The Purpose of Literature

In the first of Cascales's Tablas poéticas (1617), the character Pierio enquires as to 'the purpose of poetry in a general sense', to which Castalio replies: 'to cause pleasure through imitation'. ¹ Such a laconic response, which adds the Aristotelian criterion of mimesis to the Horatian docere et delectare, encapsulates in great measure Spanish literary reflection and creativity during the seventeenth century. Authors of treatises and other writers who commented on Horace's known hexameters ² did not posit a true opposition between teaching and pleasure, because their chief aim was to make these two objectives compatible, even when one overshadowed the other. ³ Of the treatise writers we might recall that El Pinciano stressed in Philosophía antigua poética (1596) the educational nature of literature, whereas Alfonso Carvallo in Cisne de Apolo (1602) emphasized its playful aspect, although neither reduced literature to a single facet or dimension. With regard to other writers, many claimed that their works contained some element of instruction, as is the case in a variety of picaresque narratives and works in the vein of La Celestina, whereas in fact some of these exhibit no perceptible educational purpose. Other writers, without offering any specifics, encouraged their readers to search for hidden meanings. ⁴ In sum, a flexible criterion prevailed in both theory and practice.