Miguel de Cervantes, writer of Don Quixote, has frequently been portrayed in fictionalized contexts across various mediums. In A Character Named Cervantes, Howard Mancing and Tatevik Gyulamiryan explore how Cervantes’s life is depicted in biographies and fiction and how he, as a (bio)fictional character, contributes to our understanding of reality and fiction, fact and invention, history and imagination, and above all, our perceptions of these concepts.
The book reveals that Cervantes’s life was unlike anyone else’s. Characterized by an array of extraordinary experiences – both triumphant and tumultuous, adventurous and misfortunate, impassioned and disillusioned – his life events mirror the quixotic spirit he famously imbued in his iconic character. Despite the wealth of documented events, a lot about Cervantes remains uncovered, which allows for human imagination, interpretation, and creation to intervene, attempting to provide a more comprehensive biography. The book highlights how Cervantes’s life has inspired multiple interpretations and recreations by historians, biographers, and novelists alike. It emphasizes the crucial role of human imagination in the crafting of biographies, particularly within literary and scholarly traditions. Ultimately, A Character Named Cervantes examines Cervantes through the dual lenses of fiction and fictionalized history.