Moderation and the Mean in the Literature of Spain's Golden Age: A Measure for Measure (Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs)

This book presents the first sustained analysis of the reception of the Aristotelian golden mean and related ideas of moderation in the literature and thought of early modern Spain (1500-1700). It explores the Golden-Age understanding of Aristotle's doctrine as a prolegomenon to literary study, and its allegorical reformulation in the myths of Icarus and Phaethon, before arguing that scrutiny of how the mean and the related concept of ethical moderation are treated by early modern authors represents a vital but underexploited tool for literary analysis. Particular attention is paid to detailed case studies of works by three canonical authors--Garcilaso, Calderón, Gracián--demonstrating the value of the mean as a locus of critical attention, as analysis of its presentation allows several long-standing disputes in the scholarship on these authors to be newly resolved. Cover Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Acknowledgements Contents List of Illustrations Editions, Translations, and Conventions 1 Aristotelian Wisdom? The Doctrine of the Mean à la mode 1.1 University Study and the Text of Aristotle's Ethics 1.2 Aristotle's Ethics in Spain: Broad Appeal, Christian Controversy, and the Problem of Human Happiness 1.3 The Mean and Moderation: Origins, Challenges, and Syncretic Resolution 1.4 Beyond Aristotle: Syncretism and the Mean as Cultural Commonplace 1.5 Epilogue and Outline 2 A Protean Moral? Aristotelian Metamorphoses in the Figures of Icarus, Daedalus, and Phaethon 2.1 Mythological Morals (i): Syncretic Thinking and the Links to the Mean 2.2 Mythological Morals (ii): Temerity and the Limits of One’s méritos 2.3 Icarus, Daedalus, and Phaethon: Flexibility, Popularity, and Literary Interpretation 2.4 Literary Deployments (i): Writerly recusatio 2.5 Literary Deployments (ii): Unrequited Love 2.6 Literary Deployments (iii): Marriage and Social Inequality 2.7 Beyond Icarus and Phaethon: Extensions and Conclusions 3 Remedia amoris? Love and the Problem of Excess in the Poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega 3.1 Reading Garcilaso: Love, Empire, and Dissent from the Norm 3.2 Amorous Dissent, Emotional Torment, and the Malady of Excess 3.3 Sonnets and the Struggle to Break Free 3.4 The Second Elegy: Fighting Extremes and Misreading the Mean 3.5 The Second Eclogue (i): Pastoral Models and the Tradition of the Love-Cure 3.6 The Second Eclogue (ii): Love-Cures and Elegiac Excess, Eristic Imitation and Pastoral Limits 3.7 The Second Eclogue (iii): Ekphrasis and metriopatheia 3.8 Epilogue: The Common Struggle 4 Speculum prudentiae? Means of Kingship and the Functioning of Tragedy in Calderón’s El médico de su honra 4.1 Approaching the `Remedy': Proportion, Prudence, and Pedro's Judgement 4.2 First Impressions of Pedro: Precipitous Judgement and Hasty Retreat 4.3 Imprudence, Role-Play, and Pique: Pedro as Royal Judge in Act I 4.4 Beyond Judgement: Corroborating Pedro's Psychology 4.5 Royal Conclusions: Pedro's Judgements in Act III 4.6 Extending Excess: Imprudence, Tragedy, and Collective hamartia 4.7 Prudence, Silence, and the Suppression of Love: Mencı ́a’s Opening Choice 4.8 Beyond Mencı ́a: Collective Imprudence and the Character of the Prince 4.9 Error, Suspicion, and Tragic Causation 4.10 Conclusion: Gutierre's Immoderacy; Pity and Fear 5 Trivial Pursuit? Extremes, Resolution, and the Search for Happiness in Gracián’s El Criticón 5.1 Glimpsing a Hybrid: Genre, Tradition, and Elusive Morality 5.2 The Mean as (Moral) Commonplace: Lexis and Logic, Ethics and Wit 5.3 Seeking the Middle Path: Alternative Crossroads, Perceptual Means, and the System for Moral Choice 5.4 Applying the System: Facets of the Whole and Volusia's Choice 5.5 Developing the System: Means, Ends, and Reason in Virtelia's Palace and the jaula de todos 5.6 Virtuous Decisions in Part III: The Difficult Second Crossroads 5.7 Conclusion: Virtue, Happiness, and the Mean Reconciled 6 A modo de conclusión: Imitation and the Future of the modus References Index