Monarchy, Political Culture, and Drama in Seventeenth-Century Madrid: Theater of NegotiationIn early modern Spain, theater reached the height of its popularity during the same decades in which Spanish monarchs were striving to consolidate their power. Jodi Campbell uses the dramatic production of seventeenth-century Madrid to understand how ordinary Spaniards perceived the political developments of this period. Through a study of thirty-three plays by four of the most popular playwrights of Madrid (Pedro Caldern de la Barca, Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla, Juan de Matos Fragoso, and Juan Bautista Diamante), Campbell analyzes portrayals of kingship during what is traditionally considered to be the age of absolutism and highlights the differences between the image of kingship cultivated by the monarchy and that presented on Spanish stages. A surprising number of plays performed and published in Madrid in the seventeenth century, Campbell shows, featured themes about kingship: debates over the qualities that make a good king, tests of a king's abilities, and stories about the conflicts that could arise between the personal interests of a king and the best interest of his subjects. Rather than supporting the absolutist and centralizing policies of the monarchy, popular theater is shown here to favor the idea of reciprocal obligations between subjects and monarch. This study contributes new evidence to the trend of recent scholarship that revises our views of early modern Spanish absolutism, arguing for the significance of the perspectives of ordinary people to the realm of politics. |
From inside the book
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... José Pellicer de Tovar defended its quality to the Academia de Madrid, saying that it combined the best elements of the other styles, and by this time it had become the standard pattern for Spanish dramatists. Cascales, Tablas poéticas ...
... José Pellicer de Tovar defended its quality to the Academia de Madrid, saying that it combined the best elements of the other styles, and by this time it had become the standard pattern for Spanish dramatists. Cascales, Tablas poéticas ...
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... José Manuel de Bernardo Ares, Pablo Fernández Albaladejo, and Bartolomé Clavero. Even ordinary people were frequently participants in this system rather than helpless or invisible pawns. Luis Corteguera, for example, has convincingly ...
... José Manuel de Bernardo Ares, Pablo Fernández Albaladejo, and Bartolomé Clavero. Even ordinary people were frequently participants in this system rather than helpless or invisible pawns. Luis Corteguera, for example, has convincingly ...
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... José Antonio Maravall, one of the most influential comedia scholars of the twentieth century, saw the sixteenth century as a key stage in the evolution from a feudal to a precapitalist society, and noted the social tensions that emerged ...
... José Antonio Maravall, one of the most influential comedia scholars of the twentieth century, saw the sixteenth century as a key stage in the evolution from a feudal to a precapitalist society, and noted the social tensions that emerged ...
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... José Sanchis Sinisterra, “La condición marginal del teatro en el Siglo de Oro,” in José Monleón (ed.), III Jornadas de Teatro Clásico Español (Madrid, 1981), pp. 106–107. A second outcome of these fissures in the once-solid comedia ...
... José Sanchis Sinisterra, “La condición marginal del teatro en el Siglo de Oro,” in José Monleón (ed.), III Jornadas de Teatro Clásico Español (Madrid, 1981), pp. 106–107. A second outcome of these fissures in the once-solid comedia ...
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... José A. Madrigal (ed.), New Historicism and the Comedia: Poetics, Politics and Praxis (Boulder, 1997). 49 Cynthia Leone Halpern's book on Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, for example, is an excellent study linking the political themes of Alarcón's ...
... José A. Madrigal (ed.), New Historicism and the Comedia: Poetics, Politics and Praxis (Boulder, 1997). 49 Cynthia Leone Halpern's book on Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, for example, is an excellent study linking the political themes of Alarcón's ...
Contents
The World of the Stage | |
Competing Ideals of Kingship | |
Evaluations of the Practice of Kingship | |
The Curtain Falls | |
Other editions - View all
Monarchy, Political Culture, and Drama in Seventeenth-century Madrid ... Jodi Campbell Limited preview - 2006 |
Monarchy, Political Culture, and Drama in Seventeenth-Century Madrid ... Jodi Campbell Limited preview - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
absolutist acting companies Alcaldes de Casa Alegio Alfonso Antonio argued arrendadores audience authority autor de comedias Barca Bautista Diamante behavior Casa y Corte characters Charles comedias nuevas contemporary corrales Council of Castile court crown culture Diego drama dramatists duke Early Modern Europe Enrique Federico Francisco García Golden Age honor ingenios de España interests Jornadas de teatro José Juan Bautista Diamante Junta justice kill king king’s kingdom kingship libro Lope de Vega Lope’s Madrid Maravall Mariana of Austria Matos Fragoso McKendrick monarchy Olivares palace passion Pedro Calderón performances Philip Philip IV plays playwrights plot political theory popular presented prince principal Príncipe public theaters published queen reign reputation Retiro Rojas Zorrilla royal ruler Sancho scholars Semíramis seventeenth century Siglo de Oro siglo XVII sixteenth social Spain Spaniards Spanish Spanish Golden Age stage story subjects theatrical themes theorists throne Tirso Tirso de Molina tyranny