Where the one who reads it will see it and the one who listens to it being read will hear it: on the metatheatralical language of Maese Pedro’s marionettes

Abstract

This investigation points out the various characteristics of the (meta)theatrical language of Maese Pedro’s retablo, both in the staging of an oral tradition in the mute language of marionettes and in the discourse of the interpreter who describes them. This (re)presentation reveals, on the one hand, don Quixote’s interpretation of this performance in the minstrel tradition as a critical listener and, on the other, his reaction as an isolated and silent reader. The reading that don Quixote finally imposes is thus the same mute reading that drove him to madness. His behavior externalizes the confrontation between knightly romances and the new literary forms that were to replace them, highlighting the supremacy of new comedic theater and what would be considered years later as the novel.