Aspectes del «realisme tècnic» i del «no-detallisme» al "Tirant lo Blanc"

Abstract

Particularly through Dámaso Alonso and Mario Vargas Llosa, the "modern" realism of Tirant has been emphasized since the early 1950s, for example in the technical descriptions of siege and defensive operations. A particular example is the nocturnal action described in Chapter 106, by which those besieged in Rhodes set fire to the lead ship of the Genoese fleet, thus achieving the breaking of the siege. Alonso and also Martí de Riquer had praised the complete accuracy of this action’s description. A close reading of the Catalan text (and a comparison with the English as well as the German, Dutch and Italian translations), however, reveals a fundamental incongruity as well as a number of processes left in "indeterminacy". The question to be ask in this context –beyond a possibly corrupted manuscript template for the editio princeps of 1490– is how far authors and readers in the 15th century were used to and demanded the absolute exhaustiveness of detail in such a description.