摘 要

关于小说《堂吉诃德》的研究，400年来从未停止。 在浩如烟海的研究论著中，既有研究人物形象的，也有探讨宗教的；既有专注于小说所反映的社会问题的，也有分析现实主义的。然而探讨小说中骑士浪漫主义的并不多见。基于此， 本文试图以骑士浪漫主义为切入点，透过堂吉诃德 “疯狂”的表象探讨小说反映的本质内涵和批判主题。骑士制度兴起于欧洲中世纪的上层社会，是封建制度的产物。与骑士制度相匹配的骑士精神则反映了骑士阶层的精神追求。随着资本主义的发展，封建制度逐步走向衰落,不同的社会问题出现了。此时,在文学领域，曾经盛行的骑士小说已经发生了变异，并阻碍了文明的进步。伴随着文艺复兴的在西班牙的广泛传播，以人文主义思潮兴起为标志的文艺复兴把人对神的崇拜转向对人自身的崇拜。人文主义与传统的基督教道德理念之间的冲突使西班牙社会陷入了信仰危机。塞万提斯的小说《堂吉诃德》在这种大背景下诞生了。虽然小说在内容和形式上都保持了骑士小说的风格，但是在思想上却不同于绝大部分传统骑士小说。本文将通过分析骑士浪漫主义在小说情节中的体现和所产生的效果，探讨堂吉诃德“发疯”的原因，并就作者塞万提斯所要揭露的社会问题作分析说明。

关键词：骑士浪漫主义;人文主义;信仰危机;社会问题

Abstract

The research on Don Quixote has never stopped in the past 400 years. Among such an ocean of books and papers studying on this novel, some are researches about analysis of images; some are papers about religions; some are discussions on social problems reflecting in the content of the novel and some aim on realism. However, analysis on knight romanticism is very rare. Based on this situation, this paper will start from knight romanticism to see through the appearance—Don Quixote’s Madness to perceive the essence—essential connotation and social criticism behind the text. Knight system is rooted in the super stratum society of mid-century Europe. It is the result of feudal system. Matching with Knight system, knighthood mainly reflects the spiritual pursuit of knight class. With the development of capitalism, feudal system started to decline gradually. As a result, different social problems began to come out. Meanwhile, in literary area, knight novels that had prevailed for a long time in Spain got into a state of variation and blocked the progress of civilization. With the widely spread of Renaissance in Spain, Renaissance marked by though trends of humanism turned human’s worship for gods to their self-worship. The contradiction between humanism and traditional Christian ethics entrapped Spain society into a state of belief crisis. Cervantes’ Don Quixote came out in this historical context. Although this novel has the similar content and structure as those of the majority of knight novels, it is different from them in ideas. In this paper, according to the analysis of knight romanticism and its effects, Don Quixote’ s “madness” will be explained and the real social problems that Cervantes wanted to expose to the public will be figured out.

Key Words: knight romanticism; humanism; belief crisis; social problems

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 The Renaissance and Humanism 2

1.2 Contradiction between Humanism and Traditional Christian Ethics－Moral Anomie 2

2 Knight System and Knight Romanticism 4

2.1 A Brief Introduction of Knight System and Knighthood 4

2.2 The Product of Knight System and Knighthood—Knight Novels 5

2.3 The Variation of Knight Novels－Anomie in Literature 5

2.4 Knight Romanticism 7

3 Knight Romanticism in Don Quixote' s Travels 9

3.1 Demonstration of Knight Romanticism in Don Quixote' s Travels 9

3.2 Cervantes’ Personal Experiences and Knight Romanticism 13

4 Social Problems Revealed by Knight Romanticism 15

4.1 Belief Crisis in Spain 15

4.2 Oppression from Kinship and Church 16

5 Conclusion 18

References 20

Acknowledgments 21

Knight Romanticism in Don Quixote

1 Introduction

Any form of literature is a product of a particular historical period, which alludes the ethos of the age explicitly or implicitly (Church,2013). Don Quixote, as one of the most outstanding novels in Spanish literary history, is also one of the most important literary classics in the age of Renaissance. The novel, written by Miguel De Cervantes, tells a fantastic tale of knight-errantry happening to a poor county gentlemen named Don Quixote and his servant named Sancho Panza. It shapes a windmill fighter, a gentleman, a fantast who is a combination of reason and absurdity, mystery and faith as well as knight’s pride. Images in this novel have modern meaning and can surpass the limit of time and space. Although Cervantes’ original intention of this composition is to satirize the prevailing knight novels and the system of chivalry with feudalistic color in Spanish society in 16^th century. Image is greater than thought (Hodges,1992), and the social-cultural impact is far beyond the author’s imagination. It’s not only widely considered as the terminator to 16^th century’s Spanish knight literature, but also a bright mirror of Spanish realistic society in the 16^th century. The main stories are about Don Quixote and Sancho Panza’s three knight-errantry experiences. The narration of three knight-errantry experiences insinuates what Spanish society look like and the existing social problems in 16^th century. The whole novel involves many aspects of social life , including religion, social class, racialism and so on.

Reading through the whole novel, it’s easy to find some impressive stories such as Don Quixote’ s regarding windmills as giants, a flock of sheep as an army group, fighting with wine-skins and so on are imbued with a heavy knight romanticism atmosphere. Many opinions hold the idea that it’s the rightly use of knight romanticism expression technique in this novel that makes the novel Don Quixote get the praise “image greater than thought” and stand on the list of world classic novels firmly. Specifically, from the microcosmic aspect, Cervantes’ original intention is fulfilled—fantastical knight novels in 16^th century Spanish society disappear gradually. From the macro perspective, it reveals deeper social problems and ethos existing in Spanish society in 16^th century, which makes this novel filled with social effect and thought value.

Studying purpose and current studying situation: With the development of economy and society, and conversion of cultural perspectives, the novel Don Quixote has been unscrambled for thousands of times by people across the world in different perspectives. Making a general survey of literary works at home and abroad, it’s very clear to find the same situation that whether from view of religion, social class, knight spirits, romanticism and so on, all of the works have done very well in analyzing in certain aspect. However, the majority of them just focus on one particular aspect among those mentioned above without any exception, which goes against the desire of having a comprehensive understanding of this novel, as well as better understanding of the profound meaning infused by the author behind the text itself. Split readings from different people also lead readers going ill with thorough comprehension of the splendid position of Don Quixote in the field of world literature.

Based on this situation, this paper entitled Knight Romanticism in Don Quixote will use knight romanticism as link, and runs through religion, social class, knight spirits and so on. As a result, readers could have an all-sided cognition of this novel and have a better understanding of the in-depth social problems insinuated by Miguel De Cervantes. As to readers, this attempt will not only make for better grasp of Spain as well as European Middle Age. Besides, this paper can also be used as reference for the later studies.

Major methods: Documentation method and Comprehensive analysis.

1.1 The Renaissance and Humanism