This week: Why is Don Quixote considered a burlesque novel? Maybe burlesque doesn’t mean what I think it means? We figure it out. Plus a quick look at some recent photo news that I found interesting and the usual footnotes. Let’s get to it.
I'm reading Don Quixote at the moment1. More importantly, I'm reading a version that was translated to English in the mid-1800s. This means there are a whole lot of references and allusions that I have had to look up; there have been so many I started keeping lists. By far, my favorite list is "Words Used In a Way I Didn't Know They Could Be Used." The word I'm going to talk about this week comes directly from that list, from the introduction to the book, where the translator refers to the entire story of Don Quixote as a burlesque.
Uhm, what?
If asked, I would have told you that burlesque is a kind of stage show2. One that comes from the vaudeville era and usually includes some ladies removing a lot of their clothing. Feather boas may or may not be involved. And the dictionary would back me up. Here’s the definition from Cambridge3:
a type of theatre entertainment in the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that had funny acts and a striptease
It’s just that that’s not the only, or even the first, definition of the word. Cambridge continues:
a type of writing or acting that tries to make something serious seem stupid
This is, inarguably, a much better fit for a work like Don Quixote. Cervantes wrote Don Quixote as a send-up of stories of chivalry and knight-errantry. He took the ideas and tropes of a literary genre and purposely tried to diminish it through the actions of his central character, Quixote.
Definitions from other dictionaries support this. Collins-Cobuild:
A burlesque is a performance or a piece of writing that makes fun of something by copying it in an exaggerated way.
And Merriam-Webster4:
a literary or dramatic work that seeks to ridicule by means of grotesque exaggeration or comic imitation
mockery usually by caricature
I think what’s most salient here is that Cervantes parodied the romantic knight stories intentionally; the creation of Quixote was a malicious act. Cervantes did not approach his work as “oh, let’s make a story about a knight but funny,” but rather as, “what is the most ridiculous thing a person could do while still being able to call himself a chivalrous knight?” In other words, much like Lewis Carroll would do with Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland a few centuries later, Cervantes wrote a comical novel meant to absolutely skewer the perceptions of his audience.
This begs the question, how did the same word come to be applied to both a satiric literary genre and a sexy stage show? Etymology online has a few hints, beginning with its original meaning, which arose in the 18th century:
The more precise adjectival meaning "tending to excite laughter by ludicrous contrast between the subject and the manner of treating it" is attested in English by 1700.
The site goes on to say that the secondary, stage-show-related meaning of the term arose by the end of the 19th century. They suggest that some closing sketches of stage shows were described as burlesques5. Then, as these closing shows changed from satire to stripteases6, the word stayed on the playbill thereby acquiring its new definition.
Notes from the News
I’m putting in a new section this week because I came across a really interesting piece in the New York Times that I wanted to share, Women Who Shaped Modern Photography. The piece discusses an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art called “The New Woman Behind the Camera.” The exhibition and the article showcase female photographers who may have been all but unknown except through their work.
For centuries before they went New, women had been objectified and observed as few men were likely to be. Picking up the camera didn’t pull eyes away from a New Woman; it could put her all the more clearly on view.
As the hidden roles of women in history have gotten more attention over the past few years (with documentaries about the women “computers” at NASA as well as the Mercury 13, among many others) and shed more light on how gendered our history classes were, articles and exhibitions like this play a huge part in helping us come to terms with an imperfect understanding of how the world has been shaped and on what we can do to reshape it.
Stay curious,
J
There are going to be quite a few references to this project, reading Don Quixote, over the next few issues. Partly because it’s such an interesting book and I keep finding things I want to talk about, and partly because it’s, well, what I’m doing with my free time at the minute and that usually finds its way here sooner or later. But, anyway, I’m going to drop an affiliate link (here) for the version I’m reading in case you want to try it yourself. It’s worth it. I promise.
I had a vague memory of a movie scene wherein a bunch of gamblers, rogues, and cowboys crammed into a makeshift theater and watch a bunch of ladies do peacock dances, but I wasn’t able to find anything specific. Lots of references and allusions, but no actual scene. I suppose I’m conflating a bunch of different scenes from t.v. shows like Deadwood and movies like Unforgiven. Or maybe this is just another example of the Mandela effect? Or maybe I’m just misremembering Moulin Rouge?
There’s not any room to really get into it, but I’ll admit to a bit of surprise that this use of burlesque - as a stage show, or part of one - arose in the United States. I had always assumed that it, along with vaudeville, had originated in England as a descendent of music hall acts that came out of the British theater traditions. Turns out vaudeville comes originally from France and burlesque most likely arose as part of American vaudeville shows as a closing act. Here’s the Wikipedia page.
Merriam-Webster’s other definition of burlesque: “theatrical entertainment of a broadly humorous often earthy character consisting of short turns, comic skits, and sometimes striptease acts”
They also list, as related words, travesty and amphigory and now I have to go research those two words, too.
Burlesque stage acts have made a resurgence in recent years. Here in Japan, the Tokyo Burlesque troupe and performance is a cheeky, fun, sexy night out and if you find yourself in this part of the world, consider adding it to your itinerary.