The Limits of Illusion: A Critical Study of Calderón (Cambridge Iberian and Latin American Studies)

This is the first thorough study of Calderón in comparison with other important dramatists of the period: Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina in Spain, Racine and Corneille in France, and Shakespeare and Marlowe in England. Cascardi studies Calderón's paradoxical engagement with illusion in its philosophical guise as scepticism. He shows on the one hand Calderón's moral will to reject illusion and on the other his theatrical need to embrace it. Cascardi discusses plays from every period to show how in Calderón's best work illusion is not rejected; instead, scepticism is absorbed. Calderón is placed in and defined against the philosophical line of Vives, Descartes, and Spinoza. Of central importance to this argument is Calderón's idea of theatre and the various transformations of that idea. This emphasis will give the book an additional interest to students, readers in philosophy and comparative literature Cover......Page 1 Frontmatter......Page 2 Contents......Page 8 Preface......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 16 Note on texts and notes......Page 18 Introduction......Page 20 1 - La vida es sueño: Calderón's idea of a theatre......Page 30 2 - La dama duende......Page 43 3 - Calderón and Tirso: El galán fantasma......Page 56 4 - El secreto a voces: language and social illusion......Page 71 5 - Toward tragedy......Page 80 6 - El médico de su honra......Page 87 7 - Herod and Hercules: theatrical space and the body......Page 101 8 - El mágico prodigioso and the theatre of alchemy......Page 115 9 - The illusions of history......Page 126 10 - Authority and illusion: En la vida todo es verdad y todo mentira......Page 140 11 - The use of myth: Eco y Narciso......Page 149 12 - Prometheus and the theatre of the mind......Page 161 13 - Calderón's last play: the comedia as technology and romance......Page 171 Notes......Page 186 Index......Page 196 This is the first thorough study of Calderón in comparison with other important dramatists of the period: Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina in Spain, Racine and Corneille in France, and Shakespeare and Marlowe in England. Cascardi studies Calderón's paradoxical engagement with illusion in its philosophical guise as scepticism. He shows on the one hand Calderón's moral will to reject illusion and on the other his theatrical need to embrace it. Cascardi discusses plays from every period to show how in Calderón's best work illusion is not rejected; instead, scepticism is absorbed. Calderón is placed in and defined against the philosophical line of Vives, Descartes, and Spinoza. Of central importance to this argument is Calderón's idea of theatre and the various transformations of that idea. This emphasis will give the book an additional interest to students, readers in philosophy and comparative literature Cover 1 Frontmatter 2 Contents 8 Preface 10 Acknowledgments 16 Note on texts and notes 18 Introduction 20 1 - La vida es sueño: Calderón's idea of a theatre 30 2 - La dama duende 43 3 - Calderón and Tirso: El galán fantasma 56 4 - El secreto a voces: language and social illusion 71 5 - Toward tragedy 80 6 - El médico de su honra 87 7 - Herod and Hercules: theatrical space and the body 101 8 - El mágico prodigioso and the theatre of alchemy 115 9 - The illusions of history 126 10 - Authority and illusion: En la vida todo es verdad y todo mentira 140 11 - The use of myth: Eco y Narciso 149 12 - Prometheus and the theatre of the mind 161 13 - Calderón's last play: the comedia as technology and romance 171 Notes 186 Index 196 9780521022774 Cambridge Iberian and Latin American Studies For the Spanish comedia as a genre, La vida es sueno represents the most accomplished example of what Francis Fergusson once called the "idea of a theatre," the sustained attempt at self-imagining through representation. Anthony J. Cascardi. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 167-176.