The diabolical adventures of 'Don Quixote', or self-exorcism and the rise of the novel (Cervantes' appropriation of Catholic terminology and imagery of demonology in Spanish Golden-Age literature)
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This study explores Cervantes appropriations of the terminology and imagery of Catholic exorcists and demonologists in the Spanish Golden Age. The lucid intervals of Don Quixote, his constant sense that someone pursues him, and his explicit voicing of the words of the exorcism ritual can only be understood fully in relation to contemporaneous religious belief. This essay also argues that the devilishly-described Don Quixote exorcized himself. This action anticipated self-exorcism as preached by the Franciscan Diego Gmez Lodosa. In Cervantes studies, Don Quixote's selfexorcism will become paradigmatic of the autonomous action of this first novelistic character.
