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"What is the role of literature in the formation of the state? Anthony J. Cascardi takes up this fundamental question in Cervantes, Literature, and the Discourse of Politics, a comprehensive analysis of the presence of politics in Don Quixote. Cascardi argues that when public speech is constrained, as it was in seventeenth-century Spain, politics must be addressed indirectly, including through comedy, myth, and travellers' tales. Cervantes, Literature, and the Discourse of Politics convincingly reengages the ancient roots of political theory in modern literature by situating Cervantes within a long line of political thinkers. Cascardi notably connects Cervantes' political theory to Plato's, much as the writer's literary criticism has been firmly linked to Aristotle's. He also shows how Cervantes' view of literature provided a compelling alternative to the modern, scientific politics of Machiavelli and Hobbes, highlighting the potential interplay of literature and politics in an ideal state."--P. [i]

Which were the mechanisms by which certain groups were positioned at the margins of national narratives during the nineteenth century, either via their exclusion from these narratives of through their incorporation into them as 'others'? By engaging with shifting ideas of exclusion and difference, the authors in this book reflect upon the paradoxical centrality of the subaltern at a time when literature was deployed as a tool for nation building. The lasting presence of the Jewish and Moorish legacy, the portrayal of gypsy characters, or the changing notions of femininity in public discourse exemplify the ways in which images of marginal 'types' played a central role in the configuration of the very idea of Spanishness. ¿Cuáles fueron los mecanismos mediante los que ciertos grupos fueron relegados a los márgenes del relato nacional durante el siglo XIX, bien a través de su exclusión de dichos relatos, bien a través de su incorporación a ellos como "otros"? A través del análisis de las ideas de exclusión y diferencia, los autores de este libro reflexionan sobre la paradójica centralidad de lo marginal en una época en la que la literatura fue una herramienta fundamental para la construcción de la nación. La pervivencia del legado judío y morisco, la representación de personajes gitanos o las distintas nociones de feminidad presentes en el discurso público ejemplifican las formas en que las imágenes de "tipos" marginales desempeñaron un papel central en la configuración de la idea de españolidad