Abstract

VON DER WALDE, Giselle. MIMESIS IN DON QUIXOTE. Ideas y Valores [online]. 2006, vol.55, n.130, pp.23-38. ISSN 0120-0062.

In his encounter with don Quijote the canonigo of Toledo tries to convince him that the libros de caballerias have done him wrong and he uses arguments taken from neoaristotelic poetics. Don Quijote, on the other hand tries to show with his own example that this kind of books do not lead to madness or to abandon one self, but rather bring forth the best of an individual’s nature and makes him a better person. This is the only type of imitation that Plato accepts in the Republic, since more than a substitution of another it implies emulation. This paper seeks to show, having as a starting point the dialogue with the canonigo (I, 49-50), how in his mimetic conducts don Quijote understands imitation as emulation; and it tries to prove that the effect of literature on don Quijote seems to be the type of mimesis that Plato approves in book III of the Republic.

Keywords : Don Quijjote; Plato; mimesis.