Don Quixote, an ambivalent motif for writers in times of war and exile (1808-1833)

Abstract

In the eighteenth century and during the early nineteenth century numerous examples of Quixotic recreations can be found in works of a political nature, with a clear satiric, critical or reforming tone. Independent of ideologies, Don Quixote is transformed into a model for censorship, and its main character in an instrument through which satire is generated. In the context of the Spanish War of Independence, the quixotic motif will be wielded from all and against all possible directions, generating a discursive tradition inherited by the Spanish exiles between 1814 and 1833. During those years, many of the Spanish expatriates will be shaped into a group trying to recover Spanish culture outside our borders, and, for obvious reasons, Miguel de Cervantes and his Quixote will be vindicated as well. Nevertheless, the identification between the Manchegan Knight and the figure of the exiles will not be possible until the Romantic interpretation of the novel is assumed.