Tradición e innovación en el episodio de Ruperta, la “bella matadora” del Persiles

Abstract

This is an analysis of Ruperta’s story from three different perspectives. In the first one, the story is considered as an episode inserted in a longer narrative, Persiles, and therefore, in order to establish the basic coordinates, a quick look through the issue is taken with the main focus on Cervantes’ works. The second one is a detailed analysis of the story, with the emphasis on the narrator’s task and his connection to the action that is being told. The third perspective aims at drawing the intratextual links of Ruperta’s story with the rest of Cervantes’ work. Besides, an account of the possible sources of the story is given in this study, though a very particular allusion is made to the anecdote that Guzmán de Alfarache tells in Mateo Alemán’s novel named after that character.