De pícaros perros y de perros pícaros: en torno a ciertas figuraciones caninas en Mateo Alemán y Miguel de Cervantes

Abstract

Among the many discursive interactions proposed by Mateo Alemán and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s works one of the most disturbing aspects it is the diverse and sustained metaphorization of the human as dog. For if Mateo Alemán suggests in his Guzman de Alfarache that the fate of the pícaro protagonist may be equated to the path of imperfection undertaken by a dog, Cervantes, in his Coloquio de los perros, introduces the crucial enigma whether Cipión and Berganza are human after all. Besides, the fact that the author of Don Quijote conceive a passage whose prominence is based on Berganza’s cohabitation with a merchant does not seem to be irrelevant since it allows us to postulate to what extent, culturally, the debate over the animality or humanity of the pícaro could be supported, inter alia, in the possible religation of the authors of this fables to different confessional trends.