NATURALISTIC PHILOSOPHY IN THE SPANISH GOLDEN AGE PICARESQUE NOVEL by ANDY MICAH MILSTEAD WILLIAM WORDEN, COMMITTEE CHAIR BRUCE EDMUNDS CONSTANCE JANIGA-PERKINS ÁLVARO BAQUERO-PECINO STEVE BUNKER A DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Modern Languages and Classics in the Graduate School of The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA 2012 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Copyright Andy Micah Milstead 2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT My dissertation analyzes three canonical Spanish Golden Age picaresque novels through the lens of naturalistic philosophy. The works selected for my study are the anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes (1554), Guzmán de Alfarache (Part I – 1599, Part II – 1604) by Mateo Alemán and El Buscón (1626) by Francisco de Quevedo. While critics have acknowledged a basic kinship between the picaresque novels and nineteenth century naturalist novels in terms of subject matter and a willingness to portray the sordid lives of society’s marginalized, few have examined these works from the perspective of naturalistic philosophy. The purpose of this dissertation is to fill that gap in picaresque criticism by analyzing the specifically naturalistic elements of these works. By examining the role of hereditary and environmental determinism, the motives for sex and marriage, and the role of God and religion in each novel, this study will demonstrate that the narrators of these works paint a surprisingly naturalistic picture of the workings of human society. A secondary purpose of this dissertation is to examine several intriguing points of contact between these Golden Age picaresque novels and the naturalistic novels of nineteenth century Spain. ! ""! ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee chairman, William Worden, for giving so much of his time and effort in helping me prepare this study and for helping me to remain on task. I would also like to thank all of my committee members, Connie Janiga, Bruce Edmunds, Álvaro Baquero-Pecino and Steve Bunker, for their willingness to assist me in this undertaking and for their encouragement and invaluable advice. I would also like to thank my precious wife Meredith for all of her love and support during this entire process. Finally, I would like to thank God for blessing me with the ability to take on this project and for His help in completing it. ! """! CONTENTS ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 Historical Context of the Picaresque Novel.......................................................................16 Topics in Picaresque Criticism ..........................................................................................18 NATURALISM IN LAZARILLO DE TORMES................................................................25 Introduction........................................................................................................................25 Hereditary Determinism.....................................................................................................31 Environmental Determinism..............................................................................................33 God and Religion ...............................................................................................................39 Ethics and Morality............................................................................................................52 Sex and Marriage ...............................................................................................................57 NATURALISM IN GUZMÁN DE ALFARACHE.............................................................61 Introduction........................................................................................................................61 Hereditary Determinism.....................................................................................................71 Environmental Determinism..............................................................................................77 Sex and Marriage ...............................................................................................................85 God and Salvation..............................................................................................................90 NATURALISM IN EL BUSCÓN......................................................................................97 "#! ! Introduction........................................................................................................................97 Hereditary Determinism...................................................................................................108 Environmental Determinism............................................................................................114 God and Religion .............................................................................................................122 Sex and Marriage .............................................................................................................129 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................134 WORKS CITED ..............................................................................................................143 #!! ! INTRODUCTION The influence of picaresque literature in the re-emergence of the Spanish novel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is significant.1 It was the picaresque novelists (along with Cervantes) who were willing to branch out beyond the novelistic themes and techniques of the immensely popular pastoral novels and novels of chivalry that had dominated the literary scene of sixteenth-century Spain.2 With their willingness to show the lower classes and paint a wider vision of Spanish society, one that went beyond depicting only amorous shepherds or noble knights errant, these authors laid the foundation for the realistic Spanish novels that would emerge in the nineteenth century. While Cervantes' Don Quijote (Part I – 1605; Part II – 1615) is most often given credit, and rightfully so, for representing the birth of the modern novel and especially the modern Spanish novel, there can be no doubt that the Spanish picaresque novels also played an important role in the rebirth of the Spanish novel. After the enormously productive Golden Age, the quality of Spanish literature began to decline significantly, and the eighteenth century is all but ignored by the majority of literary scholars in academia today, with only a very few works !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1 Among the critics who trace the influence of the picaresque novel on the nineteenth-century Spanish novel is Jeremy Medina who states that “the later picaresque novel [...] constituted the model for nineteenth-century realistic fiction in Spain” (41). Antonio Rey Hazas goes a step further, tracing the influence of the picaresque into the twentieth century: “Quizá el caso más claro de la supervivencia picaresca sea el de La familia de Pascual Duarte (1942)” (89). 2 The publication of Amadís de Gaula in 1508 begins a period in which books of chivalry are the favorite genre for readers in Spain with dozens of these novels being published during the first half of the sixteenth century. Readers would eventually tire of these chivalric tales, however, and with the publication of Jorge de Montemayor’s La Diana in 1558, the pastoral novels begin replacing books of chivalry as the most popular genre for readers in Spain. ! "! ! considered significant.3 Even the literature of the early nineteenth century finds limited space in the canon of Spanish literature because of the prevalence of romantic works at that time.4 It wasn't until later in the nineteenth century when Benito Pérez Galdós and other novelists began to flourish that the Spanish novel would experience a renaissance. Of course, these new novelists took their cues from the literary developments in other parts of Europe and benefited greatly from the rise of the “in vogue” literary movements of the time. Nevertheless, the reader of Galdós and other nineteenth-century writers will also notice a significant and unmistakable influence from Cervantes and the picaresque literature of several centuries earlier. Just as the nineteenth-century novelists wrote partly in reaction to romanticism, Cervantes and the picaresque novelists reacted against pastoral novels and the novels of chivalry that were wildly popular in their day. Much like these early novels, later romantic novels painted an unrealistic picture of life. Included in these works were unrealistic dialog between characters, an abundance of fantastic elements and emphasis on emotions, especially love and the heart-break of love lost, often expressed in over-the-top, almost ridiculous and flowery language. There was also a fascination with and heavy focus on the upper classes and perhaps it was this aspect of the romantic novels that most frustrated authors like Galdós and others who were displeased with the state of Spanish society and who viewed literature as a way to dialog with readers