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

Reviewed by:
  • Avatares de lo invisible: espacio y subjetividad en los siglos de oro by Luis F. Avilés
  • Alicia R. Zuese
Avilés, Luis F. Avatares de lo invisible: espacio y subjetividad en los siglos de oro. Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2017. 227 pp.

Luis F. Avilés's Avatares de lo invisible: espacio y subjetividad en los siglos de oro starts from the notion that the texts studied conjure "spaces" that may be inaccessible or imperceptible: the beloved, the court, the frontier, and the home. Avilés details how characters enunciate strategies to grapple with their subjectivities in these spaces, and how these discourses enable readers to perceive the effects of their sociopolitical contexts. Avilés focuses on a wide range of primary texts, reaching beyond the title's announced Golden Age to include some classical and medieval works. Several chapters revise previous publications dating from as far back as 2001, whereas others, such as chapter four on Lazarillo de Tormes, represent new areas of inquiry. It is refreshing to see Avilés weave his studies together so carefully, to the point that he revises conclusions of previous publications in light of his new insights, specifically regarding El celoso extremeño (208).

Avilés engages throughout his book with a range of theorists, including Jacques Rancière, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, and Judith Butler, in addition to well-known Hispanists. He seldom dialogs with scholars of visual or spatial studies such as Fernando R. de la Flor, whose approach he rejects due to "su excesiva defensa de lo visual" (9), or Enrique García Santo-Tomás, who is, however, cited briefly and acknowledged for reading the manuscript. Avilés also infrequently enters into debates surrounding gender or ethnic studies, as might have been expected given the spaces on which he focuses. Instead, he interrogates the works through close readings and attention to key words ("adamado," "casa encantada"). The book [End Page 1015] is organized into four chapters with footnotes, a brief preface, a conclusion, a bibliography of works cited, and an index of names.

Chapter one, which focuses on "el amor distante y de oídas," or how characters conjure the image of the distant beloved, approaches the topic through the most wide-ranging sources: in classical works of philosophy (Cicero's De amicitia), a medieval Hispano-Arabic love treatise (Ibn Hazm's El collar de la paloma), troubadour poetry, a medieval Castilian love poem, and in relation to the role of Dulcinea in Don Quijote. The verbal portraits of Dulcinea by Cervantes's characters parody the techniques for visualizing the distant beloved that Avilés presents in the first part of the chapter. The coexistence of competing discourses representing Dulcinea—by Don Quijote, Sancho, the duke and duchess—reveals the "perpetua inestabilidad" of the verbal image created of the beloved (58).

Chapter two investigates the court-rural duality in Menosprecio de la corte y alabanza de la aldea through Antonio de Guevara's advice to courtiers to manage the obstacles for handling their identities inherent in both spaces. Guevara extols privacy, cautioning his audience to investigate the lives of others from a legal perspective, instead of prying, while trying to achieve self-knowledge (65–66, 74). In Avilés's analysis, the exterior space of the court threatens the inner self, whereas the problems of boredom and leisure derail the rural village-dweller, but the pitfalls of the latter can be escaped by establishing family life in the home (79, 95, 100–01).

Chapter three investigates the space of the frontier/battlefield in El Abencerraje as one of a porous "zone of contact," following Mary Louise Pratt (106). Avilés traces how Narváez's reaction to Abindarráez's sigh drives the transformation of a hostile war zone into a territory of "la amistad, el amor y la generosidad" (111–12). The moor's sigh externalizes his "interioridad velada e invisible" and his vulnerability (120, 124). For Avilés, the unexpected relationship between the supposed enemies in the permeable frontier of the fictional world displays an idealized "convivencia" that was impossible in reality (145).

Chapter four is the most accessible chapter to non-specialists because Avilés...

pdf

Share