For decades,
studies in the Poema de Mio Cid have concentrated
on the oralist/individualist controversy, emphasizing such
stylistic questions as formulaic technique, the relationship
between the epic and history, narrative structure, and the
influence of other national literatures, particularly the
French epic exemplified by the Chanson de Roland.
Exploration of social mentalities facilitates a better understanding
of the Spanish epic’s authorship and any audience, without
prior commitment to any previous theoretical school of thought.
The analysis of kinship and polity, in their intricately related
manifestations, reveals the emergence not of a particular
social class, but rather of class sensibility and the contradictions
deriving from it. Exalting personal honor and achievement,
while paradoxically glorifying collective endeavor and aspirations,
the poet and his hero live in denial of encroaching modernity.
From this we may deduce an audience willful in its primitivism
and nostalgic, even reactionary, in its sympathies.
This study of the social content of the only Spanish epic
surviving in more or less complete form provides a means of
assessing the motives and intentions of the protagonist and
of other characters. Chapters are devoted to such themes as
the significance of kinship and lineage, with special attention
to the role of fathers, uncles, and cousins in the world of
clan loyalties; amity as a system of fictive kinship, personal
honor, and public organization; the importance of women, and
the meaning and function of marriage, dowry, and related practices;
the emergence of polity as the result of a rivalry of social,
legal, and economic systems, paying particular notice to the
conflicts of obligation resulting from coexisting clans and
feudal networks; and the implications, within an essentially
kin-ordered world, of the poem’s notions of shame, honor,
status, and social inequality.
"...brilliant, incisive, interdisciplinary, vastly
erudite, and consistently well written..." —Samuel Armistead,
University of California, Davis
"Put simply, this is a brilliant book--one of the
most significant contributions to Spanish epic studies in
a very long time.... Quite aside from its splendid anthropological
interpretations..., [it] underscores the benefits of exploring
social topics in medieval literature in general and should
serve as a model to all Hispanists for this type of scholarship."
—E.Michael Gerli, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos. For the complete review, see Revista de Estudios Hispánicos
28.2 (May 1994): 311-13.
"There is little doubt that Harney's book is a very
important addition to PMC scholarship, opening new horizons
in our perceptions of the poem's multifaceted aspects."
—Milija N. Pavlovic, Modern Language Review. For the complete review, see Modern Language Review
90.4 (Oct. 1995): 1023-27.
"Because family honor is at the core of the meaning
of the Poema del Cid, it is surprising that this
book is the first systematic study ever devoted to the issue
of the family unit and its implications within the Poema.…
[Harney] offers rch insights and tantalizing possibilities
in an articulately written and very handsomeily produced
book. Cid specialists will want to see for themselves."
—Steven D. Kirby, Romance Quarterly. For the complete review, see Romance Quarterly
42.4 (Fall 1995): 244-45.
For more reviews, see
Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie 112.4
(1996): 812-13.
Forum for Modern Language Studies 32.1 (Jan. 1996):
88.
Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 73 (1996): 106-07.
Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature
(May 1994): 95-96.
Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica
43 (1993?): 486-92.
Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 55 (1993):
343.
La Corónica 22.2 (1993-94): 133-38.
Book News Nov. 1993.
Michael Harney, University of Texas at Austin, has published
articles and book chapters on Spanish medieval literature.
1-55753-039-4
1993. PSRL 2. x, 285 pp. Cloth $29.95 PRICE REDUCED
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