Cervantes, Technology, and the Novel

Cervantes’s representation of technology not only documents the cultural dynamics of the transition between medieval scholasticism and early modern empiricism in Spain but also celebrates the agency of the individual to effect change in the world. Machines in Don Quixote often function as the would-be knight’s nemesis, playing a role in foiling his quest to revive a mythical, pre-technological Golden Age. They also appear as ingenious devices that straddle the border between magic and engineering in a modern expression of human creativity and ingenuity. For Cervantes and his characters, technology is not just about machines, but about the human desire to reverse power structures and exercise agency. Cory A. Reed, a specialist in early modern Spanish literature, analyzes how Cervantes’s aesthetic of instrumentality encourages his reader to engage critically with the world in a time of cultural transformation. Cervantes, Technology, and the Novel thus demonstrates how Don Quixote becomes an instrument of enlightenment achieved through imagination.