The ingenious gentleman José Bastida. Echoes of Cervantes in the work of Gonzalo Torrente Ballester

Abstract

GonzaloTorrente Ballester (1910-1999) has declared himself a dis-ciple of Cervantes in his concept of novelistic creation. The article traces this heritage in Torrente's theoretical texts (especially El Quijote como juego, 1975) and in his master novel, La saga/fuga de J. B. (1974).

We focus on the ludic aspect of the genre of the novel, on the protagonist José Bastida (who shows similarities with Cervantes' character) and on the presence of humour and myth in Torrente Ballester's works.

Keywords

• Torrente Ballester
• Cervantes
• novel
• game
• myth
• humour
• language