This study analyses the Angolan writer Pepetela's novel O Tímido e as Mulheres (2013) as a mock epic satirizing the prospects of the offspring of the MPLA revolutionaries who fought for, and won, Angolan independence in 1975. The analysis emphasizes the influence of globalization in elevating the capital, Luanda, into a metonymical stand-in for the nation. This study traces Pepetela's use of satirical allusions to Homer's Iliad to comment on the fates of different strata of Luanda society through the metaphor of 'defending the city'.

A striking aspect of the Baroque imagination was its fondness for architectural motifs. A multitude of religious, philosophical, and technical works were configured as imaginary theatres, fortresses, courts, temples, hospitals, or plazas; others masqueraded as descriptions of real cathedrals, palaces, or cities, but moralized the buildings as hieroglyphs of divine wisdom or regal power; while literary works made abundant use of architectural allegories to embody ideas (Saavedra Fajardo's city of ink, Gracián's museum of knowledge, Quevedo's ruined castle of desengaño, etc.). This article traces how the patently 'constructed' nature of such metaphysical conceits sprang from the world-view of melancholy desengaño.

This article analyses Ariosto's innovation of the topos of the descriptio puellae—description of the woman according to a stereotyped set of attributes—in his Rime. In particular, I highlight the following points: the unusual presence of 'canonic' elements in descriptions of the nude form; the poet's attention to the description of clothes and hairstyles; and the presence of an ‘interior canon’ regarding psychological and intellectual qualities. I investigate the role played by Ariosto's literary culture in developing each of these aspects, particularly focusing on intertextual borrowings from Latin poetry and echoes of contemporary treatises on woman.

Written more or less concurrently, Niebla and Del sentimiento trágico de la vida had long gestations before publication. Given Unamuno's preoccupations at the time with mortality, it is scarcely surprising that the fiction and the treatise should share ideas on the Cartesian body/soul dichotomy. Indeed, the novel could be seen as light relief from the immersion into the anguished self-exploration of the philosophico-religious tract. This article explores one important influence on the philosophical work, in both acknowledged and unacknowledged form, and argues that this influence is detectable too in the famous fictional biography of Unamuno's tragicomic character, Augusto Pérez.

Article published in Modern Language Review in January 2020, available at: https://doi.org/10.5699/modelangrevi.115.1.0017.