LA EMPATÍA, LA BRUJERÍA Y LA RELACIÓN MADRE-HIJO EN EL COLOQUIO DE LOS PERROS DE MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

This article explores the connection between empathy, witchcraft, and the mother-son relationship in the exemplary novel El coloquio de los perros (1613) by Miguel de Cervantes, paying special attention to the episode of the witch Cañizares. Employing a hermeneutical and historical perspective and utilizing contributions from the field of psychology on the concept of empathy, the analysis seeks to examine the emotional relationships between the dog Berganza, his series of masters, and the witch. Thus, the study re-evaluates Cervantes’s rewriting of the picaresque genre, the emotional dilemmas of the characters and readers, and the underlying exemplarity of the work in the context of witchcraft in early modern Spain.