Resumen de Picaresca

Ismail El Outmani

• According to the predominant definition, picaresque literature is basically an autobiographical novel in which the narrator-pícaro relates his adventurous life-story. This paper sustains that picaresque literature does not conform to a concrete permanent form or to a fixed set of themes ; nor does it depend upon the sheer presence of the �pícaro�. Therefore, we should not attribute the term �picaresque� to every text with a �pícaro�, or the term �novel� to every text called �picaresque�. A picaresque text responds primarily to the ideaological strategy sustaining it. My (hypo-)thesis is that the �pícaro� is a mask, and the �picaresque� part of �subversive� literature.