A Window onto the Heart: Cervantes and the Cardiocentric Self

• Julia Domínguez ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Delaware

     University of Delaware

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Hispanic review, ISSN-e 1553-0639, Vol. 91, Nº 4, 2023, págs. 517-539
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Longstanding representations of the heart and all its complexities in art, religion, literature, medicine, and natural philosophy depicted the organ as the center of feelings, but early modern advances in anatomy led to a physiological reinterpretation. Cervantes was aware of both traditions, and the Cervantine heart repeatedly appears subject to surveillance. For Cervantes, to open a window onto the heart of his characters is to reveal an interior ensconcing secrets and passions, offering an intimate view of feelings and images. This is especially relevant in the Cave of Montesinos, where the knight's solitary spelunking marks a pivotal moment, as his physical descent into the cave is commensurate with higher self-revelation, marking the episode as a synecdoche for the larger work. Seen as an act of individual introspection, Don Quixote's experience unveils his confused interior, opening a window to the protagonist's concealed and most deep-seated anxieties that demystifies his decreasingly idealized chivalric world.