Revaluing the variant: a social textual criticism approach towards exemplarity, censorship and canonicity in 17th and 18th century editions of Spanish exemplary short fiction (1613-1799)

Griffiths, Benjamin (2025). Revaluing the variant: a social textual criticism approach towards exemplarity, censorship and canonicity in 17th and 18th century editions of Spanish exemplary short fiction (1613-1799). University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This study examines a neglected aspect of an under-studied genre of the Spanish Golden Age: the production and transmission history of the Peninsular Spanish exemplary novela between 1613 and 1799. Approaching the novela through an innovative methodology based on Jerome J. McGann’s ‘social textual criticism’, this thesis deviates from a conventional approach which prioritises the reconstruction of the author’s ‘final intentions’, instead emphasising that it is only through the study of all aspects of the book (both textual and nontextual) that the development ofthe genre can be fully appreciated within evolving contextual factors. In particular, it argues that although modern critical editions usually dismiss editorial variants as worthless, there is value in examining this often discarded variation in a systematic fashion. This is an argument that is applicable not only to this thesis’ corpus of ESF, but to textual production more broadly.

This thesis, which coins the term ‘ESF’ to refer to exemplary short fiction, identifies Cervantes’ Novelas ejemplares (1613) as the first example of the genre, a work which led to a succession of successful collections which existed in its ‘afterglow’. Examining the ESF of Cervantes,
Juan Pérez de Montalbán, María de Zayas, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina and Cristóbal Lozano, this study seeks to answer five research questions, which are organised under the umbrella of the first: How did seventeenth-century printer-booksellers publish editions of novelas in regard to maintaining or changing all features of the book? How does printer-booksellers’ and editors’ treatment of the NE compare with their treatment of other collections of ESF? How did authors, printer-booksellers and editors approach the question of exemplarity? How did censorship and/or censure impact upon the way collections of ESF were presented, and what was the impact on exemplarity? How does the development of the concept of a Spanish ‘Golden Age’ in the eighteenth century tie in with editorial approaches towards works of ESF?

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):