[DOWNLOAD] "To See What Men Cannot: Teichoskopia in Don Quijote I." by Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: To See What Men Cannot: Teichoskopia in Don Quijote I.
- Author : Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America
- Release Date : January 22, 2008
- Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 215 KB
Description
OVER THE PAST DECADE, as I have worked on the implications of Cervantes' visual writing, I concentrated on the concept of ekphrasis, with its mnemonic implications and its many permutations. (1) By doing this, I left aside other important manifestations of writing for the eyes. (2) One in particular, teichoskopia, was closely associated with ekphrasis from its inception. (3) The term teichoskopia or 'view from the wall', is, as Norman Austin asserts, "the locus classicus for the traditional Helen portrait" (17). It derives from the famous passage in the third book of the Iliad where Helen comes to the walls of Troy to view the deadly contest between her abductor and lover Paris and her husband Menalaus. Helen is sent to the city walls at a time when she is weaving "many battles of the horse-taming Trojans and the brazen-coated Achaeans" (Homer 3.125-27). Thus, ekphrasis (the tapestry) and teichoskopia are closely allied. Furthermore, as both Ann Bergren and Matthew Gumpert have shown, the words of Helen's messenger replicate those used to describe the weaving, thus implying a certain anachronism: Helen, as "author" of the poem/tapestry, has already depicted the events she is about to witness (Bergren 23; Gumpert 5). (4) The two devices were later imitated by Virgil. As Aeneas arrives in Carthage, he is at first captivated by a series of murals concerning the Trojan War in Juno's temple, even before he is captivated by the appearance of the Queen. Although Dido here is not the author of the ekphrastic murals, she has ordered and led the building of Carthage and its temple, thus assuming a kind of authorial role. At the end of the episode, we find her at her tower, viewing Aeneas' departure and contemplating her own suicide. While Helen speaks to the elders at the wall and is viewed and judged by them, but not by those below, Dido curses Aeneas and his people as they depart, her words carrying her despair across the waves. Inspite of the differences, both epic poetas move from ekphrasis to teichoskopia and in both, woman has an authorial role and looks down from above. (5) In this essay, I would like to discuss this epic device in Part I of Don Quijote. Renaissance texts utilized teichoskopia as an element of evidentia, the Greek bypotiposis, (6) which serves to achieve visualization, the impression that one is actually looking at things and events (Arenas Cruz 249). Cervantes' move from ekphrasis to teichoskopia can be seen as a heuristic imitation of the classical devices, thus imbuing his novel with new and enticing variations on epic episodes. (7) Cervantes adds yet another layer of complexity by including two framing moments when a reverse teichoskopia takes place. The central scene or true teichoskopia is that of Marcela, where the text shows what a woman can see that men cannot. (8) While the central scene combines pastoral and epic, the flame episodes intertwine chivalric and classical motifs in such a fashion that it is often difficult to separate one from the other. (9)