ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces to Cervantine criticism through an 1960 essay by Américo Castro that begins with the following words: The Quixote continues to be a marvel. The ideological disenchantment of the Spanish exiled emigre was taken up and adapted by academics who were witnessing the beginning of the end of the era of American liberalism associated with organized labor and big government. The ideological disenchantment of the Spanish exiled emigre was taken up and adapted by academics who were witnessing the beginning of the end of the era of American liberalism associated with organized labor and big government. Admittedly some of the voices crying for relevance come from the political right and have been inspired by a hostility toward postmodernism that is matched only by its incomprehension of its arguments. The second generation of feminist criticism in particular has begun to ask whether Cervantes's subversion of patriarchy was as complete or unequivocal as had sometimes been claimed.
