Francisco de Quevedo como practicante de la disimulación defensiva en Cómo ha de ser el privado y El chitón de las tarabillas
In this study, the author provides additional evidence in support of the claims of some Quevedo specialists who strongly question the potential usefulness of Cómo ha de ser el privado and El chitón de las tarabillas as tools of pro-government political propaganda because of the presence in them of n...
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| Format: | article |
| Publication Date: | 2013 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad de Navarra |
| Repository: | Dadun. Depósito Académico Digital de la Universidad de Navarra |
| Language: | Spanish |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dadun.unav.edu:10171/38541 |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10171/38541 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Duplicity Quevedo Duplicidad Cómo ha de ser el privado Materias Investigacion::Filología y Literatura::Literatura Disimulación constructiva Constructive dissimulation El chitón de las tarabillas |
| Summary: | In this study, the author provides additional evidence in support of the claims of some Quevedo specialists who strongly question the potential usefulness of Cómo ha de ser el privado and El chitón de las tarabillas as tools of pro-government political propaganda because of the presence in them of numerous instances of oblique criticism against the very government they claim to defend. More importantly, the article shows here how Francisco de Quevedo uses in these two works various forms of defensive dissimulation, and, in some cases, what Erica Benner calls «constructive dissimulation». In other words, it demonstrates that Quevedo, who, most likely has been losing faith in Count Duke of Olivares’ government for some time prior to the writing of these works in 1629, starts expressing in both of them, not only his anxiety about Spain’s situation around this time, but his ardent desire for concrete changes in the way his government handles a variety of issues. In order to do this, though, Quevedo, who is obviously aware of the inherent danger of such an endeavour, makes sure to convey his complaints and his suggestions in a rather indirect and flattering way so as to try avoiding a violent reaction on the part of Olivares and his supporters. In spite of the fact that Quevedo expresses in many of his works his hatred of dissimulation, there are plenty of examples of this author using this technique before and after writing Cómo ha de ser el privado and El chitón de las tarabillas. That said, due to the fact that both texts are originally ordered by an important member of Olivares’ government, it is possible to find in them a particularly large number of examples of dissimulation. |
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