Intro To World Literature Eng 211

1. CONTEXTUAL
APPROACH
DON QUIXOTE
BY: BRITTNEY MONN

2. ALL ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• Born: September 29, 1547
• He was born in Alcala de Henares, Spain
• He died April 23, 1616

3. CERVANTES- EARLY YEARS
• His father was a poor deaf Spanish Surgeon,
• They struggled financially, and moved around a lot
• He liked to read a lot as a child
• Spain at the time was changing from the being chivalrous to Spain becoming a powerful nation and
going into the renaissance.
• Spanish literature still was full of chivalry thought
• Which is thought to be why there is so much talk about Chivalry in Don Quixote

4. GOLDEN ERA
• The Golden Age was a time in Spanish Literature
• It was from 16th century to the late 17th century
• It was time for patriotic and religious freedoms
• It had realism and a new interest in epics
• This was the end of Chivalrous novels and pastoral novels.

5. MILITARY CAREER
• Cervantes joined the army when he was twenty-one and fought against Turkey as sea and then Italy on
land.
• In 1575, Cervantes was captured by pirates and was then sold as a slave to the Moors.
• He attempted to escape 3 times before he ransomed in 1580, when he returned to Spain.
• In late 1580s he worked as a commissary for the Spanish Armada.
• He collected taxes from many towns which led him to write about some of the people he saw.

6. CERVANTES: A WRITER?
• In 1605, Cervantes published the first volume of Don Quixote.
• This allowed him to finally achieve financial success
• Don Quixote became an instant success
• The first part was such a success it was quickly translated into English and French
• Avellaneda, an author, wrote a unauthorized sequel, due to the popularity of the novel.
• The sequel to Don Quixote was published in 1615.

7. DON QUIXOTE
• Many people enjoyed the book but there was a few people who did not
• The aristocracy did not like it because it basically made fun of the ideals they cherished.
• Don Quixote is considered to be one of the greatest and most important pieces of Spanish literature
• It was also the first modern novel.

8. WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
• People have different interpretations of Don Quixote
• Some think of it as a parody of chivalry and how it is nothing like real love
• Or even how it makes fun of the social class structure
• Cervantes shows that there is actually similarities and differences between fantasy and real life.

9. WORKS CITED
• "Don Quijote de la Mancha, Cervantes - Spanish Literature | don Quijote." donQuijote. N.p., n.d. Web. .
<http://www.donquijote.org/spanishlanguage/literature/history/quijote>.
• "Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra." 2014. The Biography.com website. Apr 16
2014http://www.biography.com/people/miguel-de-cervantes-9242997.