The Nature of Picaresque Narrative: A Modal Approach

Author(s): Ulrich Wicks

Source: PMLA, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Mar., 1974), pp. 240-249
Published by: Modern Language Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/461446 .
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 ULRICH WICKS

The Nature of Picaresque Narrative: A Modal Approach

. . . this Spanish Proteus; who, though writ "return of the picaros," the "picaro in our time,"
But in one tongue, was form'd with the worlds wit. the "renaissanceof the picaresque novel" and the
-Ben Jonson on Mabbe's version of Guzmdn(1622) "neo-picaresque,"5 until the broad and narrow
IN AN ANONYMOUS 1867 article we read: meanings of the term are indeed in need of recon-
"But . . . why disinter these fossil remains of ciliation.
an extinct literature?The picaresco novel is as I should like to suggest such a reconciliation
dead as the dodo: why disturb its bones? We by way of a differentperspective on what we must
answer that a fossil literature is at least as inter- now surely call the problem of the picaresque. My
esting as a fossil fauna."l In 1954, Walter Alien rather formidable-perhaps even presumptuous-
talked about the "stretching" of the term "pica- title does not suggest a radical rearrangementor
resque" that is now common, and for him "The even reappraisal of picaresque fiction. Taking my
Pilgrim's Progress is not so different in form cue from Claudio Guillen's "Toward a Defi-
from the conventional picaresque novel."2 This nition ...," I should emphasize the speculative
juxtaposition points out the obvious. There is a nature of this approach.6What I am looking for
kind of paradox in our usage of the term that is and will be trying to justify is a readjustedperspec-
not unlike the picaro's situation in his fictional tive on the picaresque, a more manageable idea
world: just as he is plunged into the very thick of of the picaresque that will help to bridge the gap
it and yet remains an outsider, so criticism has between the extremities. I suggest that for this
left us with a term that must do double-and purpose we leave out of consideration for the time
confusingly contradictory-duty. On the one being one half of our term, namely novel, a for-
hand, we have a historical approach that sees the midable job of definition itself-a "spongy tract,"
picaresque as a "closed" episode in the fiction of as E. M. Forster called it.
sixteenth- and seventeenth-centurySpain, and, on Robert Scholes has recently worked out a
the other, we have an ahistorical approach that theory of fictional modes, in which he proposes a
sees it as an "open" fictional tradition, until in spectrum of "ideal types" of narrative fiction.7
contemporary usage the term "picaresque"seems Fictional modes are defined by the qualities of the
to be applied whenever something "episodic" world that the storyteller renders. There are
tied together by an "antihero" needs a name. In three possible relationships between any fictional
his preface to Rogue's Progress Robert Alter world and our world of actual experience: a world
accepts the broader applications of the term, but fictionally rendered can be (1) better than the
not without "a sense of serious responsibility to world of experience, (2) worse than it, or (3) more
the definite historical phenomenon from which or less equal to it; and these are visions or attitudes
the term derives."3 W. M. Frohock has several that we have learned to call romantic, satiric, and
times objected to what he calls "the failing center" realistic. Fiction can give us, then, the heroic
in the contemporary idea of the picaresque.4But world of romance, the degraded world of satire,
during the past fifteen years or so we have been or the mimetic world of history, respectively.
reading about the "eternal Simplicissimus," "uses These three modes are the middle and end points
and mutations of the picaresque," its "actuality," of a spectrum of fictional possibilities which has
the "picaresque saint," "rogue's progress," the seven modes in all:

satire picaresque comedy HISTORY sentiment tragedy romance

240
 Ulrich Wicks 241
Romance, for example, presents superhuman historically identifiable traditions. Generic study
types in an ideal world. Satire portrays subhuman begins in "the thick of the phenomena," trying
grotesques enmeshed in chaos. Picaresquepresents to group works in a way that will relate them to
a protagonist enduring a world that is chaotic the ideal types as well as to a vertical (that is,
beyond ordinaryhuman tolerance, but it is a world historical) continuum of tradition, without sacri-
closer to our own (or to history) than the worlds ficing the uniqueness of the particular work. The
of satire or romance. This spectrum, Scholes ideal act of reading is thus a process of passing
suggests, must be seen as a system of shades "through insensible gradations from a modal to a
that works of fiction have combined in vari- generic awareness, to a final sense of the unique
ous ways. A modal perspective, as Scholes pre- qualities of the individual work, as distinguished
sents it, is thus the largest, most comprehensive from those most like it."
perspective we can have on narrative-itself one This concept of modes as ideal fictional types--
of what Warren and Wellek would call the as irreducible narrative types, we might say, or
"ultimate kinds" of literature. We begin from a primitive narrativeforms-is not in itself a critical
position that allows us to see the entire narrative tool, but it is the beginning of one: a large overall
spectrum with its infinite range of possibilities perspective on fiction, based on a spectrum of
along the scale from satire to romance. The spec- possible fictional worlds and the kinds of charac-
trum itself is not an inflexible pigeonholing ters who are created to inhabit those worlds.
system. It accounts for shades and mixtures, Modal awareness allows us to see the general
and therefore we can see in any particular work fictional makeup of the individual narrativework.
of narrative fiction how several of the ideal types Modes do not specifically impose a form and are
are mixed together to achieve the uniqueness of thus prenovelistic: they are applicable to fiction
that work. By grouping works in a continuum we anytime, anywhere. Since the picaresque is here
can also see which particular mode or mixture of posited as one of the modes, we would expect to
modes tends to assume a more significant role in find it in widely varying degrees in much fiction.
a particular epoch of literary history than the I suspect that making the picaresque one of the
other modes. basic modes begins to focus the problem that
A modal perspective can help to shape our contemporary criticism has been struggling with
esthetic response to the concrete work before us. in its ever-broadening use of the term. I sus-
It can orient for us the context of that work in pect that the recurrent tendency to use "pica-
terms of all the narrative possibilities that are resque" in all sorts of general ways argues for its
contained along the spectrum. To recognize that necessity as one of the basic fictional modes.
a particular work belongs, say, to romance (or Empirical evidence alone would indicate that
that the romance mode dominates it) is to channel there is some basic fictional situation that cannot
our response to-and our expectations of-that be explained away by banishing the term "pica-
work. Modal awareness allows us to group the resque" from all but the historically definable
particular work with other works from our total genre of Ia novela picaresca. The novela picaresca
experience of fiction that function in a similar is itself a specific genre almost exclusively domi-
way. And modal awareness readjusts our expec- nated by the picaresque mode. The idea of a pica-
tations of the individual modes themselves by resque mode, I think, will reconcile both of the
making us see the way a particular work makes extremes: it will account both for a specific kind
use of-and changes-those very expectations. of narrative whose exclusive preoccupation is an
What this larger perspective implies for our more exploration of the fictional world of the picaresque
immediate problem of picaresque narrative is, and for a primitive fictional possibility which may
I think, a different approach, one that begins be present in varying degrees of mixture in much
beyond and above historical considerations and fiction, as in a "naturalistic" novel by Zola. A
moves gradually toward the more specific and picaresque mode concept, then, seems to parallel
particular problems of historical context, tra- what Claudio Guillen suggested when he called
dition, and so on. Scholes distinguishes modal for defining "an essential situation or structure of
criticism from generic criticism by suggesting that meaning" as part of the definition of picaresque,
the term genre be reserved for the study of indi- though he would call it a "picaresquemyth."
vidual works in their relationships to specific and I would suggest (since Scholes moves in a dif-
242 The Nature of Picaresque Narrative
ferent direction and does not pursue these defi- and God in Guzmdnde Alfarache and Simplicius
nitions) that the essential picaresque situation-the Simplicissimus is a recurring characteristic in
fictional world posited by the picaresque mode- picaresque fiction, right up to our own day in the
is that of an unheroic protagonist, worse than we, highly complex Apollonian-Dionysian tension of
caught up in a chaotic world, worse than ours, in Gunter Grass's Die Blechtrommel. Picaresque
which he is on an eternal journey of encounters also has affinitiesfor its neighbors on the spectrum
that allow him to be alternately both victim of for satire, for example, though satire is dis-
that world and its exploiter. By way of contrast, I tinguished from picaresque in the way that Vol-
would say that the essential romance situation-the taire's Candide, say, portrays a world whose
fictional world posited by the romance mode-is onslaught overshadows the protagonist and which
that of a heroic protagonist in a world marvelously is crucially distorted according to a pattern of
better than ours in which he is on a quest that negative ideas. Picaresque also has an affinity for
confronts him with challenges, each ending in a comedy, but it is distinguished from comedy in the
moral victory leading toward a final ordered and way that Smollett's Roderick Random, say, por-
harmonious cosmos. If the romance mode satisfies trays a fictional world with a happy ending-
our impulse for vicarious participation in har- where the world and the character are inte-
mony, order, and beauty, then the picaresque grated. But the picaresque is nevertheless there,
mode satisfies our impulse for a vicarious journey as a mixed mode, in both Candide and Roderick
through chaos and depravity. In picaresque we Random.
"participate" in the tricks essential to survival in A work of fiction is a mixture dominated by a
chaos and become victims of the world's tricks, mode. Guzmadnde Alfarache, for example, is a
just as in romance we "participate" in over- work whose dominant fictional mode is picaresque.
coming the dangerous obstacles necessary for But there are strong secondary tendencies as well:
the establishment of harmony and order and Guzman'smoralistic and didactic bent reflects the
become recipients of harmony's rewards. In fictional mode of romance, and the frequency
Quevedo's La vida del Busconwe roll in excrement with which the world is shown superiorto Guzman
with Pablos one minute (Pt.I, Ch. ii), are thrashed by playing tricks on him is a reflection of the
with him the next (Pt.II, Ch. vii), and indulge with affinity of picaresque for comedy. In Quevedo's
him in his tricks on the world (Pt. I, Ch. vi). In El Buscon the scathing portrait of the school-
Book i of Spenser's Faerie Queene we expose master Cabra shows the picaresque's affinity for
ourselves along with the Redcrosse Knight to satire, as does the portrait of the escudero in the
Despair and other gruesome obstacles, knowing third chapter of Lazarillode Tormes. In works like
that ultimately this will win the restoration of Reuter's Schelmuffsky or even Till Eulenspiegel
Una's kingdom and the reward of Una herself. the simple comic is the dominant fictional mode,
Our journey into romance is a finite one ending and the picaresque secondary, mixed with satire.
in a goal unattainable in our own world of flux. But the task of determining modal impulses
Our journey into picaresque is an infinite foray in- and modal mixtures is not-should not be-an
to a world that is forever falling apart, disintegrat- end in itself. Modal awareness is the largest per-
ing. Romance satisfies our craving for divine har- spective we can have, and, this awareness once
mony, integration, beauty, order, goodness, and attained, the next step is to narrow down toward
ultimate fulfillment. Picaresquesatisfies our darker a more specific generic awareness. Here I suggest
yearnings for demonic disharmony, dis-integra- we take a further step, from basic fictional situa-
tion, ugliness, disorder, evil, and the gaping abyss. tions (modes) toward basic fictional structures. In
I chose to distinguish between picaresque and Das sprachlicheKunstwerk,Wolfgang Kayser dis-
romance-aside from their almost polar positions cusses the structural elements of the worlds
on the spectrum-first, because in its histori- rendered by narrative (Strukturelemente der
cal development picaresque can be seen as epischen Welt).8 He distinguishes among three
an antitype to romance, and second, because structural elements: a figure or character (Figur),
romance is the mode that picaresque often tends space or panorama (Raum),and event (Geschehen).
to mix with. The tension between the lure of (The Odyssey, for example, would be a character-
picaresque disorder and the yearning for order epic or Figuren-Epos,the Iliad an event-epic or
 Ulrich Wicks 243
Geschehen-Epos, and Dante's Divine Comedy, A combined modal-structural approach, then,
which shapes its fictional world by way of space makes us aware, from the largest perspective we
or Raumsubstanz,a panoramic epic, its principle of can have, of the qualities of fiction, of the nar-
composition being a knitting together of numer- rative makeup of a work. Our next-and more
ous single units-figures and events-which all difficult- step in the process of becoming aware
have their place in the sequence.) The three kinds of what a work is is to narrow ourselves down
of novels are for Kayser the novel of incident, the toward what we might call generic awareness,
novel of character, and the panoramic novel that is, an encounter with the works themselves,
(respectively, Geschehnisroman,Figurenroman,and with the thick of the phenomena. Is there a his-
Raumroman).Kayser's distinctions based on ele- torically definable genre that is exclusively pica-
ments of structure are as broadly conceived as resque? Is there a tradition, a vertical continuum
Scholes's ideal types or modes. Where the modal of works that share specific characteristics?What
perspective focuses on the quality of the fictional we want now is a modal-generic balance, an
world, Kayser's focuses on the structuralnarrative awareness of the concrete work or works both
makeup of that world. The two theories comple- from the larger perspective and from the thick of
ment each other, and the idea of a picaresquemode the phenomena. This modal-generic awareness
is enlarged and qualified by seeing it also from a ought to reconcile the divergent uses of the term
structuralperspective that focuses on its organiza- "picaresque." The concept of a primary fictional
tion. The picaresque mode, I suggest, finds itself mode called "picaresque"can account for both a
expressedbest in the panoramic structure.Smollett historically definable genre and a broader tradi-
provides a convenient example here because he tion that departs from the strict attributes of that
seems to have seen his fictional task from both of genre. A balanced modal-generic approach allows
these perspectives. In his dedication to Ferdinand, a perspective on fiction that is broad enough to
Count Fathomhe says: "A novel is a large diffused recognize the larger fictional mixtures in any par-
picture, comprehending the characters of life, ticular work-"picaresque elements in Don
disposed in different groups, and exhibited in Quijote," for example-and specific enough to ac-
various attitudes, for the purposes of an uniform count for a particular group of works that share
plan, and general occurrence, to which every indi- enough attributes to make them identifiable as
vidual figure is subservient." And in the preface belonging to a particular genre, to which Don
to Roderick Randomhe sees that panoramic world Qui/ote may not belong. What then would be a
also in the modal sense-as a world that is ugly genre type of the picaresque novel? I would sug-
and evil. He claims that Lesage's Gil Blas, because gest the following as a series of characteristics
of the lack of seriousness in the main character, that would define the picaresque genre. These
"prevents that generous indignation which ought attributes should collectively give us what we
to animate the reader, against the sordid and might call the "total picaresque fictional situa-
vicious disposition of the world."9And Cervantes' tion."
Don Quijote-always a seminal book for narrative (1) Dominance of the picaresquefictional mode,
theory-is a good example of mixture. Structur- as definedabove.
ally it combines the characternovel and the pano- (2) The panoramic structure, as defined above.
ramic novel; modally it mixes the romantic Furthermore, the external rhythm of picaresque
quest, the picaresque journey through a tricky narrative is what we might call the Sisyphus
world, the tragic and the sentimental, the comic Rhythm. I quote Guzman: "Y ya en la cumbre
and the satiric. It is in many ways the funnel de mis trabajos, cuando habia de recebir el
through which prenovelistic narrative types filter premio descansando dellos, volvi de nuevo como
into the mixture that will culminate in what we Sisifo a subir la piedra."10Mabbe's version of 1623
call the novel. All previous fictional traditions- expands this, though without violating the sense:
the epic, romance, pastoral, satire, picaresque- "And being come now to the height of all my
are filtered through it, and from it the European labors and paines-taking, and when I was to have
narrativetradition emerges as both a synthesis and received the reward of them, and to take mine
a new breakdown and development of individual ease after all this toyle, the stone rolled down, and
fictional components. I was forced like Sisiphus, to beginne the world
244 The Nature of Picaresque Narrative
anew, and to fall afresh to my work" (Pt. II, Bk. of the protagonist, paralleled by the ironic gap
III, Ch. iv)." Volver de nuevo, or "to beginne the between the social nonstatus of the protagonist
world anew," is the picaro's condition. Subir la and the presumptuous act of writing his auto-
piedra: the Sisyphus Rhythm demands an eternal biography-what Oskar Seidlin calls the dis-
"falling afresh" to the task of survival in the land- crepancy between the lowly picaro and the effron-
scape of the discontinuous, paralleled narratively tery with which he dares to say "I" and tell his
by a continuously dis-continuous (episodic) fic- vida."3The double perspective of the narrating or
tional form. The internalrhythmof the picaresque re-membering "I" and the remembered "I" is a
genre is the rhythm of each separate episode: (a) crucial aspect of the narrativenature of picaresque
a confrontation (self-willed or forced by "fortune" from Apuleius' GoldenAss to Felix Krull and Die
or adversity, the picaro's cosmic scapegoat) out of Blechtrommel.Simplicius tries to balance through
need, (b) some scheme to satisfy that need (if only the re-membering "I" the chaos of experience-as-
for revenge), (c) a complication that endangers the lived by imposing a moral order that he has now
picaro's safety, and (d) the extrication (or the en- found (on the plane of narration) outside that
tanglement if he is caught). Lazarillo's efforts to world (the plane of action) and with which those
get the key from the priest illustrate such a rhythm, experiences clash. Ultimately, and this is a larger
which is basic to the typical episode of picaresque irony, the picaro's first-person narrative is itself a
fiction. It is a simple pattern, tightly organized, "trick," a lure, the fictional analogy of the tricks
with cause-and-effect relationships and a plotted of which his life and the world are composed.'4
beginning, middle, and end, but it is only within The reader-narratorrelationship might be com-
the episode that the picaresque.has such organized pared to that of Chaucer's Pardoner as he ad-
plots; the narrative as a whole is a succession of dresses the pilgrims, but in the picaresque the
such episodic rhythms. The episodes, individually motives are reversed: now the sermon ostensibly
and collectively, illustrate the perpetual rhythm overridesthe trick or sin. The act of telling, at any
of the picaresque, which is continuous dis-inte- rate, is itself a picaresque gesture of self-assertion
gration. by a lowly, insignificant outsider "confessing"
(3) Thefirst-person point of view, which is split himself to the reader by luring him into his world
between an experiencing "I" and a narrating "I" through ostensibly moral designs. First-person
and thus gives us two levels, the plane of narration picaresque can thus be seen as a narrative version
and the plane of action, the difference between (between the picaro and the willing reader "vic-
which is called narrative distance."2 The narrating tim") of the tricks in the picaro's remembered
process itself is thus a crucial part of the fiction. life experiences (between the picaro and his land-
When Guzman says, "Vuelve a nacer mi vida con scape).
la historia" (p. 239), he is connecting the narrative Guillen says that "the absence of the first-
plane with the plane of fictional action. His con- person form prevents a story . . . from being
stant awareness of the narrative act itself is picaresque in the full sense." The picaro's own
repeatedly pointed out: "iOh, valgame Dios! point of view is indispensable in projecting the
iCuando podre acabar comigo no enfadarte, picaresque condition because he can do it from
pues aqui no buscas predicables ni doctrina; sino inside out and from outside in simultaneously.
un entretenimiento de gusto, con que llamar el Even if these two perspectives are separated
sueno y pasar el tiempo! No se con que desculpar temporally, they are combined in the narrative act
tan terrible tentacion, sino con decirte que soy of telling. Genuinely picaresque narrative is, from
como los borrachos, que cuanto dinero ganan todo a formal standpoint, a good deal more subtle and
es para la taberna. No me viene ripio a la mano, ambiguous than earlier critics and literary his-
que no procure aprovecharlo; empero, si te ha torians found it to be, perhaps because in our post-
parecido bein lo dicho, bien esta dicho, si mal, Jamesian awareness of point of view we are more
no lo vuelvas a leer ni pases adelante. Porque son interested in such subtleties and ambiguities. As a
todos montes y por rozar. 0 escribe tu otro tanto, result, the narrative function of autobiographical
que yo te sufrire lo que dijeres" (Pt. II, Bk. II, Ch. and confessional forms has become a significant
ii, p. 446). There is thus irony between the quality subject of critical exploration. There is emphasis
of the events narrated and the narrating attitude not only on the internal function of these forms
 Ulrich Wicks 245
(parodic or otherwise) within particular works mi afrenta, y dije entre mi: <Avis6n, Pablos,
but on the external or historical phenomena as alerta>" (p. 1106). And Guzman: "Empero
well. Francisco Rico, for example, suggests that libreos Dios de hecho es, cuando ya el danio no
Lazarillo de Tormes is in the epistolary tradition: tenga remedio, que forzoso lo habeis de beber y no
Lazaro is writing a letter to the Archpriestjustify- se puede verter. Hice buen animo. Saque fuerzas
ing his life because of the rumors that slander him de flaqueza" (Pt. ii, Bk. I, Ch. viii, p. 429). In this
and his wife. The whole fictional situation thus situation there is an emphasis on simple comedy
depends on what Rico calls el caso; it is because (a social interest: the norm vs. disruption),
of his "case" that Lazaro writes, and it determines though the comic mode is only incidental since it
the selection of incidents he chooses from his life would call for integration, the outsider's accep-
as Lazarillo: "si el caso hacia verosimil que el tance into the normal rhythms of society.
pregonero refiriera su vida, el caso debia presidir (6) A vast gallery of humantypes who appear as
tambien la seleccion y organizacion de los ma- representatives of the landscape. Usually these
teriales autobiograficos. La novela se presentaba, are seen in generalized cross section as satirical
asi, sometida a un punto de vista: del Lazaro portraits: the schoolmaster Cabra in El Buscon;
adulto que protagoniza el caso."'5 the blind man, squire, and priest in Lazarillo de
(4) The protagonist as a picaro, that is, a prag- Tormes.
matic, unprincipled, resilient, solitary figure who (7) Implied parody of other fictional types
just manages to survive in his chaotic landscape, (romance) and of the picaresque itself. First, the
but who, in the ups and downs, can also put that historical development of picaresque is partly a
world very much on the defensive. The picaro is a reaction to romance, a commonly accepted fact
protean figure who can not only serve many in literary history even before Chandler's aptly
masters but play different roles, and his essential titled Romances of Roguery (1899). Historically,
characteristic is his inconstancy-of life roles, of picaresque was an alternative to romance and
self-identity-his own personality flux in the face pastoral.'7 Second, the picaresque fictional world
of an inconstant world. Paradoxically, nothing is often parodies the social norm and ideal har-
more constant than inconstancy itself: "Also mony as well by including within itself anti-
ward ich beyzeiten gewahr," says Simplicissimus, societies of rogues, which are more highly struc-
"daI3 nichts bestandigers in der Welt ist, als die tured than society at large (and thus, parody of
Unbestandigkeit selbsten" (Bk. iII, Ch. viii).'6 comedy). In The English Rogue (II, 15), in Guzman
Wrote Edw. Burton to the translator, "Would de Alfarache (Pt. i, Bk. II, Ch. ii), in Cervantes'
any man see Proteus?" in Part II of Mabbe's "Rinconete y Cortadillo," in La desordenada
version of Guzmdn: "Guzman is all the World; codicia de los bienes ajenos, and in Die Blech-
know him alone / And then yee know a Multitude trommel(the "Dusters"), for example, such anti-
in One" (The Rogue, in, 19). Through experience, societies exist. Finally, there is an awarenessof the
too, the picaro develops a kind of internal gyro- picaresque itself as a tradition, and this aware-
scope, what might be called a "picaresque equi- ness may be either internal (within the fiction) or
librium"-yet another paradox, as the inside- external (the author's stated intent): Guzman
outside situation of the picaro socially is one. moves to another work and becomes Justina's
(5) The picaro-landscape relationship, the es- husband, Gines de Pasamonte is compared to
sential situation to which each of the numerous Lazarillo, Guzman is mentioned in "La ilustre
episodes can be reduced. Our attention here is fregona," Estebanillo Gonzalez claims to be
focused on the individual's interaction with writing a "history" which is neither "la fingida
society, a basic novelistic situation. Each incident de Guzman de Alfarache, ni la fabulosa de
of picaresque fiction moves from exclusion to Lazarillo de Tormes" (p. 1721), Jonathan Wild's
attempted inclusion and back to exclusion: out- favorite book is The Spanish Rogue (that is,
side-inside-outside. Lazarillo's solo soy is an Guzman), Head and Kirkman write The English
awareness of this basic situation or condition: Rogue, Lesage adapts the Spanish fiction, Smollett
"Verdad dice este, que me cumple avivar el ojo y imitates Lesage, Grimmelshausen'sCourage writes
avisar, pues solo soy, y pensar como me sepa "trutz Simplex," in 1822 we have Der deutscheGil
valer"(p. 86). Pablos: "Rieronlatodos; dobloseme Blas (introduced by Goethe), Pito Perez sees him-
246 The Nature of Picaresque Narrative
self as a Periquillo or a Gil Bias, Hans Schmetter- Survival," which is a theme that grows primarily
ling in Kern's Le Clown meets Felix Krull and is out of the fiction or narrated material rather than
himself referred to as "our Simplicissimus," and out of the commentary in the narrating process.
Thomas Mann himself connected Felix Krull Hunger is what Lazarillo's life is all about. After
with the picaresque tradition. he has been with the impoverished squire for
(8) Certain basic themes and motifs. Picaresque several days and received nothing to eat, he is
fiction, because it does not give a structuredvision sent out one day with money to buy food. Along
of life, tends to be basically antiphilosophical the way he encounters a funeral procession, with
and antithematic because it focuses on details, on a woman wailing: "Marido y seniormio: iadonde
surfaces, on fragments, and on discontinuous and os me llevan? iA la casa triste y desdichada, a la
fleeting experiences and reactions. We need to casa lobrega y oscura, a la casa donde nunca
point out here again, as we did briefly in (3) comen ni beben!" (p. 102). Lazarillo, of course,
above, the importance of narrative distance. A interpretsthe woman's words in terms of his own
typical picaresque theme is "Vanity, or Moral desperate situation, and he tells the escuderothat
Survival," and it tends to be (as it is in Guzmdn they are bringing a body to his house. This inci-
and Simplicissimus) superimposed on the fiction dent is a good example of how a fundamental
by being emphasized in the narrativeact of telling. picaresque theme can be meaningfully portrayed
There is, therefore, a tension between what is in the particularityof a concrete incident. Guzman
narrated and the narrating attitude of the teller: de Alfarache observes on one desperate occasion:
the conceptual intent is soon partly negated by "Bueno es tener padre, bueno es tener madre;
the obvious relish with which the picaro-narrator pero el comer todo lo rapa" (p. 296).
launches into the hurly-burly of his life's experi- Some picaresque motifs are (a) THE MOTIF OF
ences, and he is thus working against his ostensible UNUSUAL BIRTH OR CHILDHOOD. The circum-
purpose by dwelling on the very things that his stances surroundingthe picaro's entrance into the
narrative is intended to prove worthless. Another world are often unusual and thus they are omens
picaresque theme is "Freedom," which is partly of a sort, prefiguringhis later entrance or "birth"
an exploration of the paradox of entrapment in into a picaresque world and way of life. The picaro
freedom. The picaro is freed, usually by necessity, in Reuter's Schelmuffskyhas complete knowledge
from the confines of ordinary social life, and he when he is born, and this motif is repeated by
roams the landscape; this is paralleled on the Grass in Die Blechtrommel.Roderick Random's
narrative plane by his desire to "free" himself mother has a strange dream before giving birth.
from his life by turning it into art. The freedom of Jonathan Wild makes his appearance in the world
the picaro is imposed on him, though he learns to on the very day that a plague breaks out, and his
relish it, and he is actually trapped in freedom, or, mother had earlier dreamed that she was enjoyed
to put it another way, the chaos the picaro dis- in the night by the gods Mercury and Priapus.
covers in freedom paradoxically traps him in his Lizardi's Periquillo blames a succession of nurses
own freedom. Guzman, though he is as quick as for his bad character. Simplicissimusdoesn't even
any picaro to blame his lot on "fortune" or on know the circumstances of his birth until much
what he calls (in Mabbe's version) his "squint- later in life, and in early childhood he was witness
eyed Starre," realizes nevertheless the paradox of to a horrible assault on his family. Guzman in
his freedom: "Algunos ignorantes dicen: <iAh telling about his birth enters into prenatal details
senor!, al fin habia de ser y lo que ha de ser con- and, like Grass's Oskar, he has two fathers.
viene que sea.? Hermano mio, mal sientes de la Lazarillo is born on the river. (b) THE TRICK
verdad, que ni ha de ser ni conviene ser; tu lo MOTIF. Tricks in their infinitely variable forms
haces ser y convenir. Libre albedrio te dieron con play a large part in the picaro's world and his
que te gobernases. La estrella no te fuerza ni todo situation in it, what we have called the picaro-
el cielo junto con cuantas tiene te puede forzar; landscape relationship. Tricks tend to serve as
tii te fuerzas a dejar lo bueno y te esfuerzas en initiation rites to the world of chaos, but what
lo malo, siguiendo tus deshonestidades, de donde begins as initiation is soon converted by the picaro
resultan tus calamidades" (pp. 373-74). Another into initiative. After Lazarillo gets his head banged
picaresquetheme is "Hunger, or PrimitivePhysical against the stone bull by his blind master, he soon
 UlrichWicks 247
"sees" and learns how to pay him back in kind. when we are shocked into the realization that the
(c) THE ROLE-PLAYINGMOTIF. Metamorphoses and pie being eaten is probably filled with the flesh
changing roles are part of the picaro's survival kit of Pablos' recently executed father. In La
-as the world is in flux, so he can change roles to picara Justinathe picara's mother dies by choking
face it. Picaresque life is a constant change of on an enormous black sausage. In Cela's Pascual
masks on the world-as-stage. "Lo que hoy da, Duarte Pascual's little brother has his ears bitten
quita maniana," says Guzman. "No sabe asegu- off by a hog and later dies by falling into an oil
rarse: es la resaca de la mar. Traenos rodando y vat, an image that suggests some grotesque fetus,
volteando, hasta dejarnos una vez en seco en los birth, and death in one. In Grimmelshausen's
margenes de la muerte, de donde jamas vuelve a Courage a dead man's frozen legs are chopped
cobrarnos, y en cuanto vivimos, obligandonos off in order to steal the pants. Pito Perez lives
como a representantes, a estudiar papeles y cosas with a human skeleton and sleeps with it as his
nuevas que salir a representar en el tablado del wife. Periquillo digs up the body of a woman so
mundo" (Pt. I, Bk. II, Ch. vii, p. 320). Quevedo's he can rob it of its jewels. The blind man shoves
Pablos plays roles constantly and at one point his long and pointed nose down Lazarillo's throat
even "impersonates" himself. Simplicissimusfinds until he vomits. Any incident in GuiinterGrass
himself dressed in a jester's outfit, and later he is would do. A primary function of grotesque motifs
told that the foolish world wants to be fooled in picaresque fiction-and the catalog could go
(II, 8). His adventures in Paris as "Beau Alman" on-is to arouse some kind of shocked response
(Iv, 3) foreshadow the much more sophisticated from us, to pummel us into an awareness and
metamorphoses of his descendant Felix Krull, for reaction to the nightmare world of chaos, a de-
whom the vertical journeys in an elevator cage in cidedly blacker world than the disrupted norm of
a cosmopolitan hotel replace the horizontal comedy. (e) THE EJECTIONMOTIF. Reuter's Schel-
journeys of the traditional picaro. Grimmels- muffsky finds himself outside the city gate after
hausen's Courage poses as a boy, Smollett's embarking on his longed-for wanderings, and he
Ferdinand as a count, Lizardi's Periquillo and is almost immediately struck by a sense of loom-
Lesage's Gil Bias as doctors, Meriton Latroon ing danger, a chaotic world to which he will have
as a girl in a boarding school. Schelmuffskyposes to adapt. Lazarillo is similarly ejected from his
as an aristocrat and, like Felix Krull (also his home. Eichendorff's Taugenichts is simply turned
descendant), keeps looking narcissistically at his loose by his family. And Guzman cannot believe,
own narrative mirror image. The picaro is as on first entering it, that the world cannot be en-
illusory and as illusive as the very illusory world compassed in a glance, just as Simplicissimus is
he confronts. Role-playing is one of his essential ejected into the world as an incredibly blank slate.
tools in that world, and it is part of what Stuart Periquillo is aware, on facing the world for the
Miller has called his "protean form." "There is no first time, that he has left the asylum of innocence
part the picaro will not play. ... He assumes behind him. Kafka's Karl Rossmann in Amerika
whatever appearance the world forces on him, is cast out by his family, "einfach beiseitegeschafft
and this a-personality is typical of the picaresque worden," says the Uncle, "wie man eine Katze
world, in which appearance and reality constant- vor die Tur wirft, wenn sie argert." "I was, as it
ly mingle, making definition and order disap- were, turn'd out of doors to the wide world," says
pear. . . . The picaro is every man he has to be, Moll Flanders at fourteen, near the beginning of
and therefore no man."'8 The very ability of the her vida. Ejection is the picaro's second "birth"-
picaro to perform in as many jobs as he does and it comes immediately before the world's first trick
to play as many tricks as he can resides in this on him and is thus a kind of initiation shock.
large repertoire of many masks. He is not only We are now in the thick of the works themselves,
the "servant of many masters" but the master of and the discriminations of genre study demand
many masks. (d) THE GROTESQUEOR HORRIBLE that characteristics such as these be refined and
INCIDENT. Picaresque fiction may often compress tested until they describe a specific body of works
the blackness and horror of the debased world into that are enough like one another to be called
one specific and very particularized incident. the picaresquegenre. In addition to the work by
The meat-pie episode in El Buscon is an example, Guillen already mentioned, there are two signifi-
248 The Nature of Picaresque Narrative
cant genre studies that move in this direction. istics out. A modal approach, it seems to me,
One is Stuart Miller's The PicaresqueNovel, which should avoid both extremes in a continuing
tries to construct an "ideal genre type" showing process of refinement and discrimination, moving
how certain formal devices unite to produce a from the widest possible perspective and narrow-
specific picaresque content and emotional re- ing down, or beginning with the thick of the phe-
sponse. The other is Alexander A. Parker'sLitera- nomena and opening out. Modal theory should
tureand the Delinquent,a polemical book which re- not concern itself with inclusion or exclusion ac-
jects most of the commonplace assumptions about cording to rigid rules, nor should it play the tiring
the picaresque deriving from Chandler. Parker game of pigeonholing. In all this our aim is to see
argues that the picaresque novel has its origins "in and understand a genre, a tradition, and to see it
the movement of religious reform" and arises "as both vertically and horizontally. A balanced
an exposition of the theme of freedom, including modal-generic approach is both inductive and
the concept of moral freedom." The fictional ex- deductive, but its single aim is to generate ap-
ploration of "delinquency" constitutes for Parker propriate responses to a specific work (say,
the main picaresque tradition.19Neither Miller nor Ellison's Invisible Man)-in other words, to be
Parker accepts a concept of the picaresque in the useful in our experience of fiction, which is what
wider sense with which I began here, thus leaving a literary term or idea should be first of all.20
them with a genre comprised of very few specific
works. Moreover, Miller excludes historical and Universityof Maine
social backgrounds, and Parker focuses on them Orono
so much that he leaves other important character-

Notes
1 "PicarescoRomances," The SouthernReview,2 (July See my bibliographicalsurvey, "Picaro, Picaresque:The
1867), 170. Picaresquein LiteraryScholarship,"Genre,5 (1972), 153-
2 The English Novel: A SlhortCritical History (New York: 216.
Dutton, 1954), p. 18. 6 "Towarda Definitionof the Picaresque,"in his Litera-
3 (Cambridge,Mass.: HarvardUniv. Press, 1964), p. ix. ture as System: Essays toward the Theory of Literary History
4 "The Idea of the Picaresque,"Yearbook of Comparative (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1971), pp. 71-106.
and General Literature, 16 (1967), 43-52; and "The Failing This is a revised and expanded version of the paper that
Center: Recent Fiction and the Picaresque Tradition," appeared in Proceedings of the HIrdCongress of the Inter-
Novel,3(1969), 62-69. Seealso PhilipL. Gerberand Robert national Comparative Literature Association (The Hague:
J. Gemmett, "Picaresqueand Modern Literature:A Con- Mouton, 1962), pp. 252--66.Guillen's approach is some-
versationwith W. M. Frohock," Genre, 3 (1970), 187-97. what similar to mine here, though we name significantly
5 See, respectively, Helmut Gunther, "Der ewige Sim- different characteristics.Compare his concept of "pica-
plizissimus: Gestalt und Wandlungen des deutschen resquemyth"with the idea of mode offeredhere.
Schelmenromans," Welt und Wort, 10 (1955), 1-5; D. J. 7 "Towardsa Poetics of Fiction: An Approachthrough
Dooley, "Some Uses and Mutations of the Picaresque," Genre," Novel, 2 (1969), 101-11.
The Dalhousie Review, 37 (1957-58), 363-77; J. Praag- 8 Das sprachliche Kunstwerk: Eine Einfiihrung in die

Chantraine,"Chroniquedes lettres espagnoles: Actualite Literaturwissenschaft, 11th ed. (Bern: Francke Verlag,
du roman picaresque," Synthesis, 14 (1959), 121-33; 1965), pp. 356-65.
R. W. B. Lewis, The Picaresque Saint: Representative 9 Eighteenth-Century British Novelists on the Novel, ed.
Figures in Contemporary Fiction (Philadelphia:Lippincott, GeorgeL. Barnett(New York: Appleton, 1968),pp. 65, 62.
1959);Alter, Rogue'sProgress;Willy Schumann,"Wieder- 10I quote from the most accessible edition of Spanish
kehr der Schelme," PMLA, 81 (1966), 467-74; Wilfried picaresque fiction, La novela picaresca espanola, ed. Angel
van der Will, Pikaro heute: Metamorphosen des Schelms bei Valbuenay Prat, 6th ed. (Madrid: Aguilar, 1968), p. 539.
Thomas Mann, Doblin, Brecht, Grass (Stuttgart: W. Kohl- Subsequentquotations from the Spanish works are indi-
hammer, 1967); R. M. Alberes, "Renaissancedu roman cated (where necessary)by part, book, and chapter, fol-
picaresque,"Revuede Paris, 15 (1968), 46-53; and Bruno lowed by a pagereferenceto this anthology.
Schleussner, Der neopikareske Roman: Pikareske Elemente 11 The Rogue, or The Life of Guzmdn de Alfarache, trans.
in der Struktur moderner englischer Romane 1950-1960 James Mabbe, 4 vols. (New York: Knopf, 1924), iv, 220.
(Bonn: H. Bouvier, 1969). There is a substantial and 12 These termsare explainedin BertilRomberg'sStudies
growing bibliographyon the picaresqueand it is beyond in the Narrative Technique of the First-Person Novel, trans.
the scope of this paper to acknowledgea good deal of it. Michael Taylor and Harold H. Borland (Stockholm:
 Ulrich Wicks 249
Almqvist & Wiksell, 1962), pp. 3-32, 95-117, et passim. kendes Wort, 10 (1960), 215-20; and Peter Baumanns,
See also Kate Friedemann, Die Rolle des Erzahlers in der "Der Lazarillode Tormes,eine TravestiederAugustinischen
Epik (Berlin: H. Haessel, 1910; rpt. Darmstadt: Wissen- Confessiones ?" Romanistisches Jahrbuclh,10 (1959), 285-91.
schaftlicheBuchgesellschaft,1965). 16 Grimmelshausen, Der abenthleuerliche Simplicissi-
13"PicaresqueElements in Thomas Mann's Work," mus ..., in Neudrucke deutscher Litteraturwerke des xvI.
Modern Language Quarterly, 12 (1951), 183-200. und xvII. Jahrlhunderts,No. 19-25 (Halle: Max Niemeyer,
14See Robert B. Heilman, "Variations on Picaresque 1902), p. 223.
(Felix Krull)," Sewanree Review, 46 (1958), 547-77. Com- 17 Guillen'sconcept of "countergenre"
is pertinenthere;
pare Andre Jolles's theory of vicarious escape via "play" see his "Genre and Countergenre:The Discovery of the
into fictional worlds above, below, and outside the social Picaresque," in Literature as System, pp. 135-58, 74, 97.
norm (romance, pastoral, and picaresque, respectively): 18 The Picaresque Novel (Cleveland: Case Western
"Die literarischen Travestien: Ritter-Hirt-Schelm" ReserveUniv. Press, 1967),pp. 70-71.
[1931], in Pikarische Welt: Schriften zum europaischen 19 Literature and the Delinquent: ThlePicaresque Novel in
Schelmenroman,ed. Helmut Heidenreich (Darmstadt: Spain and Europe 1599-1753 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ.
WissenschaftlicheBuchgesellschaft,1969), pp. 101-18. Press, 1967),pp. 23, 14, 136-37. In this connectionsee also
15 La novela picaresca y el punto de vista (Barcelona: Hans Gerd Rotzer, Picaro-Landstortzer-Simplicius:
Editorial Seix Barral, 1970), p. 36. Some other studies of Studien zum niederen Roman in Spanien urndDeutschland
first-personnarrativein the picaresqueare: Hans Robert (Darmstadt: WissenschaftlicheBuchgesellschaft,1972).
Jauss,"Ursprungund BedeutungderIch-Formim Lazarillo 20 This paper was delivered at a symposium on "The
de Tormes," Romanistisches Jahrbuch, 8 (1957), 290-311; Picaresque Novel" at Syracuse Univ., 30 April-1 May
Lothar Schmidt, "Das Ich im 'Simplicissimus,'" Wir- 1971. I have made some minorrevisions.