Eros and Empire - Softcover

Higuera, Henry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0847680517 ISBN 13: 9780847680511

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1995

The sixteenth century was an extremely critical time for Christianity and politics in Europe; the birth of Protestantism and Machiavelli's new approach to politics, morality, and religion are only two examples of the turbulence of the time. Don Quixote, argues Henry Higuera, was a response to this turbulence. Too few readers realize that Cervantes's immortal hero wanted to conquer the world. Through a careful examination of the novel against the background of Christian theology and European moral and political theory, Higuera demonstrates that Don Quixote portrays, analyzes, and criticizes how Christianity tends towards a kind of imperialism fueled by eros. He shows first just how erotic the relation between the soul and God was in the Catholic tradition; second, how theological Don Quixote's understanding of Dulcinea is; and third, how closely the Books of Chivalry are related to contemporary controversies about the Bible. The resulting study is an important one for scholars and students of political theory, intellectual history, and literature.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Henry Higuera is a tutor at St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.

Review:

Higuera provides a pathbreaking analysis of the complexities of Don Quixote that will send Cervantes scholars scrambling back to the text. At the same time he has written one of the best introductions to the book for general readers. (Cantor, Paul)

This is far and away the best analysis that I have ever read of the political teaching of Don Quixote, one of the literary masterpieces of our tradition and hence a work of abiding interest . . . to all of us. (Ernest Fortin)

Higuera serves us well by his practical criticism and close reading of the novel itself rather than a fashionably theoretical abstractedness... (Thomas Werge)

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.