Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) is widely considered one of the greatest writers in the Spanish language, best known for his masterpiece novel Don Quixote de la Mancha, published in two parts in 1605 and 1615. However, he wrote dozens of other works beginning his writing career as a playwright in the 1580s. His works cover a variety of themes providing often harsh criticism of Spanish imperial policies, the Roman Catholic Church, the state of arts and letters in Spain, madness and the depths of the human psyche. Prior to launching his writing career, Cervantes spent five years (1575-80) as a slave in Muslim Algiers, and these experiences influenced his writings, particularly for the stage. Throughout his entire career, Cervantes found himself in an era of generic transition, often employing innovative theatrical devices and techniques, and his early plays that depict slavery, confinement, and imprisonment also provide his audience with a manifestation of the consequences of such an existence of the prisoners’ mental health. This paper will explore how Cervantes’s unique use of allegorical characters just few short years after his return from captivity illustrates the physical and mental anguish of a slave, while also criticizing his native Spain for apparently abandoning the fight against Islam in the Mediterranean and leaving 20,000 enslaved Christians to their fate.
Prison/Exile: Controlled Spaces in Early Modern Europe 