Cervantes in Transit: Studies in Honor of Francisco Layna Ranz

Cervantes in Transit explores how Cervantes’s texts embody movement, transformation, and boundary-crossing across multiple dimensions. Theorizing Cervantes as a figure at once of transit and in transit, the volume argues that the diverse and often disparate array of Cervantine interpretations is not simply a byproduct of modernity, but an inherent component of the author’s own writing. Cervantes transgressed boundaries of all sorts—mixing genres, blurring fiction and reality, and moving characters into paratextual spaces. The concept of transit encompasses both physical movement between places and fundamental change or metamorphosis, reflecting how Cervantes’s writing has traveled through temporal, geographical, and conceptual spaces while continuously transforming. The volume’s thirteen chapters explore five thematic clusters: “Impressions” examines material book history and paratextual borders; “Identities” analyzes racial, religious, gender, and class transgressions; “Ironies” considers humor as a boundary-crossing mode; “Influences” traces Cervantes’s engagement with literary traditions; and “Itineraries” maps geographical circulation and global networks.