Insights on Original Narrative Fiction in the Political of Diego de Saavedra, Fajardo, Andrés Mendo, and Francisco Garau

This study explores the function of several types of narrative fiction utilized by three of the most distinguished political emblematists of the Hispanic Baroque: Diego Saavedra Fajardo, Andrés Mendo (who borrows liberally from the work of Solórzano Pereira) and the expressly anti-Machiavellian works of Francisco Garau. We consider the rationale behind choosing the emblem as a vehicle to express Counter-reformation political thought and we trace an evolution that leads to one of the books of Garau, which reveals itself to be a highly original work that propagates traditional rhetorical procedures and at the same time it conceals a radical skepticism affecting both the form and content of the work.Keywords: Emblems, Spanish Political Literature, Golden Age Literature, Narrative Fiction

Spanish Literature

The Renaissance came later to Spain than to any other European country, which led to a certain sense of “belatedness” in Spain’s literal and literary historiography. Most histories of Golden Age literature (as the peak period of Spanish Renaissance literature is often called) begin with Fernando de Rojas’s humanistic tragicomedy the Celestina (c. 1499) and extend through at least the early Baroque (a convenient terminus being Calderón de la Barca’s La vida es sueño, c. 1635). This time period proved extraordinarily fertile, however, coinciding with the era of Spanish world dominance. Spain was the birthplace of several important literary movements and genres, including the first modern novel. The glories of so-called “Golden” Age literature, however, may obscure the harsh conditions experienced by women, colonized people, and the victims of the Inquisition.