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Dissertation
Identity in early modern Spanish theater
University of Iowa
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
Autumn 2024
DOI: 10.25820/etd.007581
Abstract
In my dissertation, I analyze the ways in which hegemonic discourse was challenged by the representations of Moriscos, Africans, women and captives within theatrical plays of the seventeenth-century. The representations employed in these texts contest the definition of the exemplary Spanish subject as set forth by the Church and the Crown. I examine how gender, race, and religion are used to not only enforce hegemonic discourse but also to defy it. In all the works that I will be analyzing, the possibility of agency is present through the construction of identities, and the authors of the texts I will be analyzing consistently reconfigured the positions of their subjects. More than seeing how the Other is represented, I analyze how they deliver their own unique discourses of resistance but also observe how the hegemonic discourse was applied, at times in overpowering ways.
I examine five plays from the seventeenth-century that each deal with different alterities and historical moments: Calderon de la Barca’s Amar después de la muerte (1633) and Las manos blancas no ofenden (1657), Andrés de Claramonte’s El valiente negro en Flandes (1620), and Miguel de Cervantes’s La gran sultana (1615) and Los baños de Argel (1615). I have grouped these texts together because they were written by supposed Old Christian men that demonstrate facets of daily life in which “othered” bodies are integral parts of the day-to-day operations.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Identity in early modern Spanish theater
- Creators
- Mackenzi McGowan
- Contributors
- Ana Rodríguez-Rodríguez (Advisor)Denise Filios (Committee Member)Ana Merino (Committee Member)Luis Muñoz (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Spanish
- Date degree season
- Autumn 2024
- DOI
- 10.25820/etd.007581
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- v, 169 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2024 Mackenzi McGowan
- Language
- English
- Date submitted
- 11/26/2024
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references.
- Public Abstract (ETD)
- This study explores how certain groups—Moriscos, Africans, women, and captives— were represented in seventeenth-century Spanish theater and how these portrayals pushed back against the dominant social ideals of the time. These plays reveal the complexities of identity in a society governed by strict norms by depicting characters who challenged or redefined the “ideal” Spanish identity, which the Church and the Crown heavily influenced. I focus on five plays from this period: Amar después de la muerte and Las manos blancas no ofenden by Calderón de la Barca, El valiente negro en Flandes by Andrés de Claramonte, and La gran sultana and Los baños de Argel by Miguel de Cervantes. Written by prominent Spanish playwrights, these works show how people considered “outsiders” were essential to daily life and even voiced their own forms of resistance. Through these characters, the playwrights didn’t just portray the “Other” but also illustrated how dominant social values were enforced and, at times, challenged. This analysis highlights how gender, race, and religion intersected in complex ways, ultimately showing that identity itself was not fixed but constantly evolving within the fabric of Spanish society.
- Academic Unit
- Spanish and Portuguese
- Record Identifier
- 9984774960102771
Metrics
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