Yale Celebrates "Don Quixote" at 400

On September 23 and 24, scholars from Yale and beyond will gather at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street, to celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote.”

On September 23 and 24, scholars from Yale and beyond will gather at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall Street, to celebrate the four-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote.”

The two-day conference will address how and why “Don Quixote,” widely credited as the first modern novel, has had such a profound and lasting influence in popular and literary culture throughout the West and around the world.

“Don Quixote” tells the story of a middle-aged, sedentary man of modest means belonging to the rural nobility, who suddenly decides to become a knight-errant and sets out in search of adventure. Always at the side of this romantic dreamer, who mistakes windmills for giants, is his trusted servant Sancho Panza trying to ground him to reality.

Shortly after its publication in Madrid in 1605, the book went through various printings and was translated into multiple languages. Its appeal stemmed from both its intriguing story and Cervantes’ superb literary form. Today, “Don Quixote” is second only to the Bible in editions and translations, and it remains a perennial favorite four centuries after it was written.

At the conference, scholars will assess “Don Quixote” from a variety of perspectives. Some will probe the effect of the masterpiece on colonial and modern Latin American literature; some will examine the significance of a specific episode or character; and others will explore the relationship of the novel to Spain’s multicultural society. Participants will include Carlos Arboleda of Southern Connecticut State University; Bruce Burningham of Illinois Central University; Antonio Carreño Rodríguez of George Mason University; Frederick de Armas of the University of Chicago; María Antonio Garcés of Cornell University; Jacques Lezra of the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Rolena Adorno, Ivan Fernández, Shialing Kwa, Giuseppe Mazzotta, and David Quint of Yale University. The conference organizers are Roberto González Echevarría of Yale University and Georgina Dopico Black of New York University.

In addition to the lecture and discussion portions of the conference, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library will present an exhibit of Cervantes’ first editions, and The Cinema at the Whitney film society will show two related films: “Don Quixote” (dir. Grigori Kozintsev, 1953), an acclaimed film version of Cervantes’ story, and “Lost in La Mancha” (dir. Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe, 2002), a documentary about Terry Gilliam’s failed attempt to make his own film, “The Man Who Killed ‘Don Quixote.’”

The conference is sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Whitney Humanities Center and the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. For more information, please e-mail sandra.guardo@yale.edu.

Share this with Facebook Share this with X Share this with LinkedIn Share this with Email Print this

Media Contact

Dorie Baker: dorie.baker@yale.edu, 203-432-1345