Editor’s Note

7 Editor’s Note Bruce R. Burningham O ver the course of the past three decades Cervantes has produced two special issues: Winter 1988’s special issue dedicated to the fourth centenary of La Galatea (edited by John J. Allen, Elias Rivers, and Harry Sieber) and Winter 1996’s “Anuario bibliográfico cervantino” (edited by Eduardo Urbina). During this same period, the journal has also produced a number of regular issues dedicated to one special topic or another. These include: the Spring 1986 special cluster on “genre”; the Spring 1990 special cluster on Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (edited by Clark Colahan, Celia Weller, and Michael McGaha); the Fall 1992 special cluster on “eroticism and witchcraft ” (edited by José Antonio Cerezo Aranda and Daniel Eisenberg); the Spring 1995 cluster on “The Construction of Character in the Works of Cervantes” (edited by Carlos Castilla del Pino, José Antonio Cerezo Aranda, and Daniel Eisenberg); Spring 1997’s “Perspectives on Cervantes Studies in Honor of José María Casasayas” (edited by José Ramón Fernández de Cano y Martín); Fall 1998’s homage to Peter Dunn (edited by Mary Gaylord); Fall 1999’s selected papers from that year’s meeting of the Asociación de Cervantistas in El Toboso (edited by José Ramón Fernández de Cano y Martín); Spring 2003’s homage to John J. Allen; the Spring 2004 special cluster on “Clothing and Identity in Cervantes” (edited by Elaine Bunn); and Spring 2007’s homage to Carroll B. Johnson, “Papers from ‘One More Crossroads: Don Quijote at Four Hundred’” (edited by James Iffland). As part of this rich tradition, Cervantes is once again proud to publish a special cluster of essays on “Cogntitive Cervantes,” which is edited by Julien Simon, Barbara Simerka, and Howard Mancing. Anyone who has been paying attention to recent intellectual trends will already recognize the importance of this emerging scientific field for literary 8 Cervantes Bruce R. Burningham and cultural scholarship. Julien, Barbara, and Howard have brought together a rich collection of essays that amply demonstrate, as Howard notes in his own detailed overview of the field of cognitive literary studies, that “there is no one way to ‘do cognitive studies,’” especially within the world of Cervantes scholarship. I will say no more by way of introduction—given that Julien, Howard, and Barbara provide their own masterful introduction, overview, and afterword—other than to note that for this special cluster we have decided to provide English translations of all Spanish citations (something we normally would not do) in order to make these essays more accessible to non-Hispanists who may be interested in this special topic but who might not know Spanish. Finally, I thank Julien, Howard, and Barbara, along with the cluster’s several Cervantes scholars themselves, for contributing their expertise to this endeavor. This Spring 2012 issue of Cervantes also features a review article by William Childers, who discusses several recent books focusing on the topic of the moriscos, and a book review by Michael Scham of Rachel Schmidt’s Forms of Modernity: DON QUIXOTE and Modern Theories of the Novel. I thank Childers and Scham for these excellent contributions. And speaking of thanks, this will be the last issue of Cervantes for my editorial assistant, Esteban Touma, who will be moving on to new adventures. I cannot thank him enough for all that he has done during the past eighteen months to help me take over the reins as Editor of this journal. His efforts in both typesetting the past three issues and in updating the journal’s online archive of back issues (a project that is now nearly complete) have been indispensable. Mil gracias, Esteban, y muy buena suerte. BRB ...