Exemplarity and rhetoric of silence in the prologue of Novelas ejemplares

Abstract

To understand the implications of «exemplary» of Cervantes title critics have seized on the Aristotelian theory and Augustinian eutrapelia, recalled the enxemplum medieval, consulted contemporary dictionaries in search of alternative meanings, distinguished the cervantinian example-model of moral meaning, projected the meaning of the adjective on a Tridentine background and even compared his hypocritical consistency with vital positions of the author. This paper converses with critics tradition, having traced the
footsteps of the exemplarity in the text, contrasting proposals for each novel with the system formed by all of them, according Cervantes himself council, and having related the prefatory author’s intention with those of the Italians novellieri and their Spanish translators. The backdrop for the final reflection on the concept will be offered, how could it be outdone, by the contemporary literary preceptive.