Ever since the early 1970s when Foucault identified Don Quixote as the first "modernist" novel and, more recently, Milan Kundera positioned Cervantes at the crux of an alternative historical trajectory of the Western novel, the legacy of Cervantes has figured prominently in discussions about problems of representation and production in contemporary literature. In this work, Spadaccini and Talens take the metaphor of the mirror (which has played central roles in various conceptions of the Western novel) to open up Cervantes' writings (fiction, poetry, drama) to history: specifically, to the urbanization and commodification of culture and the emergence of diverse marginal groups. The authors argue and demonstrate, convincingly through close intertextual readings, that one is compelled to connect Cervantes' body of work to political, ideological, and social economies in order to understand its operation.
Seeking to dispel the notion prevalent in both Hispanic and comparative literary circles that Cervantes' genius is to be found largely in his work as a practising novelist, "Through the Shattering Glass" argues for a study that cuts synchronically along generic lines and that examines Cervantes' writing both within the theoretical and practical parameters of his time and in terms of present-day discussions.

Contributions by: Jenaro Talens