Reading, Writing, and Errant Subject in Inquisitorial Spain

Prendergast (U. of Rochester, US) explores how literature both incorporated and responded to some of the primary facets of inquisitorial culture and their connection with the ideologies that undergirded the construction of the early modern Spanish nation state. A particular challenge, he says, is to decipher how writers incorporated responses to the social-cultural control exerted by royal and ecclesiastical policies and practices in their work. Starting with Don Quixote, he focuses on picaresque and Moorish novels along with theatrical pieces, that engage the control of knowledge, the exclusion of the Other, forced confession, blood purity, and other aspects of inquisitional culture. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Ryan Prendergast is Associate Professor of Spanish at the University of Rochester, USA.