Katherine L. Brown, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish
Albright College
About the speaker
Katherine Brown is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Albright College. She received a Ph.D. in Spanish in 2019 from Yale University, where her research combined architectural history and philology to examine the narrative functions of architecture in the works of Miguel de Cervantes. Dr. Brown has published articles on topics such as Cervantes, Borges, and the Libro de buen amor, and she is currently working on her first book project, which expands upon her doctoral research.
Divine Architecture and Cosmological Chaos: Decentering the Human in Cervantes’ Persiles
This paper examines the role of architectural discourse in the articulation of early modern debates concerning the nature of the cosmos and the place of humanity in Cervantes’ Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda. Cervantes simultaneously alludes to topical notions of God as an architect who “built” the earth according to rational principles, and to an architecturalized yet disorderly cosmos (and earth) whose ambiguous, chaotic structure inhibits the pilgrims’ progress toward Rome, presented as a distorted reflection of heaven. Considering both the Copernican framework that reoriented the structure of the cosmos and the Vitruvian anthropomorphism inherent in Renaissance architectural theory, I argue that the discrepancy between the rational language of divine architecture and precariously structured settings acknowledges the gradual undermining of humanity’s central place in the universe. I thereby demonstrate Cervantes’ reinterpretation of the Byzantine romance in light of early modern uncertainty surrounding the nature and agency of humanity.
Links to materials related to the presentation
Biblical metaphors related to architecture: https://www.academia.edu/23951498/_Construyendo_la_casa_de_Dios_La_metáfora_arquitectónica_y_El_Arca_M%C3%ADstica_Codex_Aquilarensis_Revista_de_arte_medieval_31_2015_47_67
Image depicting God as architect (from the Bible moralisée, France, 13th century)