bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Dual Levels of Antonio Hurtado de Mendoza's Cada loco con su tema
Authors: Stoll Anita K.
Published: January 2014

Cada loco con su tema is a clever and funny play which is also an interesting and valuable social document that mirrors and criticizes court society, presenting widely debated social issues of the day in both comic and serious tone. There are hints of self-mockery, references to another well-known writer, and apparent and veiled allusions to other members of the court. It may be viewed as having two levels of interpretation: as a court play full of references to specific people, and as a comedy for a general audience. The combination of comic situations with the presentation of underlying social and moral issues provides both insight into court life and personalities and an entertaining general comedy.
La dinámica del discurso dramático en La Estrella de Sevilla
Authors: García-Varela Jesús
Published: January 2014

El objeto del presente trabajo es presentar una nueva lectura de La Estrella de Sevilla mediante la utilización de algunos aspectos de la teoría de los actos de habla. Tomando como base al personaje del Rey como eje estructurante de la obra, el análisis de sus diferentes manifestaciones verbales le configuran, al principio de la obra, como un experto usuario de la lengua, consciente del poder de su palabra para producir un efecto en sus destinatarios. A lo largo de la acción dramática, el Rey va perdiendo su iniciativa lingüística por la oposición de los discursos de Busto Tavera, Estrella, Sancho Ortiz y los Alcaldes de la ciudad. El último acto de La Estrella de Sevilla consolida la pérdida del poder perlocutivo ligado al lenguaje del Monarca, quedando ante el espectador/lector de la obra un retrato paródico del personaje regio. Las convenciones lingüísticas logran hacer resaltar la ironía de un texto que lleva implícito en el fondo un discurso, claramente degradatorio, de la figura del Rey, en clara concordancia con otros referentes contextuales de la época. (JG-V)
Dirty Dancing: Salome, Herodias and El retablo de las mara villas
Authors: Reed Cory A.
Published: January 2014

While critics have begun to analyze the religious and secular imagery of the internal play in El retablo de las maravillas , such interpretations have not yet included a detailed discussion of the significance and relevance of the false retablo 's final apparition, that of the dancing girl Salome. More precisely a composite persona representative of both the damsel and her mother Herodias, the Salome figure in this entremés (called "Herodias" in keeping with Medieval and Renaissance convention) is a logical choice for the conclusion of the magical show, since the Salome tradition itself incorporates many of the principal themes of Cervantes' satirical play. This essay studies the relationship between the Salome legend in its original sources and the thematic structure of Cervantes' interlude and the "magical" drama represented within. The thesis is that the appearance of the Salome figure at the end of the internal play serves to remind its fictional audience of the conditions required for seeing the show (blood purity and legitimate birth) and that the motifs of marital fidelity/legitimacy, ethnic intolerance, and unmasking are points of identification between the Salome tradition and the pointed social criticism in Cervantes' play.
The Evolution of Il Cavaliere perseguitato : Literary Interdependence in Bandello, Lope de Vega and the Commedia dell'arte
Authors: D'Antuono Nancy L.
Published: January 2014

The role of the Spanish comedia as mediatrix between the Italian novella and the commedia dell'arte has barely attracted scholarly interest. Yet the number of Italian novelle which found their way into the comedies of Lope de Vega and his followers and the subsequent absorption of the Spanish intrigues into the repertory of the comici (one hundred scenari in addition to forty-one full-length translations by actors and actresses of that medium) speak to a literary give-and-take of significant proportions, one which merits closer scrutiny. This essay examines the complexities of this symbiotic relationship with specific attention to 1) Bandello's tragic narrative and the theatrical elements therein, 2) Lope's dramatization of the novella and his recourse to commedia dell'arte techniques for its elaboration, and 3) the derivative scenario 's unique theatrical focus.
Re-Writing in the Margins: Caro's Valor, agravio y mujer as Challenge to Dominant Discourse
Authors: Williamsen Amy R.
Published: January 2014

The title of this paper deliberately establishes a dialogic relationship with Paul Julian Smith's work Writing in the Margin ; at the same time, it suggests the possibility of the "re"-writing of dominant discourse in marginalized works. The concept of marginality holds significant implications for the consideration of literature beyond those directly addressed in Smith's work. In this discussion, I will use Ana Caro's comedia, Valor, agravio y mujer , to question assumptions underlying Smith's provocative treatise. His interpretive strategy, informed by post-structuralist theory, does not sufficiently allow for the challenge to both social and artistic norms posed by the self-conscious, metatheatrical elements of Golden Age theatre. The constant play with gender roles and the honor code in Caro's texts represents a rewriting of societal standards; moreover, her consistent manipulation of generic conventions critically engages "canonical" comedias . I will argue that in order to explore "writing in the margin" we must carefully consider works that have been marginalized; otherwise, we as critics may falsely claim to appropriate the place of "the Others," thereby propagating exclusionary practices that merely re-center rather than de-center discourse.
Emblematics in Calderón's El médico de su honra
Authors: Cull John T.
Published: January 2014

This article studies some of the ways in which the Popular Renaissance vogue of emblem literature affected Spanish Golden Age theater. Specifically, Calderón's El médico de su honra is examined in three areas. After reviewing previous criticism on emblematics in the play, the article identifies other emblems that Calderón seems to have incorporated into the dialogue of the play. The second section considers the ways in which Calderón availed himself of emblematics in the staging of the play. The final part of the study explores Calderón's use of emblematic language in El médico de su honra .
Theme and Symbol in Calderón's La hija del aire
Authors: Hesse Everett W.
Published: January 2014

The two-part comedia known as La hija del aire has spawned a profusion of studies after A. A. Parker tagged the duo as Calderón's "supreme masterpiece." Parker demonstrates how Calderón uses metaphor and its ideas to illuminate a theme, to become a symbol of action and to be a representation of the characters themselves. Gwynne Edwards finds that the symbolism of the prison and the labyrinth imparts a thematic unity that tightens the continuity of the two parts. In a more extensive study, William R. Blue discovers that the imagery and dramatic technique "elucidate character, theme, structure and poetic coherence." This study will explore in greater depth symbols of 1. restraint; 2. darkness; 3. self-aggrandizement; 4. disparagement; 5. pride, arrogance, vanity; and 6. power. The abundance of themes and symbols, polysemic and paradoxical in nature, deepens the play's ethical, dramatic, and psychological significance and adds substance to the depiction of a ruling megalomaniac. The essay will reveal that previous commentators did not fully perceive the extent and penetration of theme and symbol. It is one more piece of evidence to corroborate Parker's statement that La hija del aire is Calderón's "supreme masterpiece." (EWH)
Discourse and Class in El Alcalde de Zalamea
Authors: Morrow Carolyn
Published: January 2014

Calderón here investigates tensions in the social ensemble. Conflicts arise as the characters dispute class identity, aspects of femininity, honor, power relations and labor issues. The relation between these competing discourses figures both as a central thematic concern and the main structuring principle of the play. Deployed within on-going national discussions for and against the status quo , the characters point to negotiations of value, status and rank circulating within Spain in the early seventeenth century. Thus Pedro Crespo stands at the center of a dialogue between conservative and less repressive values. At the same time, his actions are directed by contradictory emotions, vengeance as well as honor and justice.
Playing Calderón: Tracing a Play's Receptive Frame
Authors: Benabu Isaac
Published: January 2014

At the opening of a play, the playwright focuses attention by delimiting a spectator's field of reception and in so doing channels response in the direction projected. Tracing the play's receptive frame, therefore, is of primary importance in any interpretative initiative, as much for performance as for criticism. There are, of course, countless ways of involving the spectator, but a favoured one among seventeenth-century European dramatists worked much as a musical overture does: it draws the broad lines of plot development in a compressed and impressionistic manner. Take the opening of Macbeth and the account of the battle against traitors and intruders: it suggests the end of all such enterprise and in so doing elevates the figure of Macbeth to the heights of military hero and loyal subject from which he will fall. In this study, I have traced the receptive frame in three well-known plays by Calderón, and have considered the interpretative direction suggested.
La primera versión de 'La vida es sueño ' Performed in Almería
Authors: MacKenzie Ann L.
Published: January 2014

In Almería, on 4 April 1992, as part of the celebrated Jornadas de Teatro Clásico del Siglo de Oro, the original or 'Zaragoza' version of La vida es sueño was performed for the first time since the seventeenth century. This performance by the Compañía Zampanó demonstrated the correctness of José María Ruano's recently published opinions regarding the ideological and theatrical differences between this hitherto undervalued 'First Version' — possibly composed before 1630 — and the masterly refundición published in Calderón's Primera parte of 1636. In his critical edition of La primera version de "La vida es sueño ', superbly studied and annotated, Ruano reconstructs with remarkable accuracy the original play, and proves beyond question its importance for our understanding of Calderón's dramatic art and development. Despite his subtle analysis of Segismundo's changed reactions, in the different versions, to the misfortunes and transformations of life, Ruano may not fully appreciate the complexities of Segismundo's personality, or the extent to which in the 'Madrid' play the dramatist continued to rely on his first conception of the Prince of Poland. Rather than the Prince's superior nobility of character, in my view, it is greater subtlety of mind which distinguishes him most noticeably from the figure of Segismundo as Calderón first portrayed him. In my judgement, Segismundo as he is recreated is an even more Machiavellian Prince than the original 'Segismundo maquiavélico' observed by Ruano. Which is not to deny that in the second play his nobility of character is more developed. For in his reconstructed personality Segismundo is a persuasively complex human being, realistically capable of both selfishness and compassion, unscrupulousness and integrity. More than any other aspects of the later work, the characterization of Segismundo establishes the superior quality of the playwright's achievement. The 'primera versión' is theatrically more accomplished, but, through its profoundly human conflicts and complexities of meaning, the Revised Version of La vida es sueño deserves the reputation which for centuries it has enjoyed as a masterpiece of the Golden-Age theatre. (ALM)
Amón: The Psychology of a Rapist
Authors: Conlon Raymond
Published: January 2014

Despite recent scholarly interest in the pathological element in Tirsian characterization, one of Tirso's most twisted figures, sexually and emotionally, has gone largely undiscussed: Amón, the incestuous rapist in La venganza de Tamar . The figure of Amón looks forward to the creations of Freudian and post-Freudian writers. Strikingly modern is the way Amón demonstrates three important psychological ideas: 1) that rape is often an act and product of sexual humiliation; 2) that there is an important link between a son's sexual behavior and his conception of his father's virility; 3) that role playing is a significant element in some types of sexual pathology. (RC)
La Estrella de Sevilla as a Mirror of the Courtly Scene—and of its Anonymous Dramatist (Luis Velez???)
Authors: Kennedy Ruth Lee
Published: January 2014

One of the unsolved mysteries of comedia scholarship has been: Who wrote La Estrella de Sevilla ? Early critics amassed considerable circumstantial evidence to attribute the play, respectively, to Lope and to Claramonte. In a note to his introduction to the 1939 Reed-Dixon edition, John M. Hill used internal evidence from the text to draw the following profile of the author: "1) he was an Andalusian; 2) he was a skillful dramatist, highly versed in all dramatic resources with an undeniable instinct for the tragic and the pathetic; 3) he was thoroughly familiar with the writings of Quevedo; 4) he was thoroughly versed in conceptismo and cultismo and did not hesitate to employ the one or the other, or both, when it suited his purpose; 5) he was likely familiar with Sevilla and fond of the city, with a liking and a familiarity gained by extensive residence therein." For Hill, the only dramatist to combine these characteristics was Luis Vélez de Guevara. Drawing further on both circumstantial and internal evidence, the present study proposes adding these features to Hill's profile of the author of La Estrella de Sevilla : 6) he had a general knowledge of astrology and was familiar with the poems of astrological nature which the Conde de Villamediana had written about Francelisa; 7) he was familiar with the literary scene in Madrid and specifically with the vejamen that followed the celebrations of the Plaza in August, 1623; 8) he was opposed to the new regime of Philip IV and the Count-Duke of Olivares. Applying these characteristics, the study concludes, tentatively, that La Estrella de Sevilla was not penned by Vélez. (CGP)
Language Power in La vida es sueño: A Speech Act Approach
Authors: Hesse Everett W.
Published: January 2014

La vida es sueño offers a fine example of how action turns on the axis of language, which is the key toward understanding the important issues of power and authority. Discourse in Vida permits the characters to create worlds with words. The linguistic behavior of each character reveals a special ability which this paper will examine. Segismundo finally yields to the persuasive power of lies, half-truths, ambiguities, equivocal statements, suggestions and symbols which eventually enable him to find himself. Basilio creates a new reality for Segismundo; together with Clotaldo the two take advantage of the power of language to explain to the prince the distinction between dream and reality. Language power finally exerts complete control over Segismundo, causing him to change his philosophy and the ways in which he treats people; otherwise he would be trapped in his own primitive impulses. (EWH)
Tipos de discurso teatral en el Entremés de los negros de Simón Aguado
Authors: Castro de Moux María E.
Published: January 2014

En este artículo se examina el texto de Simón Aguado a partir del modelo de análisis discursivo propuesto por Juan Villegas. Se revela el conflicto entre los amos, sus esclavos negros y sus derechos legales. Subyace al texto el debate entre los apologistas del imperio español y los planteamientos más humanos de sacerdotes y de misioneros que defendieron el derecho a la libertad de indios y de negros en la corte renacentista de Carlos V. Los personajes negros protestan por el derecho a un trato justo e, incluso, a la misma libertad. Los esclavos emplean justificaciones teológicas, filosóficas y legales para apoyar sus derechos y subvertir un orden social injusto. No obstante, puesto que la solución al problema de la esclavitud estaba lejos de resolverse, los personajes subyugados terminan por aceptar la autoridad de sus amos y por adoptar el discurso dramático del grupo dominante. Así pues el discurso de los esclavos se silencia al final de la pieza. El valor de este entremés para nuestra época estriba en ser un documento social de la España barroca y en el discurso dramático, sorpresivamente contemporáneo, de grupos subyugados defendiendo el derecho a la libertad y a la justicia en la España imperial, mediante el discurso desplazado de misioneros y teólogos franciscanos y dominicos.
Secuencias calderonianas de capa y espada: ¿"Sucesos caseros"?
Authors: Hildner David J.
Published: January 2014

A pesar de que tiene cierta validez la muy citada definición de la comedia de "capa y espada" como presentación de "los sucesos más caseros de un galanteo" (Bances Candamo), el artículo propone dos corolarios: 1) que en Calderón la complejidad argumental desempeña una función importante en los dramas serios (e. g., La hija del aire, Parte II ), y 2) que el predominio del enredo en una comedia ligera o semi-ligera (e.g., El galán fantasma ) no obstaculiza la presencia simultánea de imágenes y temas "graves." Se especula finalmente sobre la existencia de ciertas secuencias de acción (cambios o errores de identidad, disfraces, doblajes o simetrías) que, sin ser cómicas o graves en sí, adquieren su tonalidad dominante, pero no unívoca, en el contexto de cada drama.
Función estructural del montaje escénico en El asalto de Mastrique de Lope de Vega
Authors: Kirschner Teresa J.
Published: January 2014

Hasta muy recientemente se ha prestado muy poca atención a la relación entre la puesta en escena y la estructura dramática de las obras del teatro español del Siglo de Oro. Sin embargo, el dramaturgo, confrontado con el asunto de una comedia y la especificidad de la duración temporal de una representación teatral, tiene que decidir cómo estructurar su material, qué es lo que va a representar y qué es lo que va a relatar. A partir de una tipología que categoriza las distintas funciones del montaje escénico, este trabajo examinará cómo Lope de Vega lleva a cabo la dramatización de la campaña bélica cuya culminación es el asalto y toma de la ciudad de Mastrique. A pesar de la complejidad inherente al montaje de una comedia de guerra, Lope manipula la estructura de su comedia El asalto de Mastrique al magnificar la victoria española para mayor recreo de su público. (TJK)
Una nota adicional acerca de "Pues el delito mayor del hombre es haber nacido"
Authors: Colahan Clark , Rodríguez Alfred
Published: January 2014

The note points out and defends a possible source for Calderón's famous topos (Francisco López de Zárate's La tragedia de Hércules Furente, y Oeta ), not heretofore listed by scholars. (CC & AR)
Recollections of Juan de Mena in Lope de Vega's Viuda, casada y doncella
Authors: McGrady Donald , Feit Ronna
Published: January 2014

At the beginning of Act III of Lope's Viuda, casada y doncella , the hero, Feliciano, has just escaped from slavery in Morocco and returns to Spain in the company of Fátima, the daughter of his former owner. Speaking from a God's-eye perspective, Feliciano points out to Fátima a number of mainly Spanish and African cities, towns and islands, from the Canaries on the west to Rome on the east. This geographic catalogue, made by a character who seems to speak from a vantage point in outer space, derives from Juan de Mena's Laberinto de Fortuna , stanzas 34 to 54. Feliciano appears to express his joy upon recovering his freedom and religion by opposing Spanish places to corresponding ones in Africa. (DM)
Loving Parents or Cruel Jailers?: Towards an Understanding of Calderón's Basilio and Liríope
Authors: Strother Darci L.
Published: January 2014

This article examines two Calderonian characters, King Basilio from La vida es sueño and Liríope from Eco y Narciso , both of whom are parents who have imprisoned their children from birth. The motives and extenuating circumstances of these parent-jailers are the focus of discussion, and the effects of incarceration on Segismundo and Narciso are also explored. The trauma caused by Basilio's loss of his wife Clorilene, who died during childbirth, and by Liríope's rape and abandonment, is seen to have created situations in which these parents imprison their children as defensive controlling reactions to cope with their traumatization. The fatalistic prophecies regarding their children intensify Basilio's and Liríope's sense of fear and apprehension, but their eventual release of their children from captivity points toward their underlying parental devotion and signals their first steps toward recovery as traumatized parent-jailers. (DLS)
"Juegos de lenguaje" en La dama duende
Authors: Utrera María Soledad Fernández
Published: January 2014

Analiza este trabajo la expresión del conflicto ilusión/ verdad en el discurso de los personajes de La dama duende . El fracaso de los protagonistas masculinos en el descubrimiento de la identidad de la "dama duende" determina la imposibilidad de interpretar el discurso dual y ambiguo de Angela. El contexto sociolingüístico que ocupan estos personajes es la causa última de esta incapacidad. Don Luis y don Manuel, dentro del rígido sistema lingüístico, social y moral de la España del siglo XVII, participan de un "juego de habla," o sistema lingüístico, en el que el lenguaje se concibe con el propósito exclusivo de describir, comunicar e informar sobre la realidad. Doña Angela, por el contrario, que intenta rebelarse contra el código social imperante, crea un lenguaje artificial con reglas y convenciones propias. En oposición al lenguaje masculino, el suyo es preferentemente un discurso 'imaginativo' y doble que ni don Luis ni don Manuel logran penetrar. Y aunque, finalmente, Angela es obligada a renunciar a esta nueva voz, el discurso del honor —monolítico y solipsista— lleva también dentro de sí el germen de la confusión y el silencio. Al término de la obra, queda el vacío y la negación de todos los discursos. A no ser que aceptemos como registro privilegiado, el lenguaje ambiguo e imaginativo de Calderón, como el de Angela, niega una interpretación definitiva y última de su obra.
Un entremés olvidado de principios del Siglo XVII: El testamento del pícaro pobre de Damón de Henares
Authors: González Cañal Rafael
Published: January 2014

Esta pequeña obra, que ha pasado desapercibida en los estudios sobre el teatro breve, es básicamente un popular y temprano entremés de autor desconocido, a pesar de que haya aparecido bajo el seudónimo de Damón de Henares. Igualmente, este entremés puede ser uno de los primeros, si no el primero, en ser publicado individualmente. El texto aquí reproducido parece ser la primera edición, de 1609, publicada en Barcelona, y cuyo único ejemplar se encuentra en la Biblioteca Municipal de Besançon, Francia, con la sig. 243. 109. En las notas se incluyen las variantes significativas de la edición de Sevilla, de 1614, denominada S. Además de la inclusión del texto B, hay un breve estudio introductorio acerca de sus novedades al igual que de su estructura, tema(s), mecanismos verbales y versificación. (JAM)
García's Love Melancholy and the Banquet Scene in Ruiz de Alarcón's La verdad sospechosa
Authors: Castells Ricardo
Published: January 2014

Una de las mentiras más conocidas de don García en La verdad sospechosa es la descripción de la "grande fiesta" que le dio a su dama a la orilla del río. Aunque otros críticos han señalado la base creativa y poética de esta cena inventada, James F. Burke concluye que la descripción muestra que García ha caído en la tentación del amor sensual. Este trabajo estudia las teorías renacentistas sobre el amor mundano y el amor espiritual, y sugiere que aunque García sufre del mal de amores medieval, el galán nunca demuestra los síntomas del amor carnal.
The Fallacy of False Dichotomy in María de Zayas's La traición en la amistad
Authors: Oakey Valerie Hegstrom
Published: January 2014

Maria de Zayas's comedia, La traición en la amistad , a play about the exploration of gender roles and role reversals, subverts traditional comedia endings in which the dominant (masculine) order reestablishes itself, forcing women to return to their feminine (passive) state, and allowing men to recover their masculine (active) dominance. Because of its exploration of gender roles, the play defines itself in terms of the binary opposition masculine/feminine. The end of La traición bears this dichotomy out. Different from the final scenes in other comedias , in which one of the male characters pronounces who will marry whom, in this play the female characters make these decisions. Even though they switch gender roles, the gender construct controls the behavior of almost all the characters and disallows the possibility for individual development beyond the dichotomy. Julia Kristeva calls that possibility the "presupposed excluded middle." In La traición , Fenisa represents the "excluded middle"—an active woman, in charge of her circumstances, but forced into passivity at the end of the play by the now dominant female characters. Kristeva argues that the only resolution in a work structured on a bipolar opposition is negation of the middle. La traición plays out Kristeva's theory; by structuring her play on the male/female opposition, María de Zayas negates the "excluded middle," Fenisa, thus underscoring the double standard inherent in the comedia and 17th-century Spanish society.
Parody, Gender and Dress in Lope's La doncella Teodor
Authors: Case Thomas E.
Published: January 2014

Lope's La doncella Teodor dramatizes the superiority of the Christian over the Muslim and the predicament of intellectually superior women in a male-dominated world by parodying the Byzantine novel, then in vogue, and the comedia de cautivos . The protagonists romp from one Muslim country to another, unscathed and triumphant. Instead of the numerous trials and sufferings caused by imprisonment and slavery, captivity in North Africa actually becomes an opportunity for advancement. In the end, Teodor, in spite of her intellectual superiority, marries in the conventional manner of the comedia but is successful in being able to choose her mate. Dress plays an important part by indicating and parodying the different roles assumed by Fénix, the galán . (TEC)
El código escondido en "Exhortación panegírica al silencio" de Calderón
Authors: Valbuena-Briones A. Julián
Published: January 2014

Este estudio se basa sobre el texto de la edición príncipe de Exhortación panegírica al silencio , Madrid, 1662, en donde Calderón examina una paradoja filosófica, Psalle et Sile , que adornaba la reja del coro de la catedral de Toledo. Esta composición polimétrica de 525 versos, cuyo fondo y forma ha examinado la crítica, contiene un código escondido, que se revela mediante la información histórica aducida. El dramaturgo vio la posibilidad de utilizar el mote "Canta y calla" y aplicarlo indirectamente a su situación personal. El sentido estriba en un nivel profundo en que hay una compatibilidad entre el sacerdocio y la poesía. Con esta intención elabora sus estrofas que presentan una apología del arte poético. La voz relatora toma la identidad de un peregrino que llega a la catedral de Toledo y se pone bajo la tutela de la Virgen del Sagrario. Considera el concepto de silencio y pasa luego al del canto . La poesía, con el ejemplo de San Juan de la Cruz, puede alcanzar a ser himno que alaba a Dios. La documentación desvela la relación de Calderón con el arzobispo Baltasar de Moscoso y Sandoval y los problemas que tuvo el escritor con el cabildo de la catedral. (AV-B)
Disguised Discourse: Emblems in Lope de Vega's El castigo sin venganza
Authors: Martínez Christine D.
Published: January 2014

Given the wide circulation of emblem books in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe, their influence on literature was almost inevitable. When reading Lope de Vega's El castigo sin venganza , or seeing it on stage, one cannot avoid experiencing the constant collision between images and plot that gives rhythm to the play. The images are emblematized, thus underscoring an action or revealing a mode of thought. In El castigo Federico's amorous situation is expressed through images or word-emblems, many of which can be found in emblem literature during Lope's time. The word-emblems create a type of discourse on truth—on what Federico knows to be true—that lends to the play's thematic and structural movement of love, suffering, and death.
La lengua del gracioso y el mundo del carnaval en El desdén, con el desdén de Moreto
Authors: Castillo Jorge Luis
Published: January 2014

The essay studies the language of the gracioso Polilla as representative of the culture of carnival in this work. Besides the fact that the play revolves around the famous carnival of Barcelona, the presence of Polilla in the play contributes to deflating the haughtiness of Princess Diana with a type of language unmistakably associated with the culture of carnival. My paper explores the use of carnivalesque imagery in three areas, related to food ingestion, disease, and games of chance ( juegos de azar ). Since most of these point to concealed sexual or scatological double entendres, the paper ultimately underlines the strong but hidden erotic content that pervades the whole play, and, by placing Moreto's play in the context of the Spain of the Hapsburgs, considers to what extent Polilla's language can be considered subversive and genuinely akin to the spirit of carnival. (JLC)
The Generic Dimension of Self-Referentiality: Calderón's El médico de su honra as metadrama de honor
Authors: Simerka Barbara
Published: January 2014

A prominent aspect of early modern Spanish literature is the group of literary devices which examine the relationship between perceived reality and its representation. With its alternative poetics, self-conscious art seeks to explore the idea of representation both thematically and aesthetically. Lionel Abel's "metatheater," which focused on the self-conscious theatrical character, is one type of self-referential technique. This paper examines a different aspect, Calderon's deconstruction of the dramatic and generic conventions that govern audience reactions. Throughout the play, and particularly at the conclusion, the "laying bare" of theatrical conventions regarding laughter and horror, marriage and death, provides a modal modification of the tragic and comic events represented, one which has the potential to alter audience response to those events. Thus, self-referentiality constitutes a generic component of El médico de su honra ; the play is a metadrama de honor . (BAS)
El acierto en el engaño y robador de su honra de Luis de Belmonte Bermüdez: comedia inédita del siglo XVII
Authors: Ocaña Antonio Cortijo
Published: January 2014

Este artículo estudia algunos de los problemas que presenta la edición de la comedia inédita de Luis de Belmonte Bermúdez El acierto en el engaño y robador de su honra , conservada en el Ms. 15009 de la Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid. El Ms. está muy censurado y contiene numerosas enmiendas y tachaduras. Como consecuencia de la censura el final fue redactado dos veces, con un aumento considerable de versos. En el artículo se abordan algunos problemas paleográficos y de crítica textual relacionados con la censura y el estado actual en que se presenta la comedia en el Ms., se estudian los pasajes censurados desde el punto de vista de su contenido, se inserta la comedia dentro de la producción de su autor y se ofrece una posible edición del final de la comedia de acuerdo a sus dos redacciones. (ACO)
(Un)True Colors: Pintura as Pharmakon in Tirso's La vida y muerte de Herodes
Authors: Weimer Christopher B.
Published: January 2014

The concept of pintura permeates and dominates Tirso de Molina's La vida y muerte de Herodes on literal, figurative and symbolic levels. This study places Tirso's use of pintura within a Derridean context by demonstrating how painting functions as Plato and Derrida's simultaneously salutary and poisonous pharmakon . Portraits of Herodes 's royal characters serve as visual aphrodisiacs which ultimately bring about only tragedy. Verbal descriptions, repeatedly introduced with the verb pintar , similarly deceive and destroy. The text even directly constitutes writing as a form of pintura ; it too acts mendaciously and harmfully. All these illusory manifestations of pintura counterpoint the painted onstage tableau of the Adoration of the Christ Child. Here pintura becomes a vehicle of spiritual healing and salvation, emphasizing its pharmakon -esque self-contradiction and mutability. (CBW)
From Crónica to Comedia : Catholic Evangelization and Indigenous Oral Traditions in the Inca Garcilaso and Calderón
Authors: Castells Ricardo
Published: January 2014

Este trabajo estudia La aurora en Copacabana , la única comedia americana de Calderón, para analizar el punto de vista del dramaturgo sobre la conquista de América, la propagación de la fe en el Nuevo Mundo y sobre las tradiciones y creencias religiosas de los Incas. A su vez, compara la obra de Calderón con la de los cronistas del Perú, sobre todo el Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, para poner la obra dentro de un marco cultural y literario claramente definido.
Lope de Vega's El Nuevo Mundo descubierto por Cristóbal Colón : Convention and Ideology
Authors: Brotherton John
Published: January 2014

This attempt by Lope to dramatise the figure of Columbus has been the object of much critical disdain. Moratín declared it to be "una de las más disparatadas" of Lope's comedias , whilst one of the play's severest critics, Eugenio de Ochoa, even goes so far as to advise us that "analizar esta comedia sería una pérdida de tiempo." And it seems clear that Lope did indeed have major problems in dramatising the figure of Columbus and in representing his historic achievement, even with the varied range of dramatic formulae at his disposition. In this strange mélange of a play, Columbus emerges as one of the least interesting and developed of the characters. He is in fact a character with no single conventional role to fulfill, and consequently wanders onto the stage with diminishing frequency, to participate in a series of tableaux: from questionable historical reconstructions, to static, regal pageants, and even a brief allegorical auto . Meanwhile other characters fare far better, particularly the "Indians," who flourish in the conventional dramatic environment Lope creates for them. The central dramatic motif is the struggle between two Indian leaders for the affections of the beautiful Tacuana. Dulcanquellín, the more powerful of the two pretenders, in fact has the leading part in the play. He struggles against his own pride, arrogance and brutality armed only with his undeveloped nobility, in a remarkable foreshadowing of the dilemma that will confront Segismundo. Tacuana initially demonstrates all of the "European" virtues of the classical Lopean dama: virtud, discreción, pudor , and confirms her "true" nobility by immediately acknowledging the meaning and power of the Cross. Yet, as if feeling obliged to modify his ennoblement of these erstwhile "savages," Lope reveals aspects of their primitive selves in brief but telling moments of dramatic revision. Interestingly, those Spaniards who are developed within this increasingly conventional comedia are cast as villains. The greed, duplicity and hypocrisy of Terrazas are well established, whilst his full degeneracy is conventionally confirmed when he unleashes his illicit deseo . Yet, even so, in a complete reversal of the manner in which Lope ultimately undermines the "ennobled Indians," Terrazas eventually becomes the unlikely spokesman of doctrinal orthodoxy. At the end of the play, the rebellion provoked by the Spaniards' appalling conduct is only quelled by Lope's resorting to an absurdly abrupt deus ex machina device. And then, as a dramatic afterthought, Columbus is wheeled on for the final pageant, having been marginalised almost completely from the play's dramatic heart.
Alteza y Picardía en El Príncipe Don Carlos de Diego Jiménez de Enciso
Authors: Nagy Edward
Published: January 2014

La comedia El Príncipe Don Carlos ha atraído la atención de críticos por su tema "político," la tirante relación jerárquica entre Felipe II y su desgraciado hijo. Además de esto, hemos notado con interés que en dicha comedia no figura en el reparto de los personajes un típico gracioso de la comedia sino un pícaro gracioso . La curiosa relación del Principe Don Carlos con este pícaro de cocina, llamado Tejoletas, será objeto de nuestro estudio. La filosofía que Tejoletas expone al Príncipe, no para escarmentar como el pícaro Guzmán sino para justificar su carnavalesca alegría de vivir, es opuesta al ambiente carcelario en que vivía Don Carlos. Al escucharlo, el Príncipe encuentra una válvula de escape, un renacer. Una vez vestido de limpio, el Príncipe le encuentra apropiado para servirle como criado en la desmitificación del Duque de Alba planeada por él, la Alteza, y apoyada por la Picaresca, que son Tejoletas y unos criados. Con un agudo instinto dramático Enciso incluyó en el reparto de los personajes a un disidente y desgarrado pícaro gracioso en vez de un típico gracioso . (EN)
Refashioning the Maze: The Interplay of Gender and Rank in Cervantes's El laberinto de amor
Authors: Anderson Ellen M.
Published: January 2014

This article argues that identity itself is the labyrinth constructed in Cervantes's El laberinto de amor , wherein the signs of gender difference (costume and language) are subordinated in the perception of the observing characters to the signs of rank. Cervantes juxtaposes and recombines the roles appropriate to noble and commoner, with the result that discernment, strength of character and the power of free and artful speech are the property of all human beings, regardless of rank. Simultaneously, he plays with the speech and dress of male and female to suggest that the essence of humanity is not exclusively masculine or feminine, nor neither at all, but androgynous, that is, masculine-with-feminine. (EMA)
Female Presence in Tirso's El burlador de Sevilla
Authors: Pendzik Susana
Published: January 2014

This paper presents a holistic picture of the female presence in Tirso's El burlador de Sevilla . Female representation is studied not only through the four main heroines—as has been usually the case—but also taking into consideration the oblique references to "invisible women" scattered throughout the play. The "absent" queen, the prostitutes, and other burladas , join the debate over the female role in the play. This encompassing view of female figures illuminates their function as a subversive force that challenges the established order, and constitutes the play's primary source of dramatic energy.
Alarcón's Licurgo: A Magnanimous Hero's Honorable Vengeance
Authors: Dougherty Deborah A.
Published: January 2014

Honor and vengeance are irrevocably joined in the comedia , portraying both a social code and a literary device. As an integral element of the Spanish honor code in Golden Age drama, vengeance must be viewed as more than spiteful retaliation. It must have the potential to be considered an honorable act of magnanimity. In Ruiz de Alarcón's El dueño de las estrellas (c. 1620) the protagonist Licurgo's magnanimity is reflected in his heroic constancy to uphold the ideals of the honor code—reputation, dignity, and virtue—particularly when exacting its required vengeance in the face of dishonor. Throughout the drama Licurgo is shown to be a hero in keeping with the humanistic view of Greco-Roman and traditional Spanish characteristics of magnanimity, civic responsibility, and fealty. More than merely participating in society's honor system, he internalizes the code. His ultimate suicide, an uncommon occurrence in seventeenth-century Spanish theater, dramatizes the depth and intensity of his magnanimous heroism. When faced with a crisis of honor, Licurgo concludes that the blood spilled to restore honor must be his own. With a single magnanimous act this hero eludes fate and restores his honor. But perhaps the greatest measure of Licurgo's valor is a persistent resolve to remain true to his convictions in matters of honor and dishonor, and to take action fulfilling his commitment to society and the code of honor. (DAD)
The Oedipal Drama of Tirso's La república al revés
Authors: Weimer Christopher B.
Published: January 2014

This study examines the intertextual relationship between Tirso de Molina's La república al revés and the Oedipus myth, particularly as depicted in the dramas of Sophocles and Seneca. Though this legend seems conspicuous by its absence from the Golden Age Spanish stage, Tirso appears to have made use of Sophocles's and Seneca's treatments of it in composing República . The protagonist, the corrupt Byzantine emperor Constantino VI, exhibits many parallels to Oedipus, just as his mother Irene recalls Oedipus's mother Jocasta, as well as his uncle Creon. Both doomed Greek monarchs infect the kingdoms they rule with their inner moral corruption, and both ultimately serve as the sacrificial victims whose cathartic punishments purify their realms. República concludes with the restoration of prosperity and sociocultural order under Irene, who had ruled prior to Constantino's assumption of power and who now resumes the throne she had unwillingly renounced in his favor; likewise, Oedipus is succeeded by Creon, who had governed Thebes before Oedipus claimed the throne by solving the Sphinx's riddle. República 's debt to the Oedipus canon is fundamental to this underrated comedia . (CBW)
El burlador de Sevilla : Claramente de Tirso, y no de Claramonte (Breve anotación crítica)
Authors: Vázquez Luis
Published: January 2014

Una palabra cualificada, que no suele citarse hoy día, es la de Joaquín Casalduero. En oposición a las atribuciones peregrinas y faltas de documentación de Alfredo Rodríguez López-Vázquez, se le cita a Casalduero sobre la superioridad estética del Burlador , frente a Tan largo . Hace falta una sensibilidad poética para apreciar las diferencias fundamentales entre las dos versiones, sensibilidad que tiene sólo el crítico que es también poeta [como lo son, tanto Casalduero como Vázquez]. Se presenta evidencia textual de la falta de sensibilidad poética de Claramonte, junto con la opinión autorizada de María del Carmen Hernández Valcárcel sobre algunos de sus versos: "disparates." La conclusión es que un autor de comedias que no publicó una sola obra dramática en vida, que no es mencionado por sus contemporáneos (excepta en términos injuriosos), un poeta mediocre, no puede ser el creador del Don Juan original. Se intenta aclarar, al final, algunos problemas referentes a la autoría de Tirso de Molina, el que sigue siendo el único candidate lógico, fiable y viable. (J. A. Parr)
The Segunda parte of La hija del aire is Calderón's
Authors: Wooldridge John B.
Published: January 2014

Both parts of La hija del aire bore Calderón's name when the play was first performed before the court in 1653. More than ten years later, both parts were published in the Tercera parte of his comedias . However, the second part had already been printed in 1650 under the name of Antonio Enríquez Gómez and without the Segunda parte designation. The chronological priority of this edition is the basis for Constance Rose's claim that the second part was indeed written by Enríquez and not by Calderón. My study presents a number of stylistic traits that appear in Calderón's comedias and autos and in Hija II but not in any of the Enríquez plays nor in any of those attributed to him or to his alter ego, Fernando de Zárate. (JBW)
The Indiano as Liminal Figure in the Drama of Tirso and His Contemporaries
Authors: Simerka Barbara
Published: January 2014

Edward Said's Culture and Imperialism examines the often uncommented "presence" of the colonial in 19th- and 20th-century European literature which is not "about" the colonial experience. One focus of this work is the role of liminal figures, usually Europeans who are altered by their encounters with native cultures. With some important modifications, Said's book provides a useful paradigm for studies of minority discourses in Golden Age literature. While the year 1992 gave rise to a much-needed examination of the comedia 's representation of the New World and its inhabitants, these studies tended to focus on the Spanish presence in the Americas, and on the peoples encountered there. Much less attention has been granted to the representation of the indiano as a presence in Spain. In plays including La verdad sospechosa, Marta la piadosa , and Coda loco con su tema , an indiano plays a crucial role in the dénouement of action which takes place in Spain. The indiano functions as a liminal figure because he is simultaneously a Spaniard, by blood, and a dangerous Other, by virtue of exotic birth and experiences. Such a duality gives rise to an interesting phenomenon in the plays under consideration: there is not a uniform or consistent representation of the indiano figure. This article's analysis of the liminality of the indiano seeks to serve as an exemplum for the study of the representation of many marginalized groups of early modern Spain, including the converso, morisco , and upwardly mobile peasant. (BS)
Reading the Opening of a Play: Tirso's El burlador de Sevilla
Authors: Benabu Isaac
Published: January 2014

For the playwright as for the director, the opening of a play contains challenges unsensed by an audience expectant for the beginning of a play. It is the result of careful preparation and aim, and audience involvement in what follows depends on the successful channelling of energies from the start. The opening, therefore, is arguably the most difficult point at which to begin a study of the playtext with the problems of immersion it poses for the reader. This study offers a reading of the opening of Tirso's El burlador , decoding the directions inserted in the playtext, either specifically or by inference.
Teatro, propaganda y comercio en la Comedia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe y sus milagros
Authors: Sánchez Ángel
Published: January 2014

A fines del siglo XVI el fraile jerónimo fray Diego de Ocaña fue enviado a América con el propósito de fomentar el culto a la Virgen de Guadalupe y dirigir las donaciones de los devotos hacia España. Para este fin escribió la Comedia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe y sus milagros , dirigida a un público socialmente heterogéneo. Este trabajo analiza cómo la Comedia de Ocaña, cuyo tema central es el culto a la Virgen, ofrece al público unos valores exclusivamente europeos, a la vez que trata de incorporar el Nuevo Mundo. La Comedia crea la ilusión de que Potosí y España alcanzan igual dicha, porque comparten y sostienen el culto a la Virgen; pero mientras España aporta la fe, se pide a Potosí que contribuya con donaciones materiales. Teatro, propaganda y comercio se dan cita en la Comedia .