On the 400th anniversary of the death of Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, a seminar looking at the impact of his seminal work, Don Quixote, on foreign writers is taking place over the next three evenings.

Today’s speakers include Hilaire Kallendorf from the Texas A&M University who will be delivering a keynote speech entitled ‘Don Quixote in Los Angeles: The First Chicano Novel and Its Cervantine Model’. This will be followed by Peter Vassallo from the University of Malta with theologizing Cervantes’s ‘Don Quijote: Graham Greene’s Monsignor Quixote’. Closing the evening is Pedro Javier Pardo from the Universidad de Salamanca talking on The Pierre Menard Syndrome: Don Quixote, from Book to Myth.

Tomorrow’s session sees speakers from the University of Malta Adrian Grima, Richard Spiteri and Vincent Vella talking respectively on ‘Don Quixote, Madness and the Protagonists of Maltese Reformist Fiction’, ‘Denis Tillinac: The Don Quixote Myth at the Turn of the 21st Century’ and ‘Ernesto Panza: The Tale of An Artless Revolutionary’. Independent researcher Marceliano Acevedo will then talk about ‘Madame Bovary and Don Quixote: A Personal Relationship’.

The seminar draws to a close on Wednesday with speakers from the University of Malta and its Junior College discussing ‘Carlos Fuentes, Don Quixote and the Matter of Fiction’ (John Ardila), ‘400 years of Visual Silence: Cervantes and Malta’, ‘An Essay on the Visual Arts in Malta’ and ‘Cervantes as the Subject Matter, or Non-Subject Matter, of Art in Malta’ (Giuseppe Schembri), ‘Don by Any Other Name Would Not Sound As Sweet – The Case of Pawlu Montebello’s Dun Kixott’ (Anthony Aquilina) and ‘Cervantes’s Uncanny Role of Fathering Key Concepts of Pirandello’s Poetics’ (Karl Chircop).

A discussion will be held on all three days following the conclusion of the speeches.

■ The seminar is being held at the Faculty of Arts library at the University of Malta in Msida. It is organised by the Department of Spanish and Latin-American Studies within the University of Malta in collaboration with the Embassy of Spain. The seminar starts at 6pm on each of the three days. Due to limited space, those interested must e-mail the coordinator on francisco.ibanez@um.edu.mt, specifying on which days they will be attending.