THESIS TIRANT LO BLANC(H): MASCULINITIES, PHALLOSOCIAL DESIRE, AND TRIANGULAR CONSTELLATIONS Submitted by Francisco Macías Department of English In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Fall 2011 Master’s Committee: Advisor: Roze Hentschell Ellen Brinks Fernando Valerio-Holguín Copyright by Francisco Macías 2011 All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT TIRANT LO BLANC(H): MASCULINITIES, PHALLOSOCIAL DESIRE, AND TRIANGULAR CONSTELLATIONS The introduction of this thesis provides a revised survey that examines the analysis of Tirant scholars to date, including evaluations of its sources and influences, theories concerning its circulation, its autobiographical aspects, and its genre, among other approaches to literary criticism. It draws attention to points of contention and highlights and rectifies those that have been overlooked or that have remained undisputed. “Chapter One: Queer Heterosexualities in the Tirant: Straight until Proven ‘Other’” addresses the issue of masculinities in the clergy, the chivalry, and the monarchy by mapping models of masculinity—conventional and competing—within a phallosocial context. And “Chapter Two: Bizarre Love Triangles in the Tirant: Consummation of Phallosocial Desire” traces phallosocial desire by analyzing the processes that lead to a symbolic consummation of same-sex relations by means of erotic triangles within a (mandatory) heterosexuality, where women become the (required) vessel by which phallosocial desire is reified and brought to a culmination within the established patriarchal paradigm of compulsory heterosexuality. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................1 Circulation and Translations of the Tirant.......................................................................4 Genre................................................................................................................................9 Influences and Sources ..................................................................................................13 About Martorell .............................................................................................................17 About Martorell’s and the Tirant’s Valencia ................................................................25 Major Characters of the Tirant ......................................................................................27 Tirant lo Blanc(h), the Knight-Errant ....................................................................... 28 William of Warwick, the Hermit-Knight.................................................................. 32 Carmesina, Tirant’s Beloved .................................................................................... 32 Diafebus, Tirant’s Cousin and Confidant ................................................................. 34 Estefania, Carmesina’s Cousin and Confidant.......................................................... 34 The Emperor of Constantinople................................................................................ 35 Plaerdemavida, the Go-Between............................................................................... 35 Widow Reposada [Reposed], the Pseudo Go-Between and Wet Nurse of Carmesina ................................................................................................................................... 36 INTRODUCTION TO THE THESIS................................................................................37 Chapter 1: Queer Heterosexualities in the Tirant: Straight until Proven “Other”...............................42 Chapter 2: Bizarre Love Triangles in the Tirant: Consummation of Phallosocial Desire................100 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................131 iii INTRODUCTION “Bless my soul—said the curate, in a loud voice—, for here is Tirant Lo Blanc! Give it here, mate, that I make as if I have found a wealth of joy and a mine of pastimes in it. Here is Lord Kirieleison de Muntalbà, courageous knight, and his brother Tomàs de Muntalbà, and the Knight Fontseca, with the battle that the valiant Tirant made with the mastiff, and the witticisms of the damsel Plaerdemavida, with the loves and deceptions of the Viuda Reposada, and the Mistress Empress, smitten with Hipòlit, her squire. Verily I say unto you, my lord mate, that for its style this is the best book in the world: here the knights eat and sleep and die in their beds and draft wills before their deaths, with other things that all the other books of this genre lack. With all that, I say unto you that he who wrote it deserves, for he did not commit all the trade follies, to be sent to the galleys for the rest of the days of his life. Take it home and read it; and you shall see that it is truly all that I have told you of it that it is.”1 These words proclaim an apparently stellar review of Martorell’s—and de Galba’s— Tirant lo Blanc by the curate, Pero Pérez, of Cervantes’s novel, The Ingenious Nobleman Lord Quixote of La Mancha. When commenting on the Tirant, many have looked to these words as a starting point; perhaps—because of the renown that Cervantes’s novel has enjoyed, which is contrary to the fate that befell the Tirant—referring to the endorsement serves as an attempt to restore it to its rightful place among the masterpieces of world literature. Yet, this passage is one of the many tongue-in-cheek episodes that appear throughout the Quixote. And it is ironic that it is the curate, a representative of the Church, who during the maximum apogee of the inquisition—precisely when the Church 1 (Where readily published translations are found wanting due to nuances that were overlooked or no translation is available, I will provide my own translation. In cases where a re-translation does not offer further elucidation to the passage, I will resort to published translations.) —¡Válame Dios—dijo el cura, dando una gran voz—, que aquí está Tirante el Blanco! Dádmele acá, compadre, que hago cuenta he hallado en él un tesoro de contento y una mina de pasatiempos. Aquí está don Quirieleisón de Montalbán, valeroso caballero, y su hermano Tomás de Montalbán, y el caballero Fonseca, con la batalla que el valiente de Tirante hizo con el alano, y las agudezas de la doncella Placerdemivida, con los amores y embustes de la viuda Reposada, y la señora Emperatriz, enamorada de Hipólito, su escudero. Digoos verdad, señor compadre, que por su estilo es éste el mejor libro del mundo: aquí comen los caballeros y duermen y mueren en sus camas y hacen testamento antes de su muerte, con otras cosas de que todos los demás libros de este género carecen. Con todo eso, os digo que merecía el que le compuso, pues no hizo tantas necedades de industria, que le echaran a galeras por todos los días de su vida. Llevadle a casa y leedle, y veréis que es verdad cuanto de él os he dicho. (Cervantes, 65-66, translation mine) 1 had banned chivalric novels 2—is looking to save this book from the destructive fate that Don Quixote’s niece, with the assistance of the curate and the barber, had set out in order to free him from the malady of delusion. This passage also brings into question the reliability and credibility of the Quixote’s narrator and his endorsement, be he Cervantes or some alter ego. Nonetheless, according to Montserrat Piera, “[t]he Catalan chivalry novel Tirant lo Blanc, written by Joanot Martorell between 1460 and 1464 and published in Valencia in 1490, might not have become known among hispanomedievalists if it were not for Miguel de Cervantes” (46) as she too comments on the excerpt included as the epigraph. The endorsement by a figure like that of Cervantes becomes increasingly significant as the few who have been exposed to the grandeur of the Tirant grasp at straws seeking to gain restitution for the work because it is indeed a great work. But there’s also a sense of impotence because anyone outside of that elite circle would question why a work that was so important is not the subject of greater canonical scholarship. Even still, Cervantes’s mention of the work can be seen as a twofold curse: it may be understood as merely a fictional concatenation by the farcical characters in Cervantes’s mock chivalric romance; or it will be read with the wanton and ironic facetiousness that Cervantes may have arguably intended. Many times before considering this work for investigation, I had chanced upon the title Tirant lo Blanc; yet in many of the anthologies of Peninsular literature where the 2 Henry Kamen. “The Impact on Science and Literature.” The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. “As for Spanish books […], some are books of romance and chivalry, and ‘since they are without imagination or learning and it is a waste of time to read them, it is better to prohibit them, except for the first four books of Amadis’” (114); “Censorship encouraged a practice which later became common: the burning of books. Book burning was, of course, a traditional device used by Christians against their enemies. The emperor Constantine used it against Arian works. In 1248 the clergy in Paris burned fourteen cartloads of Jewish books. The medieval Inquisition followed suit, and in the sixteenth century it was a common practice in Italy and France” (112). 2 work was mentioned, it was merely listed as one of significant