Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 17:59:19 -0400
From: Alberto Rodriguez <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: re: Was Cervantes a Feminist?
To: "A. Robert Lauer" <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: [log in to unmask]
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Original-recipient: rfc822;[log in to unmask]

Feminism seems to me to be an anachronical concept with which to judge Cervantes.  We can say that he had a particular inclination to view women as individuals that are capable of action and independent thought.  Dorotea is a wonderful example.  Cervantes also could understand women and feel great sympathy for their human situation.  With few comments, he gives a full portrait of Maritornes's circumstances at the inn.  There are some authors (Flaubert, for example), who capture the condition of being a woman with great clarity, and Cervantes is such an author.
I have always hesitated to attribute an author that lived four centuries ago the political implications of modern or contemporary terminology.  Cervantes could have traces of feminism, but that does not make him a feminist.  I would summarize it with rather simple words:  he liked women, and he understood them quite well.  That is all. 
Alberto Rodriguez
Dickinson College