Don Quixote - a rueful smile or a grotesque grin? : combinations of comic and tragic elements in Cervantes’ Don Quixote, Shakespeare’s King Lear, Graham Greene’s Monsignor Quixote and Sławomir Mrożek’s The Last Hussar

The article opens with a brief history of a genre of literary works that blend both tragic and comic elements, the latter of which seem to have been increasingly more prominent in European culture in general. This article examines various functions of the tragic and comic combination in Cervantes’ Don Quixote, some scenes from Shakespeare’s King Lear, and two modern narrative fictions, where the main character is simultaneously heroic and comic, Graham Greene’s Monsignor Quixote and Sławomir Mrożek’s short story The Last Hussar