The Uniqueness of the Comedia

EVER since Hugo Albert Rennert's biography of Lope de Vega (1904), American Hispanists have contributed significantly to a better understanding of Spanish Theater of Golden Age. Versification and orthoepy of various dramatists were studied with aim of establishing authorship and chronology. Numerous trustworthy editions, with and without commentary, have been published. Lately, analytical studies of structure and meaning of single plays have appeared. After so many decades of vigorous activity it might now be appropriate to look at comedia as a whole and to ask ourselves: What is Spanish Theater of Golden Age? The question is based on commonly held belief that comedia has a literary Gestalt of its own, distinct from theater preceding and following it, with an approximate span of active life of about one hundred years, ca. 1580 to 1680. Although, implicitly, answers to this question may be found in histories of Spanish literature, in special histories of Spanish theater from Schack to Valbuena Prat and J. H. Parker, in biographical studies of Lope de Vega and even in monographic publications, problem has been treated explicitly only two times. Alfred Morel-Fatio gave his Legon d'ouverture on La comedia espagnole du XVII siecle (Paris, 1885) and republished it, virtually unchanged, almost forty years later (Paris, 1923). His viewpoint is heavily tinged by French classicist dramatic theory.' Professor A. A. Parker's lecture The Approach to Spanish Drama of Golden Age, No. VI in Diamante series (London, 1957), concludes that the Spanish drama of Golden Age speaks a language of its own (p. 27) and emphasizes unity of theme vs. unity of action and subordination of theme to a moral purpose through principle of poetic justice (loc. cit.)

Art · Mathematical analysis · Uniqueness · Early Modern Spanish Literature · Mathematics · Spanish Literature and Culture Studies

• Gender and the Monstrous in El burlador de Sevilla

  Elizabeth Rhodes•Modern Language Notes•2002

  Incluir item

• Between safeguarding and translating

  Lisha Xu, David Johnston•Translation Studies•2022

  Incluir item

• The Fallacy of False Dichotomy in María de Zayas's La traición en la amistad

  Open Access•Valerie Hegstrom Oakey•Bulletin of the Comediantes•1994

  Incluir item