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Moderation and the mean in the literature of Spain's Golden Age : a measure for measure /

A sustained analysis of the reception of the Aristotelian golden mean in early modern Spanish literature. Studying works of three canonical authors--Garcilaso, Calderón, Gracián--it argues that the ethical credo of moderation was an important part of the classical inheritance on which Golden Age aut...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rabone, Richard (Author)
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2023]
Series:Oxford modern languages and literature monographs.
Subjects:
Spanish literature > Classical period, 1500-1700 > History and criticism.
Moderation in literature.
Modération dans la littérature.
LITERARY CRITICISM.
Ethics & Moral Philosophy.
PHILOSOPHY.
Moderation in literature
Spanish literature > Classical period
Literature: history & criticism.
Literature.
1500-1700
Electronic books.
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Table of Contents:
  • Cover
  • Half Title
  • Title Page
  • Copyright Page
  • Acknowledgements
  • Contents
  • List of Illustrations
  • Editions, Translations, and Conventions
  • 1. Aristotelian Wisdom? The Doctrine of the Mean à la mode
  • 1.1 University Study and the Text of Aristotle's Ethics
  • 1.2 Aristotle's Ethics in Spain: Broad Appeal, Christian Controversy, and the Problem of Human Happiness
  • 1.3 The Mean and Moderation: Origins, Challenges, and Syncretic Resolution
  • 1.4 Beyond Aristotle: Syncretism and the Mean as Cultural Commonplace
  • 1.5 Epilogue and Outline
  • 2. A Protean Moral? Aristotelian Metamorphoses in the Figures of Icarus, Daedalus, and Phaethon
  • 2.1 Mythological Morals (i): Syncretic Thinking and the Links to the Mean
  • 2.2 Mythological Morals (ii): Temerity and the Limits of One's méritos
  • 2.3 Icarus, Daedalus, and Phaethon: Flexibility, Popularity, and Literary Interpretation
  • 2.4 Literary Deployments (i): Writerly recusatio
  • 2.5 Literary Deployments (ii): Unrequited Love
  • 2.6 Literary Deployments (iii): Marriage and Social Inequality
  • 2.7 Beyond Icarus and Phaethon: Extensions and Conclusions
  • 3. Remedia amoris? Love and the Problem of Excess in the Poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega
  • 3.1 Reading Garcilaso: Love, Empire, and Dissent from the Norm
  • 3.2 Amorous Dissent, Emotional Torment, and the Malady of Excess
  • 3.3 Sonnets and the Struggle to Break Free
  • 3.4 The Second Elegy: Fighting Extremes and Misreading the Mean
  • 3.5 The Second Eclogue (i): Pastoral Models and the Tradition of the Love-Cure
  • 3.6 The Second Eclogue (ii): Love-Cures and Elegiac Excess, Eristic Imitation and Pastoral Limits
  • 3.7 The Second Eclogue (iii): Ekphrasis and metriopatheia
  • 3.8 Epilogue: The Common Struggle
  • 4. Speculum prudentiae? Means of Kingship and the Functioning of Tragedy in Calderón's El médico de su honra
  • 4.1 Approaching the 'Remedy': Proportion, Prudence, and Pedro's Judgement
  • 4.2 First Impressions of Pedro: Precipitous Judgement and Hasty Retreat
  • 4.3 Imprudence, Role-Play, and Pique: Pedro as Royal Judge in Act I
  • 4.4 Beyond Judgement: Corroborating Pedro's Psychology
  • 4.5 Royal Conclusions: Pedro's Judgements in Act III
  • 4.6 Extending Excess: Imprudence, Tragedy, and Collective hamartia
  • 4.7 Prudence, Silence, and the Suppression of Love: Mencía's Opening Choice
  • 4.8 Beyond Mencía: Collective Imprudence and the Character of the Prince
  • 4.9 Error, Suspicion, and Tragic Causation
  • 4.10 Conclusion: Gutierre's Immoderacy
  • Pity and Fear
  • 5. Trivial Pursuit? Extremes, Resolution, and the Search for Happiness in Gración's El Criticón
  • 5.1 Glimpsing a Hybrid: Genre, Tradition, and Elusive Morality
  • 5.2 The Mean as (Moral) Commonplace: Lexis and Logic, Ethics and Wit
  • 5.3 Seeking the Middle Path: Alternative Crossroads, Perceptual Means, and the System for Moral Choice