Katia Brahemcha Sherman

Among the twelve stories that comprise Cervantes? Novelas ejemplares, El coloquio de los perros is the one that can be most fundamentally linked to issues of epistemology, as it presents a variety of unstable narrative frames that compel the reader to transcend the gap between the real and the imaginary. This analysis focuses on the intersection of two concepts that seem to hold together the epistemic instability evidenced in the Coloquio: scepticism and the imagination. I argue that Cervantes uses multiple narrative frames to assert human creativity and to highlight the unique power of the creator to know his creation, hence invoking the sceptical principal of the maker?s knowledge argument.

This article investigates Cervantes's engagement with one of the central questions of scepticism, the problem of the criterion. Through an analysis of how identities are fashioned and proved in 'La gitanilla' (1613), I argue that Cervantes taps into the universe of Pyrrhonian scepticism as he creates an antithetical fiction that draws the reader into suspending judgement and questioning dogmatic inferences. I also argue that Cervantes's sceptical narrative shares a common epistemological concern with the thought and writings of the French philosopher Michel de Montaigne, as evidenced in Montaigne's sceptical manifesto, the Apologie de Raimond Sebond' (1580).

Virtue, here working as a moral antidote to vice, is inextricably linked to religious virtue as defined by Catholicism; but Catholicism is in this instance subjected to a doubly critical force. [...]Catholic dogma in itself, as Church reformers would claim through questioning the validity of the Catholic rule of faith, cannot be unquestionably accepted either. [...]B. W. Ife and Trudi Darby recognize the persuasiveness of Forcione's reading, but find it inconclusive at the same time: "Many readers may find that figural or symbolic interpretations, or recourse to miracles, whether secularized or not, do not allow them to keep faith with the outrage they experience when they read the story, or to see where their outrage leads them as critics or interpreters of the text" (176). [...]Rodolfo's behavior could only be described as distinct from that of the past given his loquaciousness, which he exercises in order to argue against his parent's perceived wish to see him married to an ugly woman: [P]ensar que un rostro feo, que se ha de tener a todas horas delante de los ojos, en la sala, en la mesa y en la cama, pueda deleitar, otra vez digo que lo tengo por casi imposible. [...] [...]the insistence found throughout the text on challenging both theological and social fronts points to a necessity to direct the critique at the common elements shared by both these entities: the patriarchal structure.

This article investigates the way in which Cervantes articulates in the "Prologo al lector" of his Novelas ejemplares the skeptical attitude that will so profoundly permeate the stories it introduces. Through a destabilization of traditional concepts like exemplarity and eutrapelia, the author communicates an interest in both engaging and reforming tradition. The epistemic challenge brought about by the revival of skepticism demanded a reassessment of all established conventions, whether they apply to genre, structure, or the content of a written work. This study discusses how the crisis of exemplarity, as articulated here by Cervantes, constitutes one more manifestation of a persistent attempt to construct a more open standard of knowledge based on the deconstruction and reformation of old, inflexible models. Keywords: Cervantes, Skepticism, Exemplarity, Eutrapelia, Epistemology, Novelas ejemplares Este articulo analiza el modo como Cervantes articula en el "Prologo al lector" de sus Novelas ejemplares la actitud esceptica que permea de manera tan profunda las historias que introduce. A traves de una desestabilizacion de conceptos tradicionales como ejemplari(e)dad dad y eutrapelia, el autor nos comunica su doble interes tanto por seguir como por reformar la tradicion. El reto epistemico que produce el renacimiento del escepticismo exigia una reevaluacion de todas las convenciones establecidas, ya se apliquen al genero, a la estructrua o al contenido de una obra escrita. Este articulo analiza en que medida la crisis de la ejemplariedad, tal como la articula aqui Cervantes, constituye una manifestacion mas de un intento persistente por construir un estandar mas abierto de conocimiento basado en la deconstruccion y reforma de los modelos antiguos e inflexibles. Palabras clave: Cervantes, Escepticismo, Ejemplari(e)dad, Eutrapelia, Epistemologia, Novelas ejemplares