
Don Quixote, Part II: Front Matter and Chapters I-XI (continued)
Roberto González Echevarría continues his Yale course on Cervantes' Don Quixote with a session on Part II's opening chapters. He introduces the Baroque concept of desengano, disillusionment following deceit, and argues that the novel's plot follows this arc from engano to desengano. The lecture examines Don Quixote and Sancho's debate about knight-errantry and sainthood, reading it as a meditation on good actions done for their own sake versus for glory, and ties it to religious debates of the period. He discusses the dark, urban episode in El Toboso as a signal of Part II's changed mood, and analyzes the lie of the enchanted Dulcinea as a turning point that reverses the roles of knight and squire. The session closes with the traveling actors' cart and its Baroque symbolism.