Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the World Theatre in Early Modern Europe : The Theatrum Mundi of Celebration / Rasmus Vangshardt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vangshardt, Rasmus, author.

Series:

Early drama, art, and music monograph series.

Early Drama, Art, and Music Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater--Europe--16th century.

Theater.

Theater--Europe--17th century.

Calderón de la Barca, Pedro, 1600-1681.

Calderón de la Barca, Pedro.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (254 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berlin, Germany : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, [2024]

Summary:

Rasmus Vangshardt offers an original interpretation of one of the most famous images of literary history, the theatrum mundi. By applying methods of comparative literature, hispanic studies, and theology, he reconsiders the world theatre's historical peak in early modern Europe in general and the Spanish Golden Age in particular. The author presents a new close reading of Pedro Calderón's El gran teatro del mundo (c. 1633-36) and outlines the historical and systematic framework for a theatrum mundi of celebration. This concept entails using art to justify human existence in the face of changing conceptions of the cosmos: an early modern aesthetic theodicy and a justification of the world in that liminal space between drama and ritual. By discussing historiographical theories of early modern Europe, especially those of Hans Blumenberg and Bruno Latour, and through conversations with Shakespearean drama and Spanish Golden Age classics, Vangshardt also argues that the theatrum mundi of celebration questions traditional assumptions of great divides between the Middle Ages and Early Modernity and challenges theories of a European-wide early modern sense of crisis.

Contents:

Intro

Acknowledgements

Contents

Texts and Translations

Introduction: Plaything or Purpose

Chapter 1 A Poetics of Festivity

Chapter 2 A Circular Colosseum: The Loa

Chapter 3 El gran teatro del mundo

Chapter 4 Aesthetic Theodicy

Conclusion: "The Modern Age Begins with an Act of Theodicy"

Bibliography

Index of Names

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based upon print version of record.

ISBN:

1-5015-1700-7

OCLC:

1409684034