The quest for meaning in

Abstract

The importance of the act of reading is one of Miguel de Cervantes's central concerns in Don Quijote de la Mancha. The Spanish author recognizes the importance of the reader and the role that he or she plays in the creation of the literary text. The departure point of the novel is based upon the imaginative encounters between chivalric texts and the mind of an obsessed reader--Don Quijote, himself. Don Quijote, however, is not only a book about an aged madman, it is also a book in which a legion of readers and aspiring writers dwell, and whose background knowledge at times clashes and at other times merges with the knight errant's to create a vivid theatrical atmosphere. This dissertation, The Quest for Meaning in Don Quijote de la Mancha, applies reader-centered theories, in particular schema theory, in order to analyse Cervantes's inclusion of characters who are knowledgeable about the chivalresque and how this affects our own quest for meaning. In reading the novel, it becomes easy to observe that the characters, like ourselves, struggle to create meaning out of their encounters with Don Quijote and the literary world that he represents. This study examines the literary codes that inscribe the characters within the system of Don Quijote de la Mancha. It also examines how the inscribed characters, readers and the most significant non-readers, contribute to the readability of the novel. In addition, it observes the codes and conventions, whether aesthetic or cultural, that the characters reveal to us, the external readers, which facilitate, or perhaps complicate, our making sense of Don Quijote. Among the central topics explored are: Don Quijote's chivalric framework and how he employs it to make the world outside of his library walls seem chivalric; Sancho Panza's acquisition of a chivalric framework which helps him to provide meaning to his adventures; how the knight errant and his squire develop the illusion of mastery in their professions; the secondary characters' employment of their background knowledge as readers in their quest to extract meaning from their encounters with Don Quijote; the characters as writers, themselves; and, finally, the texts which Don Quijote de la Mancha incorporates into itself, making them a part of its repertoire, and how this further complicates the creation of meaning for us, the external readers.