Resumen de African Space and Abencerrajismo in Cervantes's El gallardo español: Arlaxa and the Deconstruction of the Heroic Comedia
This essay offers an analysis of Cervantes's play El gallardo español that questions the traditional reading of the work seen as a heroic comedia extolling the patriotic values of Christian Spain condensed into a crucible of virtues such as courage, honor, duty, and gallantry embodied by its protagonist, don Fernando de Saavedra. However, as we will see, such an interpretation is unsustainable if we take into account the daring and playful deconstruction which the heroic subgenre is subjected to in this text. Indeed, heroism is continually questioned through different strategies that could be understood as a series of shifts and displacements in the play. These include: the geographical site where the action takes place, Oran; the use of historical sources as the basis for an exercise in fictional inverisimilitude; the theatrical space that moves from Oran to the periphery of the citadel (all the main action takes place outside the walls); a characterization of Muslims and Christians that undermines stereotypes; the fact that the protagonist, don Fernando, voluntarily gives himself up as a captive who is pleased to adopt Moorish clothing and customs, and the parallel case of Margarita, who of her own will becomes a captive named Fatima; and the transfer of the axis of the play from the Christian protagonist don Fernando to his Moorish antagonist, Arlaxa, who oc- cupies the displaced center of the play and becomes the catalyst of the action. In short, the existence of the character Arlaxa as the decentralized nucleus of the play turns this war story into an inquiry about what it means to be human. Ultimately, Arlaxa embodies the ideal of gallantry-exalted in the title of the comedia-that is neither Spanish nor masculine but feminine and Moorish.
