Hailing Hunters: Leisure and Class Ideology in Amadís de Gaula

Abstract

This article argues that the hunting scenes in Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo’s 1508 novel Amadís de Gaula function as Althusserian hailing devices that interpellate nobles through the representation of a class-specific leisure behavior, thereby reinforcing a hierarchical class ideology. Moreover, this interpretation affords insights into the ideological motivations of period critics, whose moralistic condemnations of Amadís may be read as part of a broader effort to achieve social mobility through the promotion of meritocratic values and the critique of traditional conceptions of aristocratic class identity.