Capturing the Pícaro in Words

<p><em>Capturing the Pícaro in Words</em> discusses the framing of the transient marginals of early modern Madrid in the literary <i>pícaro</i>. It compares the perceptions of constables shopkeepers and criminals to those of mass-produced literary representations and argues that the literary representations displaced the <i>pícaro</i> assigning the marginals different places in the literary texts in order to centralise the problem of urban vagrancy. The texts spanished the <i>pícaro</i> thus establishing the image of a culturally homogenous group; and lastly silenced the <i>pícaro</i> under-representing the power marginals in the city derived from their knowledge of the information flows in the city. </p>