Free Will, the Picaresque, and the Exemplarity of Cervantes's Novelas ejemplares.

The article examines the novels by Miguel de Cervantes and other authors which illustrate free will and freedom. The author noted that freedom is a multifaceted and often controversial concern during early modern Europe. He added that freedom is different from today, where under the influence of liberalism and its validation of individual rights, achievements and individual liberties, people are used to cast freedom in a positive light. He compared it to Don Quixote's definition of freedom, the license to make one's own way in the world and the absence of social duties. He also cited Acosta's argument that the oppression to which the American Indians and others conquered by Spain have unjustly been subject.