Monstruos Que Hablan: El Discurso De La Monstruosidad En Cervantes

The monster is a key figure in Spanish early modern cultural production, both literary and artistic. It embodies a revolutionary fictional discourse that reflects violence and ugliness, but also freedom and spectacle. Minana focuses on three of Miguel de Cervantes' most representative works. Employing both close readings and monster theory, Minana argues that Cervantes' protagonists--as well as the very discourse that forges them--are monstrous: extreme, beyond the norm, threatening and threatened, spectacular, and fluid in identity, form, and behavior. As extraordinary beings that test the limits of identity and narrative, Minana argues, Cervantine talking monsters ultimately reveal the interpretive and discursive nature of the modern subject.