Transcending Textuality

Ariadna García-Bryce is Professor of Spanish and Humanities at Reed College.

• ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Crafting Royal Omnipotence2. The Power of the Passion3. The Agnostic Word4. Vacuous PrintEpilogueWorks CitedIndex

“Transcending Textuality is a fascinating study of the culture of display in early modern Spain. Focusing on the works of Quevedo, Ariadna García-Bryce brings together a multiplicity of approaches in order to provide new insights on his political views and his place in the culture of the Spanish Baroque. She clearly shows how Quevedo diverges from writers such as Saavedra Fajardo and Gracián, undermining the impetus of the emergent state and its uses of rhetorical artifice. Quevedo, in his writings, seeks to exalt art, evincing its prominent social and sacred role. And yet, in so doing, he rejects new mediated forms and the use of rhetorical artifice as exhibition. García-Bryce is able to show not only Quevedo’s conflictive stance toward modernity but also his reaction to the many changes that were taking place in the Spain of the Habsburgs. This is a thoughtful and complex study that will be of great interest to those who study the literature, culture, and history of the Baroque.”—Frederick A. de Armas, University of Chicago