Is the pícaro, the roguish hero of early modern Spanish adventure fiction, a 'real man'? What position does he hold in the gender hierarchy of his fictional social context? Why is the pícara so 'non-female'? What effect has her gender constitution on her fictional social context? In terms of a gendered subject, the picaresque figure has hardly been analyzed so far. Although scholars have recognized it as a transgressive and subversive model, the 'queer' effect of the figure is yet to be examined. With regard to the categories of class, generation, topography, and gender, the contributions assembled in this volume explore Spanish, French, English, and German novels narratologically from the perspective of culture and gender theories.

Maren Lickhardt (Ass.-Prof. Dr.), born 1978, is a literary and media scholar at Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck. She is a project leader at the SFB 'Transformations of the Popular' at Universität Siegen and conducts research on the culture and literature of the Weimar Republic, particularly, on picaresque narratives from the early modern period to the present, pop and popular culture as well as television series. Gregor Schuhen is professor of Romance literature at Universität Koblenz-Landau. His main fields of research are gender studies, Spanish and French picaresque novels as well as contemporary forms of littérature engagée. Hans Rudolf Velten (Dr. phil.), born 1961, is professor for Medieval German Literature and Language at the University of Siegen since 2014. His main research areas are medieval and early modern literature, theatre and culture. He has published several books and studies on premodern humour, popular literature and performance as well as on autobiographical writing.