This essay will focus on the narrative strategies employed by Cervantes when he decided to fuse two completely independent stories into a single artistic unit that would close his collection of Novelas ejemplares. After providing a brief overview of the literary predecessors of the Casamiento engañoso (The Deceitful Marriage) and the Coloquio de los perros (The Dialogue of the Dogs), we will present a structural analysis of the two works in question, first as separate entities, then as complementary parts of a single hybrid text. The study closes by suggesting the artistic goal behind Cervantes's decision to meld what appear to be two very disparate entries: a concrete demonstration of how a talented writer might craft a plausible and entertaining literary work out of seemingly ridiculous subject-matter.

Classical Models for the ‘Coloquio’

Any thorough examination of Cervantes's El coloquio de los perros should include a few words about the work's classical origins. Over the years many critics have noted certain similarities – particularly a common sense of irony – between Cervantes's unusual canine conversation and the satirical dialogues of the second-century Greek Cynic, Lucian of Samosata. Michael Zappala notes that some Hispanists thought it probable that Cervantes had become familiar with Lucian's writings through the works of a Renaissance intermediary such as Erasmus of Rotterdam.

In 1953 Antonio Oliver commented on a number of possible classical influences on Cervantes, pointing to a clear parallel between what happens to Cervantes's dogs and the protagonist of Apuleius's Golden Ass. There is a clever inversion of the model, however, in that in the classical model Lucius loses, rather than gains, the power of speech when he is transformed into an ass, while Berganza and Cipión move in the opposite direction (Oliver, p. 296). At a later point Oliver goes on to discuss certain stylistic similarities between Lucian of Samosata and Cervantes, bolstering his argument by noting that the Cynic’s translated writings enjoyed considerable popularity in Europe during the sixteenth century (Oliver, p. 301).