Viejas historias de Castilla la Vieja (1969): proverbs in the literary texts of Miguel Delibes

Abstract

The author of the article presents the general classification of how proverbs are inserted into texts and analyzes three basic types of enunciation in literary text Viejas historias de Castilla la Vieja (1969) of Spanish writer Miguel Delibes. In the seventeen chapters we read about the everyday, iterative and timeless life of the geographical environment of the people of Castile, with special focus on their customs and language. The latter is characterized by all kinds of proverbs. Delibes employs proverbs to show a popular language, full of references to the collective knowledge, and inserts them in the discourses of the characters in two fundamental ways: directly without referring to the fact that this is a judgmental statement or indirectly.