Discussion Topic
Main features and definition of the 18th century picaresque novel
Summary:
The 18th-century picaresque novel is characterized by its episodic structure, focusing on the adventures of a roguish protagonist of low social class who lives by their wits in a corrupt society. These novels often satirize social norms and injustices, providing a critical view of the society of the time through the protagonist's humorous and often cynical perspective.
What is a picaresque novel?
A picaresque novel is one that follows the often first-person adventures of a shady and duplicitous, but nonetheless likable, character. Often, the protagonist is considered rather unscrupulous, getting themselves into all kinds of trouble as a result, but the protagonist's actions and speech also typically help to reveal the problems of a flawed society. My personal favorite picaresque novel is called Moll Flanders , and it follows the exploits of a young woman who was born in a prison to a criminal mother and who was sexually exploited by a young upper-class man who said he loved her. She gets married a couple of times and finally finds love with her third husband, but she learns that he's her half-brother (they share a mother), and so on and so forth. Her matrimonial misadventures, which continue, help to point out the problem with marriage traditions and even the social value placed...
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on virginity in this era: women are forced to marry for money, and they are often left in the lurch by dishonest men who lie or take advantage them. When women do marry for money, they are looked down on, but if they marry someone with no money, then they are criticized for that! The experiences of Moll, the picaro, reveal these issues.
La novela picaresca, as it is originally deemed in its native Spain, is a literary genre which gained extensive notoriety (and popularity as well) during the XVI century and extended throughout time until a sudden revival in the XX century.
The genre comes to existence during a historical context where Spain is going through tremendous chaos: there were upheavals regarding the monarchy, the church, the feudal system, foreign populations, and even in the arts. The world, as Spain knew it at the time, was crumbling around and, as a result, there was hunger, anger, chaos, and overall social dysfunction.
The picaresque became the "comic relief" of the times. The main character of picaresque novels is meant to represent a typical citizen who also happens to live in oblivion of the chaos surrounding him. Although the character is oblivious, at the same time, it suffers as a result of the circumstances.
This main character is either young, ignorant, or a simpleton. A classic example is El Lazarillo de Tormes, who is a pícaro (rascal, mischievous) little boy living in extreme poverty but who uses his wits to score, at least, a piece of bread.
Hunger and conflict are perennial themes in picaresque novels and poverty, corruption and injustice are ever-present. It is safe to say that these novels provided a much needed way of escapism from the unfair situation of the common folk by using as a mouthpiece the wits and malice of an everyday character who speaks on behalf of those who live in equally miserable circumstances.
What are the main features of the 18th century picaresque novel?
The picaresque novel is a first-hand account of an adventurer, generally of the lower class, as he travels about. It is composed of a series of adventures and subplots in which the hero interacts with people from different social classes and tries to outwit them through lying, cheating, and stealing. The novel satirizes the values of upper-crust society as the hero constantly tries to subvert these values and lives by the codes of the lower class. This type of literature came from Spain in the 1500s, and the most famous example is Don Quixote in the 1600s.
By the 18th century, the picaresque novel was on the decline, to be replaced by novels with a deeper sense of character. However, the picaresque lived on in the 18th century in novels such as Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (1749), in which Tom, an orphan, grows to adulthood and witnesses the debauched nature of London at the time. The 18th century picaresque novel, like Tom Jones, combined elements of the picaresque novel with elements of the bildungsroman, of the novel of development that showed the growth of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood. Like the picaresque novel, it featured subplots of adventure but had a tighter structure than earlier novels.