature, to the numerous fictional adaptations of the Christ figure on the one hand, and the innumerable literary descendants of Don Quixote on the other, this study is the first to examine a lineage of characters in whom the images of the alleged savior and the mad knight are combined.After considering Don Quixote as the first modern novel, and taking into account its relationship to religion, society, and censorship in seventeenth-century Spain, Ziolkowski traces the history and fate of Don Quixote, the character, through a series of religious transformations over the centuries, focusing on three novels that adapt the Quixote figure: Henry Fielding's Joseph Andrews, Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot, and Graham Greene's Monsignor Quixote. Ziolkowski argues that, given the increased secularization and decline of religious consciousness over the last several centuries, any pursuit of religious values or ideas becomes questionable and this appears "quixotic" insofar as it stands in contradiction to the sociohistorical context. He concludes that religious existence, for the few who pursue it in suffering, which means that the religious person feels temporally displaced for adhering to a seemingly obsolete faith and lifestyle.
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Seller's Description:
First edition. xi+275 pages with index. Cloth. Fine in dustjacket. After considering "Don Quixote" as the first modern novel, and taking into account its relationship to religion, society and censorship in 17th-century Spain, this study traces the history and fate of Don Quixote, the character, through a series of religious transformations over the centuries, focusing on three novels that adapt the Quixote figure: Henry Fielding's "Joseph Andrews", Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" and Graham Greene's "Monsignor Quixote". The author argues that, given the increased secularization and decline of religious consciousness over several centuries, any pursuit of religious values or ideas becomes questionable and thus appears "quixotic" insofar as it stands in contradiction to the sociohistorical context. He concludes that religious existence, for the few who pursue it in the late modern world, entails quixotic suffering, which means that the religious person feels temporally displaced for adhering to a seemingly obsolete faith and lifestyle. Spain is one of our specialities, many more in stock, an image of the cover is available on request. We have 32 years experience in bookselling, so you may order with confidence.
