Elias L. Rivers
Quixotic Scriptures: Essays on the Textuality of Hispanic Literature.
Indiana University Press, 1983. First printing. 0253347610 164 pages.
Volume, measuring approximately 6" x 8.75", is bound in purple cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book displays very light shelfwear. Binding is firm. Interior is clean and bright. Dust jacket exhibits light shelfwear. Jacket is preserved in mylar cover.
"Applying notions from sociolinguistics, speech-act theory, and semiotics, the author deftly explores the course of Hispanic literature from its prealphabetic origins through twentieth-century Latin American writings."
"Applying notions from sociolinguistics, speech-act theory, and semiotics, Elias Rivers deftly explores the course of HIspanic literature from its prealphabetic origins through twentieth-century Latin American writings. Although the framework of each chapter is historical, "Quixotic Scriptures" investigates a diverse range of topics: the interplay between an established written mode of composition and the oral traditions that impinge on it; medieval examples of written Spanish, from Mozarabic kharjas to the "Libro de buen amor" to the works of Luis de Leon; Spanish baroque literature (theater and speech acts in "La Estrella de Sevilla", Gongora's oralistic and Latinate poetry, Quevedo's physiological imagery); the narrative trickery of Cervantes; and Spanish in the New World (from the Inca Garcilaso to "Tres tristres tigres"). Each analysis centers on a textual fragment, with English translation, and leads toward redefining the play between text, spoken language, and culture.
A master critic, Rivers follows in the great tradition of essayists Eric Auerbach and Cleanth Brooks, who, with little or no annotation, give the reader considerable penetration into a number of literary problems.
With its focus on linguistic pragmatics, "Quixotic Scriptures" offers new insights to specialists in Hispanic literature while at the same time providing comparatists who many know little or no Spanish with a comprehensive introduction to a significant body of literature."
