Quixotic Desire

Contents

Quixotic Desire is composed on essays centered on the work of Cervantes (especially Don Quixote) through the lens of psychoanalysis, with the introduction noting that the latter "works as a valuable and viable critical mode because—in its best moments—it posits, in both literary and interpretive texts, that the psyche functions as an organizing principle, constantly creating itself through the images and lexicons out of which it gains material expression". The volume's fifteen essays are organized into five sections:

1. "The Discourse of Affiliation", which has only one essay: where psychoanalysts León Grinberg and Juan Francisco Rodríguez examine how Don Quixote influenced Freud's work.
2. "The Discourse of Desire", composed of essays on the theme of desire, particularly in El curioso impertinente ; Cervantes' ability to channel the Ancient Greek dream interpreter Artemidorus "even as he anticipates Freud"; and analysis of the unconscious in reader interpretation through Cervantes' autobiographical work.
3. "Fragmented Heroes, Fragmented Texts", made of three essays on Freudian fragmentation, with subject matter including the role of the titular story's "educated men" as the Lacanian name of the father, the sexual aspects of the scene where Don Quixote is hung by his wrist, and Sancho's unconscious emotions through Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious.
4. "The Other's Story: Interpolation and Disruption", centered on the book's side-story characters, specifically the role of gender in Marcela's journey, the connection of Cardenio's feelings with desire and submission, and reinterpretations of El curioso impertinente and the story of the captive through the theories of Freud and Guy Hocquenghem, respectively.
5. "The Mother's Story: Incorporation and Abjection", the final section, which changes the work's scope to Cervantes' non-Quixote work, exploring them through the Jungian witch; subject matter includes the influence of Cervantes' unconscious Terrible Mother on his work, the concept of the missing mother in La tía fingida, as well as well as re-examinations of The Dialogue of the Dogs through the theories of Nicolas Abraham, Freud, Julia Kristeva, Lacan, and Mária Török.

In addition to the co-authored first part, as well as two essays written by the volume editors individually, contributors to the volume were Andrew Bush, Anthony J. Cascardi, Anne J. Cruz, Carlos Feal, María Antonia Garcés, Mary Malcolm Gaylord, Eduardo González, Mary S. Gossy, Carroll B. Johnson, Maurice Molho, George A. Shipley, and Paul Julian Smith.