The Iconology of Gender II. [antikvár]

Molán Katalin PÍCARA, PÍCARO, AND MOLL FLANDERS This paper would like to reveal the presence of certain iconographic traditions in the picaresque növel.' Firsdy, this will entail exploring the emblematic tradition related to the male and female social states and the systems of motifs connected to them. Secondly, how these elements and their configurations are varied and the role played by this process in changing the genre will be investigated. Spanish seventeenth century picaresque novels are the starting pointof the analysis, but Defoe's MollFlanders, a late variation of the originál Spanish picaresque pattern will receive particular attention. THE AGE OF A PÍCARA A special dichotomous scheme of society as the central organising structure is asserted in the genre of the classical Spanish picaresque növel. A hero or heroine can belong to only one of two categories. Two female types can be differentiated according to the age and profession of the character - either the old pícara who practises as a matchmaker and sorceress, or the young and beautiful one who plays the whore. Parallel to this are the male types - either the aged picaro who, if he has been successful in life, lives off the proceeds earned marketing his partner's body, or the young picaro who starts out as a servant. Both male and female protagonists' paths through life consist of a number of iterative adventures which are in keeping with their social status. However, there is a fundamental difference between the sexes in the nature of what they are allowed to experience. The borders confining two male picaresque types are not so hermetically closed as are those of female types. Evidence of this different permeability is recognisable in the fact that certain patterns of actions or adventure can be experienced by both young and old men, e.g. playing cards or gambling. Sometimes the young picaro is even permitted to grow up and his old age is alsó deseribed in the narrative.2 However, the woman's roles are determined even in the underworld. The rigid delineation of the pícara does not tolerate any transirion unless this be in a cited narraüon within the növel. The heroines never cross the bordér of their social state even if the context would allow them to. The narrative never goes so far as to allow a young type to become old in a natural way. She must end on the gallows beforehand. It is clear that the picaresque növel provides a universal system of images for the pícara , but for pícaros the situation is completely different.