11
Bandera observes, «Interrumpir la narración no es otra cosa que introducir en ella una perspectiva distinta de la del narrador... Disuelve, por así decir, la objetividad de los acontecimientos narrados, desposeyendo así de toda apoyatura externa al sujeto que se define a través de ellos»
(86).
12
«Essentially the art of pastoral is the art of the backward glance, and Arcadia from its creation the product of wistful and melancholy longing. The pastoral poet reverses the process (and the "progress") of history»
(Marinelli 9-10).
It is interesting to consider Cervantes' technique of bringing the narrative past into direct contact with the narrative present in the context of Christian morality and the use of pastoral fiction as a didactic device. By means of that technique, he presents a system of rewards and punishments in which «justice» is sometimes accomplished (Rosaura), and sometimes apparently not (Teolinda). Of course, the problem with judging these characters and their situations is that the Galatea is an unfinished book.
13
Berganza's shepherds spend the day «espulgándose o remendando sus abarcas», among other things. See «El coloquio de los perros», 308-309.
14
Avalle-Arce refers to the uncomfortable combination of poetic and historic elements in the Galatea as «este enorme movimiento pendular que abraza intencionalmente aspectos tan distintos de la realidad literaria»
(XXVHI).