ABSTRACT
Guzmán de Alfarache's grudging acknowledgment of self-interest as the only basis for interpersonal relations in the picaresque implies a radical reordering of the classical schema for friendship in which utilitarianism is the mark of an inferior form of companionship. The connection between Sayavedra and the author of the spurious second part of Guzmán de Alfarache has also been made by Donald McGrady and Eric J. Kartchner. The close alignment between Guzmán's denial of any emotional attachment to his former friend and the reassertion of the discursive norm of engaño reflects, once again, the implicit poetic structure of the picaresque engagement with the emerging early modern split between public and private life. Finally, the tension between private friendship and public anonymity that emerges in Guzmán's one true friendship also intersects with the poetic structure of the picaresque and its peculiar response to Renaissance imitatio.
