Don Quixote

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by JPablo

@Perikles. Well, if you don't enjoy it, I would not carry on. .

In any other language, I might agree, But Spanish is peculiar in that this is the only book which exists as a classical text, so I am reluctant to dismiss it like that.

Feel free to correct me on this point.....

[JPablo]

Well, there are authors like Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca, who are really classics... (La vida es sueño is one of my favorites...)

But you have “classics” like Luces de Bohemia (by Valle-Inclán) (relatively short play.)

You have Benito Pérez Galdós (right from las Palmas...) (I only read Fortunata y Jacinta... quite a while ago... but I enjoyed that one.) (If you like Zola you may like him.)

You have also Clarín (La Regenta)... Also quite a tome, but very interesting too.

But if you want to have fun, good suspense and everything else I would recommend you to get Arturo Pérez Reverte... any of his books is worth reading.

I haven’t read that much by him (I want to get caught up with all his books, though), just the first 3 books of the series about Capitán Alatriste, also La Tabla de Flandes, El Club Dumas, Un asunto de honor, El maestro de esgrima... (maybe I forgot a title...)

El Club Dumas, particularly, is already a Classic even if there is not much ‘history perspective yet...

(Well, as far as “Classics” what I say here it only scratches the surface... so much stuff on the shelves worth reading...)

[Perikles]

Thanks for the tips - as you can see, the list is relatively short....

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Perikles: Pablo just wrote some examples, but just as he said, literature in Spanish is rather rich in authors and works. It has never been limited to the Quijote, although it was the most successful one of its time.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

@Perikles: Pablo just wrote some examples, but just as he said, literature in Spanish is rather rich in authors and works. It has never been limited to the Quijote, although it was the most successful one of its time.

Well you say that, but they must be secret because I never hear of any. The very few local book shops here have very little selection of Spanish (language) writers - Cervantes, Márquez, Allende, Pérez-Reverte and that's it. The rest are translations from English, German or French, and a load of cookery books and children's books.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

A bad bookstore is not a synonym of poor literature, although it is a synonym of a poor culture. It happens here too that commercial printing of classic books doesn't seem to be so profitable nowadays. However, there are still old editions in used book shops and libraries, and if you're interested in some topic or period, we might be able to suggest some works/authors to look for... maybe even some internet links to them.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

A bad bookstore is not a synonym of poor literature, although it is a synonym of a poor culture.

I would be interested to know which books somebody would read if they were Spanish speaking, and reading for a degree in Spanish literature.

BTW You try to help me and all I do is criticize your English, and it is not intentional. But synonym in the above context is not correct because it must always refer to one specific word (or infinitive). For example to aid is a synonym for to help. It is absolutely clear what you mean, and I think you could say

A bad bookstore is not synonymous with poor literature, although it is an indication of a poor culture.

[JPablo]

Hi Perikles,

To list the authors considered Classic in Spanish literature would be a task I would not finish in a whole day...

A person studying for a degree in Spanish needs a basic acquaintance with Old Spanish (Poema de Mio Cid...) and progresses from there, Conde Lucanor, Manrique (everlasting poetry), la Celestina... Garcilaso de la Vega (awesome poet), Quevedo, Gongora... Espronceda, Becquer, Generación del 98 (Unamuno, Baroja, Machado...) Generación del 27 (a bunch of them...) and then more contemporary... The guys doing a degree in Spanish need to specialize in one period, given that the amount of material is so big...

I mean, try to read the complete works by Galdós... or Clarín... you may need a couple of lifetimes... (The amount of output is just a bit over our heads...)

You have a lot to choose... (Camilo José Cela is another good one... also Nobel Price few years ago... maybe 20...)

[Perikles]

Thanks for that - I'll investigate. The problem I have is that if anybody is interested in European literature, they will certainly be acquainted with English, German, Italian and French authors, as well as Latin and Greek ones. Spanish literature seems relatively unkown, almost obscure. Why is that?

[JPablo]

Wow, it beats me... I thought everybody knew all the Golden Age of literature in Spain (a couple of centuries of authors full of wit and and genius...) (My favorite is Quevedo... both his poetry and his prose.) La vida del Buscón Don Pablos... is just one of the best "picaresca" (picaresque genre)...
You have Valle-Inclán, a good writer too... not to mention the many Latin American ones... Rubén Darío, Vargas Llosa, Gabriela Mistral...

Well, here is one link... (the first one I found)
http://www.ciao.es/Literatura_clasic...icos_espanoles
(The list goes on and on, and at a glance they only got few of the Classics authors there.)

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Originally Posted by Perikles

I would be interested to know which books somebody would read if they were Spanish speaking, and reading for a degree in Spanish literature.

BTW You try to help me and all I do is criticize your English, and it is not intentional. But synonym in the above context is not correct because it must always refer to one specific word (or infinitive). For example to aid is a synonym for to help. It is absolutely clear what you mean, and I think you could say

A bad bookstore is not synonymous with poor literature, although it is an indication of a poor culture.

Thank you for the correction, I had never thought about the difference between "synonym" and "synonymous". It's clear now.

About the interest on a professional selection of Spanish literature, I need to talk to some academics so I can come back with suggestions and/or syllabi.

[JPablo]

Bueno, aquí hay una orientación muy general,
http://www.uned.es/fac-filg-hisp/

[Perikles]

Thanks for the pointer - looks like good place to start.

[JPablo]

You're welcome...

(One of the most famous Spanish "literary disputes" with many funny turns along the line was between Quevedo and Góngora... both incredibly talented writers, but hating each other's their guts no end...)

[Perikles]

Luego imaginó don Quijote que aquél era el dueño del cojín y de la maleta, y propuso en sí de buscalle, aunque supiese andar un año por aquellas montañas hasta hallarle

I'm making some progress here - I found some entertaining passages, and even some future subjunctives.

In the above, I suppose that buscalle is an elision (sinalefa?) of buscar + le. If so, why then hallarle?

[JPablo]

Not totally sure, but my first guess is to avoid cacophony.
I.e., the "alle" is the archaic usage form of the enclitic, as you correctly note. Following the same pattern it would be "hallalle" which, with the repetition of "ll" it would become hard on the speaker. A synonym, "encontralle" would "regularly" be in place here. But given that "hallar" is the most common way to say "to find" in those days...

This reminds me the typical "defendella y no enmendalla" expression pretty widely used in current Spanish... particularly in political registers... when a politician blunders badly, but then "defends" his/her position "a capa y espada" [fights tooth and nail to defend his/her own error].

I'll do a bit of search to confirm my above guess... (I'd bet on an 80% probability my guess is correct... but if I am wrong, I am the first to recognize it and eat my words... even if they are already in the cybernetic domain...)

NOTE: "Sinalefa" is something else, syn·a·loe·pha, n. the blending of two successive vowels into one, esp. the coalescence of a vowel at the end of one word with a vowel at the beginning of the next.
Also, syna·leapha, syn·a·le·phe.
[1530–40; < NL < Gk synaloiph£, synaliph£, equiv. to syn- SYN- + aloiph-, aliph- (var. stems of aleiphein to smear) + -" fem. n. suffix]
(You may have a better derivation... for a change! )

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

@Perikles: I know this is not what you asked for, but Antonio Alatorre is an erudite and a brilliant expositor. His book, Los 1,001 Años de la Lengua Española, edited by the Fondo de Cultura Económica is a great trip through the richness of Spanish language.
I'll send a PM later with something more related to what you wanted to avoid a longer off-topic here.

[Perikles]

Thanks both.

[Perikles]

I've now got to DQ 1 chapter XXIV, Caballero de la Sierra. This nut case starts telling his woeful tale of love, but breaks off in the middle and runs off. I find nowhere where this tale continues.

My question is: What is the Point ???????

[JPablo]

If I remember well... (I read the full thing 27 years ago... although I will be checking these things... as we go...) the whole 'woeful tale of love' is said again at one point, in full...

I remember some idea of "interpersing" a couple of "novelas pastoriles" in the first part of Don Quixote, as a way to "entertain" the reader... and as a "suspense" factor... a the same time, creating a parallel... with our crazy hero... So, yes... I understand your your reaction to this "silly thing". (I actually prefer the second part of Don Quixote, when there is not other things in between the main story.) But this seems like one "literary resource" of a story inside a story... much like in the film Inception there are dreams inside dreams... (I haven't seen the film yet... but per what I got told... it tends to be quite a mind-f...)