Pícaro and Cortesano: Identity and the Forms of Capital in Early Modern Spanish Picaresque Narrative and Courtesy Literature

In this book on the relationship between pícaro and cortesano, Felipe E. Ruan argues that these two cultural figures are linked by a shared form of deportment centered on prudent self-accommodation. This behavior is generated and governed by a courtly ethos or habitus that emerges as the result of the growth and influence of the court in Madrid. Ruan posits that both pícaro and cortesano, and their respective books, conduct manual and picaresque narrative, tacitly engage questions of identity and individualism by highlighting the valued resources or forms of capital that come to fashion and sustain self-identity. He places the books of the pícaro and cortesano within the larger polemic of early modern identity and individualism, and offers an account of the individual as agent whose actions are grounded on objective social relations, without those actions being simply the result of mechanistic adherence to the social order.

About the Author :
Felipe E. Ruan is associate professor of Spanish at Brock University, Canada.

Review :
This book addresses topics relevant not only for our understanding of literary forms in early modern Spain, but for all those critical periods that forced a reconsideration of human forms of identity. ... The texts chosen for analysis are ideal, both for their literary importance as for the editorial impact they had when they were published. Ruan’s theoretical approach can also be considered adequate, since the network of concepts Bourdieu weaves around “habitus” and “capital” allows for the consideration of the individual and social dimensions most influential in the construction of identity. Most importantly, perhaps, is the emphasis on a number of mechanisms and types that underscore, from the early modern period to the social and technological revolution we live today, that the construction of identity is both individual and social. Ruan successfully analyzes how these early modern forms of identity are produced and developed. This is a solid study, informed by social theory and by the work of an eminent group of Hispanists. The operative juxtapositions are revealing and rewarding. By judiciously navigating similitude and difference, Ruan expands and enriches the parameters of social and literary history.