http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/335396397

Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares between history and creativity

Miguel de Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares, a collection of short stories in the tradition of Boccaccio, has a solid foundation in the history of Golden Age Spain. Joseph V. Ricapito studies Cervantes's work from the point of view of "novelized history" or "history novelized"; in line with current New Historical thought, he argues that literary production is largely from life and experience, and that Cervantes was acutely aware of the problems of his day. The novelas offer us a glimpse of Cervantes's Spain and include a cataloguing of the social, political, and historical problems of the time. Ricapito shows how Cervantes fictionalizes the problems of unpopular minorities like Gypsies and conversos; the difficulties of social mobility in a Christian setting; the presence in society of differing and even outlandish individuals; and the oppressive role of honor, which was popularized by Lope de Vega and later formed a leitmotiv of Spanish drama.

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