Abstract
The purpose of this essay is to analyse the joke about doctors made by Berganza as the textual element that starts off the fictional story proposed by Cervantes in the 'Dialogue of the Dogs'. Criticism has not resolved the uncomfortable feeling produced by this joke but has preferred to concentrate on its manifest elements, overlooking the biographical element that connects it with Cervantes's life. This omission, which leads to the perception of the joke as a symptom and as the moving force of the narrative (in other words, as a point of breakdown heterogeneous to a given ideological field), can be further analysed with reference to The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious by Sigmund Freud, classical Cynicism and also contem porary studies on Cynicism by cultural theoreticians such as Slavoj Žižek and Peter Sloterdijk.
| Translated title of the contribution | The pleasantry and his relation with 'The Conference of the dogs' |
|---|---|
| Original language | Spanish |
| Pages (from-to) | 387-400 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Bulletin of Hispanic Studies |
| Volume | 86 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2009 |