Adventures in Paradox: "Don Quixote" and the Western Tradition

Abstract

In Adventures in Paradox, Charles Presberg contends the following two points: 1) although it caught on later there than in the rest of Europe, paradoxy was cultivated in Spain with an unsurpassed exuberance; 2) Cervantes' Don Quixote contains a compendium of Western paradoxy as well as many innovations in the field. The study draws upon a variety of works, from Classical to Baroque, and engages a good deal of the critical literature, particularly that bearing upon key issues in Don Quixote related to paradox. Presberg weighs in on topics like the reliability of narrators and sources, the relationships Cervantes posits between the author and the reader, "hard" vs. "soft" readings of don Quixote, and the don Quixote vs. don Diego de Miranda controversy. As one might expect, the focus on paradox foregrounds many traits we have come to associate with Cervantes: parody, irony, ambivalence, anti-dogmatism, and so forth. Presberg's use of contemporary theory is eclectic, with a healthy focus on the primary literary texts as well as the abundant works on paradox by Classical and Renaissance writers. He discusses and makes productive use of figures and concepts such as Plato's Silenus, Aristotle's opposition of nature and art, and Erasmus's Folly. The parallels he highlights between paradoxy and Renaissance poetics provide a useful way of conceptualizing and understanding the vogue of such rhetoric in the period: concern with earthly, contingent matters, mixed forms, temporality and "process," satire that ostensibly contradicts received opinion. Indeed, one of Presberg's points is that paradox could be far more than a rhetorical exercise-that, in more complex writers, it can be characterized as a mode of thought. As with other conceptual frameworks, a danger with Presberg's approach is that it can lead him to characterize nearly any work or "utterance" that is not somehow completely intelligible and conclusive as "paradoxical"; on the other hand, the five categories of paradox he proposes seem useful, and while many of his conclusions involve a sort of rephrasing of previous critical observations, some offer fresh and valuable insight into Cervantes' art. The first part of the study provides an overview of paradoxy from Antiquity to the Renaissance, with brief discussions of Plato, Cusanus, and Erasmus. Beginning with the Parmenides, Presberg discusses the foundations and development of some of his basic operating concepts: serio ludere, discordia concors, via negativa and "resolution in mystery." Also included in this section are observations on the varied incorporation of such ideas into