Cat Got Your Tongue: Altisidora's Emasculation of Don Quixote

• Carmen Granda ^[1]
  1. [1] Amherst College

     Amherst College

     Town of Amherst, Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America, ISSN-e 0277-6995, Vol. 44, Nº. 1-2, 2024, págs. 31-61
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • This essay examines a crisis in notions of class and gender through the metonymic association between Altisidora and the cats in part 2 of Don Quixote, which evoke the symbolism of the vagina dentata. Through the image of Altisidora's castrating toothed vagina, Cervantes reveals a disruption of the knight-errant ideal, reflecting broader themes in Don Quixote: a meditation of masculinities in crisis and Spain's declining imperial power. Focusing on the claws, face, mouth, and vagina, this essay highlights how Cervantes uses the body as a critical site to interrogate the intersection of material and affective dimensions in addressing cultural anxieties in the palace episodes.