Date of publication: 1554; 4 editions: Burgos, Alcalá de Henares, Amberes, Medina del Campo
Autor:
anonymous
Structure:
Prologue and seven chapters (tratados); circular and united by the 'matter' (“caso”)
Style:
pseudo-autobiographical (narrated in first person); mimetic (realism) allegiance
to reality; black humour; use of asides; irony
Narrator:
first person; duality Lazarillo/Lázaro; and anti-heroe
Themes:
hunger (principle motive); honor (the squire); religion, society
Realismo:
critical vision of society of the epoch of Charles V (beggars, nobility, clergy)
Folklore:
episodes with the blind man
Characteristics of a picaro: marginal figure without a sense of honor; orphan; serves many masters; lives by his wits and cleverness; contrast with the heroes of the books of chivalry in vogue at the time such as Amadís de Gaula, an anti-heroe; the story of the development/education of the protagonist into adulthood; a reflection, retrospective view of his life; a histor, observer
Problems
of defining the picaresque genre:
How to define it? By structure and narrator/protagonist in first person?
Consists of loosely bound episodes