Questioning the Canon: Golden Age Theatre

The canonical dramatic texts of the Spanish Golden Age - from Lope de Vega's El caballero de Olmedo and El castigo sin venganza to Tirso de Molina's El burlador de Sevilla and Calderón's La vida es sueño will be opened to new critical inquiry. Dramatic discourse, construction of characters, social and moral issues such as justice versus revenge, reality versus dream, courtly love versus erotic love, chastity versus incest, will be at issue. Each play will also be studied in relation to its social background and as metaphors of power and political crisi.