Reconsidering literary criminality in Don Quixote

Abstract

This study uses Cervantes's biography and the increasing popularity of the 'jácara' and 'comedia de valentón' as means to finding alternative explanations of criminality that do not rely on the picaresque as a model. While recognising that the picaresque does play a role, an examination of the wit, wordplay, fatalism, and unfiltered violence of other genres reveals a complex approach that is easily recognised as Cervantine, but remains mostly undiscovered in relation to the author's treatment of criminals in his novel.