Editing Picaresque novel (section)

===''Lazarillo de Tormes'' and its sources===
While elements of literature by [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] and [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] have a picaresque feel and may have contributed to the style,<ref name="Neachtain2000">{{cite book|author=Seán Ó Neachtain|title=The History of Éamon O'Clery|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d2hX-AhmR04C&pg=PA6|access-date=30 May 2013|year=2000|publisher=Clo Iar-Chonnacht|isbn=978-1-902420-35-6|page=6}}</ref> the modern picaresque begins with ''[[Lazarillo de Tormes]]'',<ref name="TurnerNez2003">{{cite book|author1=Turner, Harriet |author2= López de Martínez, Adelaida|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Novel: From 1600 to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jUD5rWJufkoC&pg=PA15|access-date=30 May 2013|date=11 September 2003|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|isbn=978-0-521-77815-2|page=15}}</ref> which was published anonymously in 1554 in [[Burgos]], [[Medina del Campo]], and [[Alcalá de Henares]] in Spain, and also in [[Antwerp]], which at the time was under Spanish rule as a major city in the [[Spanish Netherlands]]. It is variously considered either the first picaresque novel or at least the antecedent of the genre.

The protagonist, Lázaro, lives by his wits in an effort to survive and succeed in an impoverished country full of hypocrisy. As a ''pícaro'' character, he is an alienated outsider, whose ability to expose and ridicule individuals compromised within society gives him a revolutionary stance.<ref>Cruz, Anne J. (2008). [https://books.google.com/books?id=WIwLAQAAMAAJ ''Approaches to teaching Lazarillo de Tormes and the picaresque tradition'', p. 19.] ("The ''pícaro''{{'}}s revolutionary stance, as an alienated outsider who nevertheless constructs his own self and his world").</ref> Lázaro states that the motivation for his writing is to communicate his experiences of overcoming deception, hypocrisy, and falsehood (''engaño'').<ref>MacAdam, Alfred J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=08wGHT9iug8C&pg=PA138 ''Textual confrontations: comparative readings in Latin American literature'', p. 138.] ''Google Books''.</ref>

The character type draws on elements of [[characterization]] already present in [[Latin literature|Roman literature]], especially Petronius's ''[[Satyricon]]''. Lázaro shares some of the traits of the central figure of [[Satyricon#Principal characters|Encolpius]], a former gladiator,<ref name="Chaytor1922pvii"/><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=E8lAAAAAYAAJ ''The life of Lazarillo de Tormes: his fortunes and adversities''] (1962) p. 18.</ref> though it is unlikely that the author had access to Petronius's work.<ref>Martin, René (1999) [https://books.google.com/books?id=rY9fAAAAMAAJ ''Le Satyricon: Pétrone'', p. 105.]  ''Google Books''.</ref> From the comedies of [[Plautus]], ''Lazarillo'' borrows the figure of the parasite and the supple slave. Other traits are taken from Apuleius's ''[[The Golden Ass]]''.<ref name="Chaytor1922pvii">Chaytor, Henry John (1922)[https://books.google.com/books?id=eRJKAAAAIAAJ ''La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes''] p. vii.</ref> ''The Golden Ass'' and ''Satyricon'' are rare surviving samples of the "[[Milesian tale]]", a popular genre in the classical world, and were revived and widely read in Renaissance Europe.

[[File:Apuleius Metamorphoses c. 65.jpg|thumb|One of the most influential novels on the picaresque genre was ''[[The Golden Ass]]'' by [[Apuleius]], which he published sometime in the 2nd century AD. (ms. Vat. Lat. 2194, [[Vatican Library]]) (1345 illustration).]]
The principal episodes of ''Lazarillo'' are based on Arabic folktales that were well known to the Moorish inhabitants of Spain. The Arabic influence may account for the negative portrayal of priests and other church officials in ''Lazarillo''.<ref>Fouad Al-Mounir, "The Muslim Heritage of ''Lazarillo de Tormes''," ''The Maghreb Review'' vol. 8, no. 2 (1983), pp. 16–17.</ref> [[Arabic literature]], which was read widely in Spain in the time of [[Al-Andalus]] and possessed a literary tradition with similar themes, is thus another possible influence on the picaresque style. [[Al-Hamadhani]] (d.1008) of Hamadhan (Iran) is credited with inventing the literary genre of [[Maqama|''maqāmāt'']] in which a wandering vagabond makes his living on the gifts his listeners give him following his extemporaneous displays of rhetoric, erudition, or verse, often done with a [[trickster]]'s touch.<ref>[[James T. Monroe]], ''The art of Badi'u 'l-Zaman al-Hamadhani as picaresque narrative'' (American University of Beirut c1983).</ref> Ibn al-Astarkuwi or al-Ashtarkuni (d.1134) also wrote in the genre ''maqāmāt'', comparable to later European picaresque.<ref>Monroe, James T. translator, ''Al-Maqamat al-luzumiyah, by Abu-l-Tahir Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Tamimi al-Saraqus'i ibn al-Astarkuwi''. Leiden: Brill, 2002.</ref>

The curious presence of Russian [[loanword]]s in the text of the ''Lazarillo'' also suggests the influence of medieval Slavic tales of tricksters, thieves, itinerant prostitutes, and brigands, who were common figures in the impoverished areas bordering on Germany to the west. When diplomatic ties to Germany and Spain were established under the emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], these tales began to be read in Italian translations in the [[Iberian Peninsula]].<ref>S. Rodzevich, "K istorii russkogo romantizma", ''Russky Filologichesky Vestnik'', 77 (1917), 194–237 (in Russian).</ref>

As narrator of his own adventures, Lázaro seeks to portray himself as the victim of both his ancestry and his circumstance. This means of appealing to the compassion of the reader would be directly challenged by later picaresque novels such as ''[[Guzmán de Alfarache]]'' (1599/1604) and  ''[[El Buscón]]'' (composed in the first decade of the 17th century and first published in 1626) because the idea of [[determinism]] used to cast the ''pícaro'' as a victim clashed with the [[Catholic Revival]] doctrine of [[free will]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Boruchoff |first=David A. |title=Free Will, the Picaresque, and the Exemplarity of Cervantes's ''Novelas ejemplares'' |journal=[[Modern Language Notes|MLN]] |volume=124 |issue=2 |year=2009 |pages=372–403 |doi=10.1353/mln.0.0121 |jstor=29734505 |s2cid=162205817 }}</ref>