Pícar@s que no dejan huella. La muerte del picarismo en la picaresca de Castillo Solórzano

Abstract

Basing upon the four commandments of picarism identified in the 1980s by Maurice Molho (pseudo-autobiographism, low birth, anti-honour, social criticism), we analize the various forms such characters took in the works of various authors who, willingly or not, approached the picaresque genre. The four commandments before mentioned are fully accomplished in the classics of the genre (Lazarillo, Guzmán, Justina and Buscón), above all through satire. Salas Barbadillo betrays the first and fourth commandment in his Hija de Celestina. On the other hand, the supposedly picaresque short stories by Castillo Solórzano —La niña de los embustes, Teresa de Manzanares (1632), the Aventuras del bachiller Trapaza (1637) and La garduña de Sevilla y anzuelo de las bolsas (1642)— betray almost all of them, making of his characters only rogues strongly connected to the courtly world and full of anti-picaresque elements. Solorzano’s short stories can thus be considered the end of picarism.

Keywords

• rogue
• picaresque genre
• picarismo
• courtly novel
• anti-picaresque elements
• social criticism