In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

El joven (The Young Man, 1925) Salvador Novo’s El joven is usually explained as a new novel based on the figure of young men popularized by gay writers like Marcel Proust and André Gide. Besides this influence, the figure of the wandering young man already existed in classical literature, especially in the baroque period. In 1952 Antonio Vilanova published his seminal article “El peregrino de amor en las Soledades de Góngora” (The Love Pilgrim in Góngora’s Solitudes). Vilanova starts by quoting Juan de Jáuregui, who wrote Antídoto contra las “Soledades” (Antidote against the Solitudes): You have a young man, the main character you present, and you do not give him a name. He went to the sea and came from the sea, without knowing how, or why; he is just an onlooker. He does not say either a good or a bad thing, does not open his mouth. He only does a very selfish discourtesy and an absurdity: he forgets his absent lady, the one that cost him so many quarrels when leaving the sea; and he falls in love with the farmer’s daughter, the one that got married in her father’s house, where he had been courteously lodged. And this does not serve any purpose for the plot of the story but to spoil it and to finish it without any art or contentment. (1952: 421)1 Jáuregui’s satiric tone does not prevent him from doing an accurate analysis of the main character of the Soledades: an unknown, purposeless , erratic young man. The first to defend Góngora after Jáuregui’s attack was D. Francisco de Córdoba, the abbot of Rute, who wrote Examen del Antídoto (Examination of the Antidote). He tried to provide 2  Gay and Baroque Literatures 02-T2335 11/5/02 2:20 PM Page 28 organicity to the plot of the poem, but he did not succeed. In his attempt to explain the structure of the Solitudes he brought to the readers’ attention the great epic poems of antiquity like Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid; but he does not dare to label the Soledades an epic. This is Córdoba ’s “defense”: But to follow this attempt, it is obligatory to notice first to which genre this Poem of the Solitudes belongs. The result will be to know if the Poem is capable of greatness, it will be known if it has it, and if there is a reason for the Poem to be great. Leaving aside several opinions, it is taken for granted that it is not dramatic; neither can it be Epic; neither the story nor the action is of a hero, or famous person, nor is the versification proper. Still less is it romance, even if it has mixed elements, because the versification does not help; besides there are not Princes as subjects of the Poem, nor Courts, wars, adventures, as in Ariosto, Tasso the Elder, and Alamani. It is not Bucolic although it has Shepherds , not Halieutic, even with fishermen, nor Cinegetic, even with hunters. Because none of these is an adequate subject to be treated, either alone or with the other subjects. But because it introduces all those referred to, it has to be said that it is a Poem. The Poem admits and accepts them all, whichever they are. It is without any doubt Melic or Lyric, called so because they are chants, this is Melos, to the sound of the lyre. (quoted by Vilanova 1952: 425)2 The abbot explores all the genre possibilities and cannot find one that fits the poem, the only exception being the obvious fact that the poem is a poem, a lyrical poem, and what gives unity to it is the figure of the young pilgrim: [Jáuregui] would only be able to complain about this Poem being longer than the lyric poems left by the ancients and about not having one action but many. Regarding the length, you know that it does not matter because it does not change the genre. Regarding the plot or story, it can be sustained because it is the journey of a young shipwreck victim, but we like them to be many and diverse: because without any doubt pleasure comes from diversity instead of from unity. (1952: 426)3 What gives unity to the poem is the mancebo, the young man. Córdoba thinks that the protagonist is like the hero of...

Share