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Topic
Humanizing the Enemy: Don Quixote and the Moors
Date & Time

Selected Sessions:

Mar 17, 2025 11:00 AM

Description
In Don Quixote (1605), the unreliable narrator of the first volume names a Moor, Cide Hamete Benengeli, as a source for the story he is about to recount—although he warns readers that Moors are often untruthful. Throughout his wanderings, Don Quixote encounters men and women of different social and ethnic groups. His interactions with Moors are particularly notable, as they are almost always portrayed in a sympathetic, humane manner. By the second volume, Cide Hamete becomes the sole narrator of the story and the true authority on Don Quixote. In this talk, Bárbara Mujica will show how Cervantes challenges popular stereotypes of Moors in early modern Spain. In this context, Cervantes sees the otherness in others from a viewpoint which allows cultural encounters that recognize the humanity in all. This event is sponsored by the Future of the Humanities Project and the Georgetown Humanities Initiative at Georgetown University with Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. It is part of the series Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference.