The beautiful woman in the theater of Lope de Vega
Subtitle: ideology and mythology of female beauty in seventeenth-century Spain
By: Marlene K. Smith.
Series: Ibérica,; vol. 28; Ibérica (New York, N.Y.) ;; v. 28.
Publisher: Peter Lang; Lang Publishing, Incorporated, Peter
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 197
Subjects: Vega, Lope de, 1562-1635 -- Criticism and interpretation.; Women in literature.; Feminine beauty (Aesthetics) in literature.
Description: "This study examines the dramatic function of the beautiful woman in the theater of Lope de Vega (1562-1635). The author uses as a critical framework medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque ideologies of beauty as well as contemporary feminist studies on the "beauty myth" which constructs female beauty as a form of patriarchal oppression against women. Included are a moral and physical portrait of the beautiful woman in Golden Age Spain and a survey of the literary treatment of this topic prior to Lope.

The study further considers Lope's presentation of excessive female beauty as a prime agent of social disorder, as a potent threat to male honor, and as an inducement to sexual exploitation."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [179]-190) and index.