Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Sp. 14 Paper for Part II: Spanish Literature, Life and History before 1492
Topic II: Sin and sanctity
Guide texts from set texts list
Ruiz, Libro de buen amor; Diego de San Pedro, Cárcel de Amor
Additional guide texts
Berceo, Gonzalo de, Milagros de Nuestra Señora, ed., Isabel Uría, Biblioteca Clásica, 3 (Barcelona: Crítica, 1997).
La vida de santa María Egipciaca, ed. Manuel Alvar, in his Antigua poesía española lírica y narrativa, Sepan Cuántos..., 151 (Buenos Aires: Porrúa, 1981).
Libro de la infancia y la muerte de Jesús, ed. Manuel Alvar, in his Antigua poesía española lírica y narrativa, Sepan Cuántos..., 151 (Buenos Aires: Porrúa, 1981).
Manuel, Don Juan, El conde Lucanor, Biblioteca Clásica, 6 (Barcelona: Crítica, 1994); ed. J.M. Blecua, Castalia.
You may also enjoy reading another saint's life — try one of Berceo's: his Santa Oria is particularly interesting. Sections of the Dança general de la Muerte may also be relevant. On religious duties see Alfonso X, Partida Primera; Título IV; Don Juan Manuel, Libro del cavallero et del escudero, caps 33-34 & 38; Libro enfenido, Prológo, caps. 19-20.
Secondary Bibliography
Bloomfield, M. W., Seven Deadly Sin: An Introduction (Michigan, 1952).
Kristeva, Julia, The Powers of Horror: An Essay in Abjection (New York: Columbia UP, 1982).
Richard, Robert, "Les péchés capitaux dans le Libro de buen amor", Les Lettres Romanes, 20 (1966), 7-37.
Oyola, Eliezer, 1979. Los pecados capitales en la literatura medieval española, Biblioteca Universal Puvill; Ensayos, 3 (Barcelona: Puvill).
Vasvari, Louise O., "La digresión sobre los pecados mortales y la estructura del LBA", NRFH, 34 (1985-86), 156-80. Ward, Benedicta, Miracles and the Medieval Mind: Theory, Record and Event, 1000-1215 (London: Scolar, 1982).
On-line bibliography for Juan Ruiz's LBA.
Gonzalo de Berceo, Milagros de Nuestra Señora
Gonzalo de Berceo, Milagros de Nuestra Señora, ed., Isabel Uría, Biblioteca Clásica, (Barcelona: Crítica, 1997).
Consult
Berceo, Gonzalo de, Los Milagros de Nuestra Señora, ed. Brian Dutton, Colección Támesis, A15 (London: Tamesis, 1971).
Berceo, Gonzalo de, Obra completa, ed. Isabel Uría, Clásicos Castellanos, ns (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1992).
Berceo, Gonzalo de, Miracles of Our Lady, trans. Richard Terry Mount & Annette Grant Cash, Studies in Romance Languages, 41 (Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1997) (use with the review by Alan Deyermond, BHS (Glasgow), 76 (1999), 563-64).
Giménez Resano, Gaudioso, El mester poético de Gonzalo de Berceo (Logroño: Diputación Provincial, 1976).
Saugnieux, Joel, Berceo y las culturas del siglo XIII, Colección Centro de Estudios de Gonzalo de Berceo, 7 (Logroño: Diputación Provincial, 1982).
On-line bibliography on Berceo.
Juan Manuel, El conde Lucanor
Don Juan Manuel, El conde Lucanor, ed. Guillermo Serés, Biblioteca Clásica, 6 (Barcelona: Crítica, 1994).
Consult (N.B. Essential Reading is asterisked.)
Ayerbe-Chaux, Reinaldo. "CL": Materia tradicional y originalidad creadora (Madrid: Porrúa Turanzas, 1975).
Ayerbe-Chaux, Reinaldo, trans., Libro del CL, intro. Alan Deyermond, Clásicos Modernizados, 2 (Madrid: Alhambra, 1985).
Bloch, R. Howard, The Scandal of the Fabliaux (London: Univ. of Chicago Presss, 1986).
Devoto, Daniel, Introducción al estudio de don Juan Manuel y en particular de "El CL": una bibliografía (Madrid: Castalia, 1972).
Biglieri, A., Hacia una poética del relato didáctico: ocho estudios sobre "CL", Chapel Hill, 1989.
Gelley, Alexander, Unruly Examples: On the Rhetoric of Exemplarity (Stanford, CA: UP, 1995): articles by Gelley, Keenan.
*Macpherson, Ian, ed., Juan Manuel Studies, Tamesis, A60 (London: Tamesis, 1977). Manuel, Juan don, A Selection, ed., Ian Macpherson (London: Tamesis, 1980).
Manuel, Juan don, El CL, ed., Juan Manuel Blecua, Clásicos Castalia, 9 (Madrid: Castalia, 1985).
*Sturcken, H.T., Don Juan Manuel (New York: Twayne, 1974).,/p>
Essay questions
1 Give a critical assessment of the economy of salvation in any ONE of the literary works studied.
2 Discuss one of the following with reference to ONE OR MORE of the literary works from the medieval period:
- 'Sinners rarely escape retribution either in this world or the next.'
- 'There can be no treatment of saintliness without reference to sin'
- 'Discussions of sin converge on the flesh' (Julia Kristeva; author's emphasis)
- 'Medieval society invested its whole capital in the care of the Virgin'
- 'The application of the tremendous powers of heaven to secular and trivial matters apparently caused mirth' (Benedicta Ward)
- 'Miracles are simply the ordinary life of heaven made manifest in earthly affairs'
- 'Attention merely to the outward manifestations of devout behaviour alone never leads to salvation'
- 'Divine justice operates within a totally different economy from natural justice'
