I am beginning to feel like the Supreme Court now that I’m reading the second book on the 2010 list and not really sure that it stacks up all that well as picaresque. As I’ve been researching the selections and checking synopses and other reviews, many sound bounder-line: either adventure stories, tales of coming of age under difficult circumstances, or expressions of political philosophies clothed in assumed persona.
Putting together a list of elements that I think should be found in the perfect picaresque novel will keep me true to my search and give me a checklist against which to decide if a particular book readily is assignable to this genre. I also intend to find some kind of scholarly tome used in advanced (or at least entertaining) English courses to see how my array of required ingredients compares to other’s studies.
So far, the two books I’ve started are both great reads, whether or not they represent the ideal rogue.
Here are what I think are the primary characteristics of a picaresque story.
- A naïve protagonist
A quest
Bizarre adventures
Deprived encounters
Danger
Sex, debauchery, crime and other lack of morals or breakdown of society
Skin of the teeth escapes
A traveling buddy
Misunderstanding of events and motives
Eventual enlightenment or maturity
While I haven’t fully fleshed out each element, there seems to me to be nuances and variations within these fixtures. The hero/heroine’s “innocence” can be attributable to youth or senility, class, or substance abuse/addiction. The protagonist’s confrontations with depravity should seem random and not intentional, even when there is an underlying attraction towards evil. The story should be populated with ugly, malformed, amoral, oversexed characters, or such stock characters as witch, conjurer, priest, or outlaw. Danger should arise from the land itself, its political setting or crisis and from people who are both natural enemies and zealot enforcers of social order. The protagonist must express a personal, simple misinterpretation of events, defining the motivation of others against his/her own misguided code of ethics.
The stories should be fast-paced and highly visual and sensual. Plot can advance either by stressing the importance or irrelevance of segue, tying the progress of the character either through a logical or random series of situations, but the more random and less self-directed the better.
As the list has been compiled, the adjective picaresque seems to be applied more readily to more recent publications. I am looking for books that hold true to a somewhat formulaic structure; otherwise, the novels will seem to have been written by bad and egotistical boys and girls, eager to air their sins for their shock rather than redemptive value. Or worse, end up being tales of growing up or traveling in a pro forma dysfunctional family or hostile country.
No comments:
Post a Comment