Don Quixote: The Re-accentuation of the World's Greatest Literary Hero ed. by Slav N. Gratchev and Howard Mancing (review)

The scope of this project is ambitious as it aims to bring together a wide range of perspectives, both academic and non-academic, on the re-accentuations of Don Quixote in temporally and culturally diverse contexts. The editors of Don Quixote: The Re-accentuation of the World's Greatest Literary Hero attempt to tie the volume together through this concept as described by Mikhail Bakhtin, without imposing a rigid framework on contributors: "[we] have given them complete freedom to discuss the concept in their own terms, in their own style, in their own voice" (2–3). Through this approach, the editors seek polyphony, "where … each voice, worldview, and consciousness received equal representation in its own terms" (2). While most scholars will find merit in a project that aims to represent the breadth of influence Cervantes and Don Quixote have had over the past 400 years, the execution in this case is quite uneven.

Margarita Marinova and Scott Pollard offer a successful chapter on the academic end of the spectrum that provides fascinating insight into how Don Quixote was defended, rejected, and transformed for theater in Soviet Russia. The authors outline the novel's role in Soviet debates about the function of the Artist and, more specifically, literature in society and whether a Western classic like Don Quixote would serve "the process of raising the consciousness of the people" (222) or become "completely irrelevant to the new cultural realities" (223). Marinova and Pollard use ample documentation to demonstrate how such debates influenced early Soviet drama's re-accentuations of Don Quixote, resulting in a figure worthy of criticism, pity, or collective subjugation (232–33). The chapter is well-written, engaging, and detailed.

On the non-academic end of the spectrum, Roy H. Williams presents in "The Visionary's Quixote" an overview of what Don Quixote represents for entrepreneurs in the business world in North America. While the essay does not rely on objective data, Williams describes a method to his approach that includes a broad survey of entrepreneurs (253) and includes salient excerpts from his results, as well as a summative assessment that suggests "many North American entrepreneurs find in Don Quixote an inspiring symbol of the irrational optimism essential to every visionary entrepreneur" (258). He is also careful to include outliers, such as a respondent who focuses on the harmful effects of Don Quixote's idealism (258–59).

Yet, the book also contradicts itself. For example, Tatevik Gyulamiryan's theoretical introduction emphasizes the importance of distinguishing re-accentuation from processes like adaptation, defined as transposing a work to another genre (15). She explicitly qualifies Steven Ritz-Barr's Don Quixote puppet film as an adaptation and not a re-accentuation. Confusingly, Ritz-Barr's description of his film-making process comprises chapter 14 without further comment from the editors.

The book often fails to engage and enlighten the reader. Ritz-Barr's essay, promisingly titled "Extracting the Essence of Don Quixote for a Puppet Film," focuses primarily on the author's film-making process, yet devotes scant attention to the essence of the character. Instead, the chapter centers on how decisions were dictated by logistical constraints and limitations: "We did no re-shoots of any sequence or inserts because the project was out of time and out of money, and I was out of energy" (217).

While ostensibly academic, the chapter by Slav N. Gratchev, one of the volume's editors, is prone to hyperbole and overly subjective interpretations. On page 149, Gratchev presents a 42-word dream dialogue between Don Quixote and Dulcinea from the final scene of Grigori Kozintsev's film, Don Quixote. Without analyzing the discourse or setting, Gratchev concludes, "All of a sudden, both literary characters acquire more life and reality than they had in the book; we feel that we have known these two people all our...