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Creating the Merchant Subject in a patrana by Timoneda

This study asks why Joan Timoneda's 1567 Patrañuelo, despite lukewarm or negative critical reaction, has undergone numerous editions in the last hundred years, while other, more critically appreciated works have been ignored. To answer this question, the study applies to one of the work's patrañas theories of subjectivity, and in particular, those theories outlined in George Mariscal's Contradictory Subjects. The study specifically compares the manner in which characters subjectivity is constituted in both patraña quincena and the source from which it was adapted, the Decameron's ninth story from the second day. The study reveals that while Boccaccio's text establishes two distinct subjectivities, those of merchant and noble, Timoneda's version suppresses the noble subjectivity in order to allow the merchant subjectivity to define itself on its own terms. The study then turns to a discussion of Timoneda's choice of the term patraña to describe his collection's stories, and suggests that his definition of the term implicitly invites two different sorts of readings. One reading, informed by an aristocratic point of view, embraces the "falsehood" connotations of the word. The second reading, aimed at the text's probable merchant readership, revels in the positive depiction of merchant values, concerns and aspirations. The study concludes that what might explain the continued success of the Patrañuelo is that while critics have tended to subject the text to the aristocratic reading, the larger contemporary audience has read it from a more mercantile perspective.