Discretas loucuras quixotescas: paradoxos e sociedade de corte

Abstract

Published in 1605 (Part 1) and 1615 (Part 2), Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote was written during a period when social life was regulated by treatises that served an educational purpose in disseminating desirable forms of conduct. Discreción emerged as a desirable form of conduct through which courtiers could achieve their goals more effectively, following the parameters of urbanity. In Cervantes’ text, there is a high incidence of the term discreto and its derivatives, often referring to the knight’s attitudes and speech, even though discreción was incompatible with madness. The purpose of this article is to examine how Cervantes composes his character through a paradox, in that Don Quixote, in addition to being mad, is also discreto.