El picaro'

[kcrosby at wppost.depaul.edu]

>>>>>>>>>>
Heikki writes:
>Something was in the air in Spain, a bit the same way as in
the U.S. in the 1970s, when _GR_, _JR_, and _The Public
Burning_ came out in short intervals.
>>>>>>>>>

A section of Coover's _Pricksongs & Descants_ got me to
thinking about the similarities in literary technique among
DonQ. & a few of the works of the late '60s/early '70s.  
Coover, in one section of P&D, explicitly addresses Sr.
Cervantes and his "metafictional" posture.  Coover basically
says that he's trying to follow in Cervantes's footsteps.  That
got me to looking at Borges's "Pierre Menard," and Barth's
_Lost in the Funhouse_ for works of the same period that
seemed to resemble DonQ.  The similarity I was looking at
was the obvious presence of the author in the work.  This is
by no means unique to these works, but it seemed to be
different from other works.

And on a slightly different track, Picasso imitated Velasquez
like Coover imitated Cervantes.  And the picture Picasso
chose to "copy" featured the artist in the work.

All these things seem like more than coincidence, but I don't
know if one could say anything about broad cultural patterns,
etc.  One commentator on the presence of the author in
DonQ. attributed it to the fact that the early 1600's was just
about the time that printing technology had advanced to a
degree where mass-production was possible for the first
time, and DonQ was one of the first books that "everyone"
was reading.  So the medium affected the message. And this
led me back to Coover, who was one of the first 'big-name'
authors to jump both feet into hypertext projects.  His _P&D_
could be considered hypertext on paper, and he did lots
o'work (at Brown, I think) on a real computer-based hypertext
literature project (but I don't know what ever came of it).

Just dredging up some old thoughts that have stayed around
for quite a while.  Usual disclaimer for rambling applies.

KevinC.
kcrosby at wppost.depaul.edu