The Identity of Morisco in Don Quijote de La Mancha

『돈키호테』에 나타난 모리스꼬의 정체성을 중심으로

  • Received : 2015.02.10
  • Accepted : 2015.03.16
  • Published : 2015.03.30

Abstract

This article is concerned about a reason for which Cervantes participates an arabic author named Benengeli and morisco translator in his work instead of christian author. From the multi-cultural point of view, the time in which Don Qujote was published, belongs to the Golden Age. In other words, the society can not be supported by the ideology of Purity of Blood in that the morisco, converso (Christian Jewish) have been permitted to coexist in the name of christian proselyte or New Christian despite of invisible discrimination. An invisible discrimination is based on the prejudice and negative stereotype of Old Christian against the New Christian. Cervantes offers an o open space for readers to participate in the creative reading, giving up the absolute authority of author named Benengeli. The deep-rooted prejudice against morisco or muslim author makes the readers of Don Quijote do reinterpret the contents and have question about his sincerity. This disbelief is partly on the basis of hypothesis that Don Quijote would be passed on orally by an arabic or morisco. Leaving the hypothesis alone, Romance, festival performances of morisco or the aljamia literature in the Iberian Peninsula have the chivalry or knights of the Occident. The chivalry in Romance of morisco means that morisco would seek assimilation into the mainstream of Occidental Christian community. At the same time, morisco would be faced with the dilemma of loss of religious identity. But Taqiyya, islamic doctrine, offsets the dilemma between yearning to assimilate into mainstream and religious conscience of morisco in that Taqiyya permits morisco to convert to Christianity in case that they are in danger of life or the following risk. From this point of view, There is no room for doubt about the fact that Taqiyya contributed to social assimilation or multicultural society of the Iberian Peninsula. It has been a long time since a narrow-minded religious dogma and ideology became a anachronistic relic in multicultural society of Spain such as the Purity of Blood. From a relative viewpoint, Don Quijote provides a ground for the collective intelligence among christian, muslim(morisco) and converso through a liberal community between readers and authors who form a pluralistic society.

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Acknowledgement

Supported by : 한국연구재단