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- All Subjects: Cervantes
- All Subjects: historic novel
- Creators: Gil-Osle, Juan Pablo
Description
This dissertation focuses on the study of Western esotericism in European culture and forms a method of discovering esoteric topics in cultural artifacts. Using the definition as a corpus of knowledge historically divided between esoteric, reserved for the intellectual and power elite, and exoteric, available for everybody, I argue that esotericism represents the knowledge that always accompanied the cultural production of the Mediterranean zone, adding a spiritual meaning to any visual or written work of art. The contemporary novels of the past decade by the Spanish author Javier Sierra are fully based on a historical investigation, in which esotericism appears as a nuclear topic, revealing the great interest of the public in the mysteries of the past. Through the postmodern cultural theories, together with sociological and historical methods, the dissertation explores the cultural processes that lead to the shift of esoteric knowledge in the 20th century from secretive to publically available. The study defines the purpose of recreating the European past and investigates the secrets of European cultural formation. Through an insider-outsider perspective, it analyzes the cultural artifacts, that appear in the novels in the form of reference or as a nuclear part of the plot. It presents the scope of esoteric currents, that are divided between the discipline of religion, science, and philosophy, which form the tetrahedron of knowledge as a theoretic model for this study. The constructed model reveals the interaction of the three disciplines throughout the history and examines the reasons for the religious disenchantment of the 20th century, proven through Digital Humanities’ research as the predominance of science over the Catholic Church, which allowed the esoteric knowledge to reappear. The study explores the affiliation of esotericism with science through the scientific-cultural inquiries between the ancient myths and reality, by showing that man’s consciousness had always been dependent on the scientific perception of the world. It explores the pagan symbolism that is mixed with Christian traditions and reveals the stories, hidden behind the representation of the greatest works of art, by combining and analyzing the wisdom of the past and the contemporary spiritual inquiries in their philosophical meaning.
ContributorsCordan, Elena (Author) / Urioste Azcorra, Carmen (Thesis advisor) / Tompkins, Cynthia (Committee member) / Gil-Osle, Juan Pablo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the materiality of a unique text, Random House and The Illustrated Modern Library’s 1946 Don Quixote, illustrated by Catalonian painter Salvador Dalí. It analyzes Dalí’s classical trajectory, how Dalí and the text were received in mid-twentieth century North America, and how they both fit into the print history of illustrated editions of Don Quixote. Each is revealed to be unique in comparison with the history of the genre due to the publishing house’s utilization of Dalí’s high-quality illustrations in a small-sized text. Lavish illustrations traditionally have been reserved for larger, collectible editions. The contemporary material significance of the 1946 edition is revealed by examining organizations, people, and circumstances that were necessary for its production in the United States, and by contextualizing the text’s reception by North American popular culture, high art echelons, and art critics.
The overarching history of illustrated editions of Don Quixote is examined, comparing Dalí and his illustrations with important thematic and methodological benchmarks set by illustrators within this 400-year period, especially regarding renderings of reality and fantasy. Analyses of the first three watercolor illustrations of Dalí’s 1946 Don Quixote reveal how the painter forms mythological imagery and composes the quixotic dichotomy of reality and fantasy through the metaphoric gaze of an inanimate figure representing the protagonist. Dalí at times renders the “real” Don Quixote as incapacitated, omitting from his illustrations universalized iconography utilized in previous centuries achieved by rendering Don Quixote’s perspective, gaze, and heroic interpretation of events. In these three illustrations, Dalí forms Don Quixote as a deflated figure based in burla (mockery) and engaño (self-deception) by negating Don Quixote’s gaze within the compositions, without compromising the painter’s trademark surrealist style.
The text therefore challenges the genre’s print history while Dalí challenges French and German Romantic illustrators’ universalized iconography that traditionally highlights the nobility of the knight errant. By focalizing fantastic madness as interacting with burlesque reality, Dalí creates a new episteme within the genre of illustrated editions of Don Quixote, establishing his unique niche as an illustrator in this genre.
The overarching history of illustrated editions of Don Quixote is examined, comparing Dalí and his illustrations with important thematic and methodological benchmarks set by illustrators within this 400-year period, especially regarding renderings of reality and fantasy. Analyses of the first three watercolor illustrations of Dalí’s 1946 Don Quixote reveal how the painter forms mythological imagery and composes the quixotic dichotomy of reality and fantasy through the metaphoric gaze of an inanimate figure representing the protagonist. Dalí at times renders the “real” Don Quixote as incapacitated, omitting from his illustrations universalized iconography utilized in previous centuries achieved by rendering Don Quixote’s perspective, gaze, and heroic interpretation of events. In these three illustrations, Dalí forms Don Quixote as a deflated figure based in burla (mockery) and engaño (self-deception) by negating Don Quixote’s gaze within the compositions, without compromising the painter’s trademark surrealist style.
The text therefore challenges the genre’s print history while Dalí challenges French and German Romantic illustrators’ universalized iconography that traditionally highlights the nobility of the knight errant. By focalizing fantastic madness as interacting with burlesque reality, Dalí creates a new episteme within the genre of illustrated editions of Don Quixote, establishing his unique niche as an illustrator in this genre.
ContributorsHolcombe, William Daniel (Author) / Gil-Osle, Juan Pablo (Thesis advisor) / Foster, David William (Committee member) / Urioste-Azcorra, Carmen (Committee member) / Baldasso, Renzo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017