Its a critical clich that Cervantes Don Quixote is the first modern novel but this distinction raises two fundamental questions. First how does one define a novel And second what is the relationship between this genre and understandings of modernity In Forms of Modernity Rachel Schmidt examines how seminal theorists and philosophers have wrestled with the status of Cervantes masterpiece as an exemplary novel in turn contributing to the emergence of key concepts within genre theory. Schmidts discussion covers the views of wellknown thinkers such as Friedrich Schlegel Jos Ortega y Gasset and Mikhail Bakhtin but also the pivotal contributions of philosophers such as Hermann Cohen and Miguel de Unamuno. These theorists examinations of Cervantess fictional knight errant character point to an evershifting boundary between the real and the virtual. Drawing from both intellectual and literary history Forms of Modernity richly explores the development of the categories and theories that we use today to analyze and understand novels. show more