Analysis of Quevedo’s Didactic Prose
Consistency and Cohesion in Texts
Consistency
Consistency, a fundamental property of texts, ensures a coherent whole. A text’s assumptions are implicit propositions—information the sender presumes the receiver knows. Additional information constitutes the text’s implications. Consistency relies on the organization and distribution of information, encompassing the quantity, quality, and structure of the content.
Cohesion
Cohesion involves cross-references within a text or its communicative context. Deixis signals the “who,” “where,” and “when” of the text through personal, spatial, and temporal deixis, respectively. Mechanisms include personal pronouns, possessives, demonstratives, adverbs of place and time. Replacement involves substituting one element for another, while ellipsis omits an element. Isotopy is the repetition of linked linguistic units based on form or meaning.
Markers
Markers are linguistic units appearing incidentally in sentences without syntactic function. These include:
- Connectors: Link parts of the text.
- Argumentative Operators: Indicate the status, meaning, and argumentative possibilities of the text.
- Information Structures: Show the organization of information.
- Redesigning Markers: Rephrase a text segment for clarity.
- Conversational Markers: Common in conversations.
Connectors link parts of the text, establishing relationships between segments. Fitness refers to adhering to rules related to the recipient, subject, and situation, influencing text formation.
Quevedo’s Didactic Prose: Dreams (1627/1631)
Published in 1627 and later in a revised 1631 edition titled Children’s Toys, Dreams satirizes social groups and individuals exemplifying misconduct.
Key Sections:
- Dream of the Last Judgement: Characters representing social classes face resurrection and judgment.
- The Sheriff Possessed: A dialogue between the narrator and a devil inhabiting a sheriff’s body, describing hell’s inhabitants and punishments.
- Dream of Hell: Two paths diverge—virtue’s thorny path and sin’s pleasurable but damning route.
- The World on the Inside: Personified disillusionment guides the author through streets of hypocrisy, revealing a deceptive world.
- Dream of Death: [Content not provided]