Abstract:
This dissertation thesis has investigated the relations that have connected the meaning of reading
and the sense of religiosity in Dom Quixote de La Mancha, one of the novels founders of the
modern literature, by Miguel de Cervantes. The first part, beyond demonstrating that reading is a
constitutive element for Cervantes work, has analyzed reading in its multiple dimensions,
considering it as a social practice that has developed historically and has been effective
differently in the public sphere (oral reading) and in the private one (silent reading). The second
part has presented a reconstruction of Cervantes course for creating the novel, taking as
reference the religiosity question. When regarding socio-historical and biographic elements, they
have demonstrated how Cervantes incorporated, in his text, a critic to the ecclesial mentality and
the place in which his book was written, especially discussing the problems of origin and
belonging of Quixote to the only religious tradition. The third part has analyzed the relation
between orality and public reading, especially concerning Cervantes figures, the cure and
Sancho Pança, as representatives of the conception of the world living the oral tradition.
Moreover, Sancho represents the produced knowledge, preserved and transmitted by the oral
culture, and, in this tradition, religiousness has expressed genuinely; however, in the case of the
cure, representative of oral reading, the religiosity is represented through an institutionalized way,
since he must transmit beliefs and dogmas of the catholic doctrine. The fourth and last part has
indicated how silent reading has constituted in Dom Quixote a practice which is valid for
justifying the contemplative life, promoting the defense of Christian values. Thus, once silent
reading provides more intimacy with the texts, it makes also possible some plurality of
interpretations, and, many times, conflicting ones. Quixote interpreted his readings in a very
particular means, and, in the same way, lived his religiosity. Therefore, it seems that, for Quixote,
reading the novels of chivalry allowed him to find Christian virtues, as well as to exalt them, not
only in his words, but also in his actions. In this investigation, it follows that, in Dom Quixote de
La Mancha, the relation between religiosity and reading is reciprocally constitutive.
