Bohater społecznie uwarunkowany - Protagonista Pieśni o Cydzie a iberyjska mentalność pogranicza
A Socially Conditioned Hero: The Protagonist of the Cantar de mio Cid and Iberian Frontier Mentality

Summary/Abstract: The objective of the article is to provide an example of how the notion of social conditioning of literature might be employed both in literary studies and in history of mentalities. The author applies the concept of conditioning factors of literary texts to an analysis of the hero’s image in the Cantar de mio Cid. There are three general conditioning factors: episteme, worldview, mentality, and a specific one: the habitus. While the general conditioning factors are common for a society in each period, the habitus emphasises the impact of the living conditions of a particular group. The author analyses the conditioning of the protagonist’s image by the so-called espíritu de frontera, a set of values and patterns of behaviour shared by the Christian population of the lands located on the frontier with Al-Andalus, where the poem was created. The frontier caused a particular attitude of Iberian Christians towards Muslims, especially the local ones. On the one hand, it implies a division into two territories: those inhabited by ‘Us’ and those populated by the ‘Others’. On the other hand, the frontier is also an area of regular contact between ‘Us’ and the ‘Others’, which attenuates the Otherness. On the frontier, the ‘Others’ become neighbours, with whom Christians are, under some conditions, willing to cooperate. An example of such a situation in the poem is the alliance and friendship of the Cid with the Moor Avengalvón. Nonetheless, despite the cases of collaboration between Christians and Muslims, the frontier is still an area of war. That conflict has, however, a specific character. The war is waged neither for religious, nor ideological reasons but simply to gain booty. Another crucial aspect of the frontier mentality as found in the poem is a particular notion of honour. On the frontier lands, honour does not depend on noble ancestry, but on virtues and personal achievements. In the poem, honour is not given but gained, which is portrayed in the career path of the protagonist. Although by birth he belongs to the lower class of chivalry (infanzones), thanks to his military success and exemplary conduct he acquires the status of rico hombre, which means that he enters the higher chivalric class. The author discusses the episodes of the poem which show the contrast between the infanzones and the ricos hombres and two different notions of honour: the one which belongs to the frontier mentality and the other, typical for the inland.

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