An Early Bourgeois Literature in Golden Age Spain: Lazarillo De Tormes, Guzman De Alfarache and Baltasar Gracian (North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literature, 277) [Paperback]

Francisco J. Sanchez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0807892807 | ISBN-13: 978-0807892800

Tracing the beginnings of a bourgeois literature in Golden Age Spain, Francisco Sanchez examines works by Baltasar Gracian (1601-1658), major picaresque texts--particularly Lazarillo de Tormes (1554) and Mateo Aleman's Guzman de Alfarache (1599-1604)--and contemporary writings in which political economists and jurists look at new economic and political circumstances. Using the term rep£blica to describe an economic sphere of social life under the constrictions of both the monarchy and the privileges of the seignorial system, Sanchez investigates notions of person, culture, and life in these texts. He also analyzes the formation of a private sphere of social action and the emergence of a literary sphere to represent early bourgeois values and sensibilities. Sanchez argues that this literature represents culture as intellectual and verbal skills for the social and economic advancement (life) of a Christian but secularized person.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Sanchez challenges the reader to consider new 'economic' readings of old texts from Spain's Golden Age. . . . [A] thought-provoking style."
— South Atlantic Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 121 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (September 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807892807
• ISBN-13: 978-0807892800
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,346,281 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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