Books of chivalry in Don Quixote. Reading and readers: the mirror text?

Abstract

This article reflects on the criticism and parody that Don Quixote makes of books of chivalry. It delves deeper into the previous and subsequent historical context of chivalric books, mainly narrating their development in Europe, and pointing out that most of them have a similar structure and seek to achieve the same objective: to entertain the reader, as well as to teach them values. Several works are mentioned and compared, such as Amadís de Gaula, our own Cid, Chanson de Roldan... In this essay, the reader's relationship with the reading or the book is very relevant, since it is the basis of the criticism of Cervantes and the reason why its protagonist “goes crazy”.