Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Scripted Revolution: Aspects of the Carnivalesque and Grotesque in Tirant lo Blanc and Curial i Güelfa

  • Published:
Neophilologus Aims and scope Submit manuscript

“Everything being a constant carnival, there is no carnival left.”

Victor Hugo – Les Misérables.

Abstract

The fifteenth century Catalan chivalric romances, Tirant lo Blanc and Curial e Güelfa, constitute two literary landmarks in the evolution of the early modern novel. The use of Bahktin’s concepts of the carnivalesque and the grotesque deepen our understanding of the two texts by helping us understand both the subversion of traditional social order and its ultimate restoration. We explore the theoretical construct of the carnivalesque and its particular manifestations in medieval and early-modern Catalonia. We then explore uses of sexual misalliance, subversion of temporal and spiritual authority, masking and unmasking, games of mirrors, gender bending, temporal distortion, and other components of the construct as manifest in each of the two texts. While the construct of the carnivalesque has sometimes been overused and misapplied, as a manifestation of early modern culture in Western Europe, the carnivalesque becomes a powerful tool for understanding humor, parody and comedy in two important, if understudied, Catalan romances.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. As Dentith reminds us, part of the Roman Carnival included the ritual denigration of Jews and the medieval charivari involved satire of people who had transgressed community sexual norms, particularly widows or widowers who married partners younger than themselves, scolds, and husbands who allowed themselves to be beaten by their wives (74).

  2. Whether Pedro the priest’s comments on Tirant lo Blanc are just another Cervantine satire of the chivalresque or should be read as true praise is the subject of much debate. While a full discussion is well beyond the scope of this study, see for example Bates (1953) or Eisenberg (1973). Suffice it to say, there seems to be an awareness on the part of Cervantes that the Catalan romance is indeed a satire of nearly every trope of chivalry, whether the author meant it as such or not.

  3. When quoting from Curial y Güelfa and Tirant lo Blanc, I refer to book and chapter numbers rather than page numbers to make consultation easy for those who wish to refer to the works in other editions or translations than I have used here. For Curial, I consulted Aramon (1930) when writing this piece as this older edition is somewhat more readily available in North American libraries. However, I recommend Lola Badia and Jaume Torró’s edition (2011) for the excellent study, notes and critical apparatus if available. The Max Wheeler translation is excellent for those who wish to work in English. For Tirant lo Blanc, the recent Pujol (2021) is a valuable tool for scholars. For an English translation, see La Fontaine (1995).

  4. See Thomas (1964) for a discussion of the soldier-as-lover metaphor. See also McKeown (1995) for an analysis of the Ovidian material.

References

  • Anonymous. (1930). Curial e Güelfa. Ed. R. Aramon i Serra. 3 vols. Barcelona: Barcino.

  • Anonymous. (2011a). Curial e Güelfa. Ed. L. Badia and J. Turró. Barcelona: Quaderns Crema.

  • Anonymous. (2011b). Curial and Güelfa: A classic of the Crown of Aragon. Trans. M. Wheeler. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

  • Bakhtin, M. (1984). Rabelais and his world (RW) (H. Iswolsky, Trans) (Original work published 1968).

  • Bakhtin, M. (1999). Problems of Dostoyevsky’s Poetics (PDP) (C. Emerson, Trans. and Ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1963).

  • Bates, M. (1953). Cervantes’ criticism of Tirant lo Blanch. Hispanic Review, 21(2), 142–144.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cacho Blecua, J. M. (1993). El amor en el Tirant lo Blanc : Hipòlit i la emperadriu. Actes del Symposion "Tirant lo Blanc", Barcelona: Quaderns Crema, pp. 133–69.

  • Cervantes Saavedra, M. de. (2004). Ed. E. Suárez Figaredo. El ingenioso caballero don Quijote de la Mancha. Barcelona: Ediciones Carena.

  • Delgado, M. (1992). La festa a Catalunya, avui. Barcanova.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dentith, S. (1995). Bakhtinian thought: An introductory reader. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eco, U. (1984). The frames of comic ‘freedom’. In Carnival!. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

  • Eisenberg, D. (1973). Pero Pérez the priest and his comment on Tirant lo Blanch. MLN, 88(2), 321–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gardiner, M. (1993). Bakhtin’s carnival: Utopia as critique. Utopian Studies, 3(2), 21–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Granata, F. (2013). Deconstruction fashion: Carnival and the grotesque. Journal of Design History, 26(2), 182–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hug, B. (2013). “Blazing Saddles” as Postmodern ethnic carnival. Studies in Popular Culture, 36(1), 63–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martorell, J. and M. de Galba. (1995). Tirant lo Blanc: The complete English translation. (R. La Fontaine, Trans.). New York: Peter Lang.

  • Martorell, J. and M. de Galba. (2005). Tirant lo Blanc. (R. Giner, Ed.). Barcelona: Tres i Quatre.

  • Martorell, J. and M. de Galba. Tirant lo Blanc. (2021). (J. Pujol, Trans.). Barcelona: Barcino.

  • McGlathery, D. (2001). Bakhtinian parody and Petronius tale of the widow. In P. Bartra, P. A. Miller, et. al., Eds. Carnivalizing difference: Bakhtin and the Other. London: Routledge Harwood.

  • McKeown, J. C. (1995). Militat omnis amans. The Classical Journal, 90(3), 295–304.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mintz, J. (1997). Carnival song and society: Gossip, sexuality, and creativity in Andalusia. Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morson, G. S., & Emerson, C. (1990). Mikhail Bakhtin: Creation of a prosaics. Stanford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ovid. 43 B.C – 17 A.D. or 18 A.D. (1976). Amores. Clarendon Press.

  • Rogers, D. M. (1996). The marks of the hidden flame: Three faces of Dido in Curial e Güelfa. Neophilologus, 80, 53–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomas, E. (1964). Variations on a military theme in Ovid’s Amores. Greece & Rome, 11(2), 151–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weichselbaumer, D. (2012). Sex, romance and the carnivalesque between female tourists and Caribbean men. Tourism Management, 33(5), 1220–1229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    John Lucas

Authors
  1. John Lucas
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Lucas.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lucas, J. Scripted Revolution: Aspects of the Carnivalesque and Grotesque in Tirant lo Blanc and Curial i Güelfa. Neophilologus 107, 1–11 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-022-09748-3

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11061-022-09748-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation