Polyphony in Spanish Sentimental Romance

In this essay, I demonstrate how it is possible to speak of actually existing polyphony in Spanish Sentimental Romance. Here polyphony is understood as the coexistence of truly conflicting discourses or voices. The dialogic nature of the sentimental romance is something that has been debated in the criticism by figures such as Cesar Segre, but which has been ruled out as actually existing in the genre. In this article the first task was to isolate moments throughout the different narrative operations in a text in which the relationship between voices in the text becomes problematic. Secondly, it became necessary to consider elements that go beyond the formal aspects of a particular work. By this I mean the kind of consideration involved in determining the underlying ground on which a narrative sets to work. The heterogeneous nature of the foundation on which sentimental romance stands its ground, shatters the stability of the encounter the genre is always in the process of portraying, thereby undercutting not only the image of the lovers holding fast to their harmonious "union," but, more radically, the stability of the entire logic that structures that order. What this points to is a sensibility that is attuned with the process of change. In the end, that change is possible is what is truly at stake in the idea of polyphony.