Transformations of the picaresque in Gil Blas and Roderick Random

The purpose of the following thesis will be to demonstrate that the picaresque tradition (begun in 1554 with the anonymous publication of Lazarillo de Tormes) is not a literary phenomenon confined, sociologically and historically, to late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Spain. The analysis of LeSage's Gil Blas and Smollett's Roderick Random will show that the genre, although continually transforming, retains its essential features. From the analysis of the picaresque elements in Gil Blas_ and Roderick Random it has been concluded that the picaresque genre is, indeed, central to the reading experience of these two novels. Furthermore, the genre's ability to encompass two works that are, in many ways, quite different suggests the inherent flexibility of the picaresque.