Picaro and Cortesano ─ Identity and the Forms of Capital in Early Modern Spanish Picaresque Narrative and Courtesy Literature

Picaro and Cortesano have been traditionally viewed as antithetical figures representing a strict spatial metaphor between center and periphery. This book challenges that view by positing a relationship between these two significant figures and their respective books, picaresque narrative and courtesy manual. The handbook of conduct tacitly engages the question of identity by offering a model for fashioning the self, while picaresque narrative explicitly reflects on how identity is constituted and sustained. The book argues that picaro and cortesano rely upon a range of shared cultural, social and symbolic resources to fashion, maintain and enhance their identity and position.

Felipe E. Ruan is associate professor of Spanish at Brock University, Canada.