Abstract

In Noches claras by Manuel de Faria e Sousa, among discourses and chapters which serve different purposes, an intense programme of cultural divulgation starts to take form, which offers the readers themes of social and religious nature as well as of moral philosophy, stimulating their intellectual curiosity. By combining the strong didactic aesthetics of the miscellanea, as it was cultivated in the Iberian Peninsula in the 16th and 17th centuries, with the specific features of dialogue, the project gained density and gave way to a more pleasant use than the mere occasional search for information. The variety in themes and sense of erudition, resulting from a wide range of ancient and modern cultural and religious sources, are now seen as part of a more coherent composition, thus overcoming the risks of fragmented reading. On the other hand, the autobiographical drive which can be found across a significant part of Faria e Sousa’s literary production, allows him to come closer to the essay genre, as the author is regarded as the one who is responsible for carefully choosing the material, organizing and exposing it based on his knowledge and life experience which were the marks of the discrete man.

Abstract

It is possible to recognize the influence of Cervantes in Spanish America from the moment its works arrived to our continent in the XVII century. The Chilean literature is not out of that process: in the literary field one of the highlights is the writer Juan Rafael Allende, from mid XIX Century, who’s novel Memorias de un perro escritas por su propia pata (1893) shows a clear inspiration on one of the Exemplary novels titled Coloquio de los perros. Rafael Allende’s work, narrated according to the XVII century picaresque novel principles, tells about the life’s ups and downs of a dog named Rompecadenas, who constantly changes owners and get a good number of experiences that allow it to make its performance as a pícaro even better and, by the way, to display a series of pictures of Chilean social reality.

Abstract

In addition to being one of the founding fathers of the modern novel, Mateo Alemán also wrote a stimulating treatise on spelling reform published in 1609 in Colonial Mexico. The Ortografía castellana is widely considered one of the best books on spelling reform written in Early Modern Spain and its territories due to its unparalleled display of elaborate literary artifice. But beyond its great significance for the study of the history of language, orthographies and national identity, and the rise of phoneticism in the 16th century, Alemán’s book has an autobiographical dimension unparalleled among works of its kind. This autobiographical data consists of recollections of his childhood, his time at university, his conversations with school teachers, his work for the Contaduría Real, and many other events that transform his book into a personal diary. The present study examines the role of autobiography and how it determines the structure of the treatise. Our analysis will show that behind the autobiographical allusions hides a self-fashioning project whose main purpose is to create an image for posterity of the artist called Mateo Alemán and provide him with an epic background.