Picaresque Novel: Evolution, Characteristics, and Key Works
Picaresque Novel: Evolution and Key Features
The Story of Lazarillo de Tormes contains features that define the picaresque genre. Mateo Alemán’s Guzmán de Alfarache further established autobiographism, distinctive rogue characteristics, and the basic structural outline of the picaresque narrative. However, changes occurred due to evolving tastes and sensibilities during the Baroque period:
- Moralizing Digressions: The rogue’s moral norms refer to and condemn the criminal acts performed.
- Negative Worldview: A disenchanted view of the world and humanity, more ruthless and scathing than previous picaresque works.
- Satire and Humor: Satire and humor are used to expose vices and customs.
- Baroque Complexity: Baroque literary trends complicate the clarity of exposition; plain language breaks down with hyperbole, distortion, and conceptista stylistic resources, leading to obscurity in the language.
- Caricatured Reality: Reality is caricatured and viewed through a distorting lens.
In Guzmán, Mateo Alemán uses Guzmán’s negative experiences to encourage readers to live honestly, though these moralizing disquisitions sometimes have little relation to the novel’s action. A bitter view of the world and man, coincident with the spirit of the times, dominates the narrative.
El Buscón by Quevedo
El Buscón by Quevedo (1616) marks the next milestone in the picaresque narrative. Don Pablos does not indoctrinate. Quevedo presents a subhuman reality through satire and mockery and, above all, creates a great work of verbal wit.
Other works include Life of Escudero Marcos de Obregón by Vicente Espinel (1618) and González Estebanillo (1646).
The Female Picaresque
Picaresque tales also emerge with a female protagonist. The sting is often beautiful, clever, and crafty, taking care in their dress and outward behavior, often pretending to frequent courtly environments. It is a hybrid genre, mixing picaresque elements with those of the novella and adventure. The most important works are The Mischievous Justina (1605) and Daughter Celestina (1612).
Novella
A key element of the short novel is the love story, framed within a courtly setting or a web of adventures. It draws from various fictional forms:
- Idealist narrative of the sixteenth century (pastoral novel, Byzantine novel, Moorish novel), borrowing love, travel episodes, and adventure.
- Picaresque novel features satire.
- Theater provides types, arguments, and spoken forms.
It also incorporates satirical poems and burlesque elements.
Following the structure of Boccaccio’s Decameron, stories are published in series connected by a conventional framework, reproducing a meeting where each member presents a story. The story usually involves two lovers who face various difficulties in uniting. María de Zayas is an important author and the most genuine representative of this genre. She published two collections of 10 novels each: Amorous and Exemplary Novels (1637) and Disappointment in Love (1647). They make a plea for women and also include the pessimistic and disenchanted worldview.
Excessive moralistic arguments overload the novel, suffocating the plot and turning the characters into mere carriers of ideas and advice.
Custom Tiles (Cuadros de Costumbres)
These arise from other kinds of novels, where the raw, picturesque description of environments weakens the plot and action. They describe human types, vices, and customs of society, often from a burlesque or satirical perspective. The cuadro de costumbres is particularly indebted to the picaresque novel. The clearest precedent in this genre is Cervantes’ The Dialogue of the Dogs.
The structure of these stories is through dialogue, generally between partners, with anecdotes and jokes revealing the social underworld and marginal strata of society, as seen in Passengers by Cristóbal Suárez de Figueroa.