In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

376BCom, Vol. 48, No. 2 (Winter 1996) have been rendered into book form by the dedicated publishing care which has become the trademark of Edition Reichenberger. Although the Ohio State Spanish drama collection may not be noteworthy for the rarity or uniqueness of the items contained in it, it has acquired special importance as a result ofthe perceptive and sound conclusions that Professor Arizpe reaches from his research on the manuscript markings found in the sueltas and the questions that he raises about the significance of these notations, pointing the way to new avenues of exploration on the printing history of this singular Spanish publishing endeavor , the comedia suelta. Professor Arizpe's discovery serves as stimulus for further scrutiny of other sueltas collections and a model of what imaginative and painstaking bibliographical research may yield. José M. Regueiro University of Pennsylvania Cantalapiedra, Fernando. Semiotica teatral del Siglo de Oro. Kassel: Reichenberger, 1995. Hardcover. 330 pp. Cantalapiedra undertakes a bold task herein—to forge a semiotic metalanguage appropriate to Spanish Golden Age theater. He has managed to wed the critical method of semiotic analysis, with its abstractions, formulae, semantic interconnectedness, and binomial contrasts to an art form which also stresses stylized point/counterpoint motifs, symmetries and repetition with variations. Thus, method and artistic design self-reflect in a manner which imparts credibility and validity to a hermeneutical tool unhappily still not entirely understood or appreciated by many American scholars. The book's great lack of bibliography regarding American contributions to semiotic inquiry would therefore be somewhat understandable, were it not for the works of Jonathan Culler, Ronald Schleifer, Thomas Sebeok and others. However, the nearly complete disregard of almost all American and British scholars of Golden Age theater, even in reference to ideas not entirely semiotic in nature, brands the book a deliberate product of a Franco-Hispanic view ofa national drama. This myopia is upsetting when, in chapter one, the cultural significance of the term honor is reviewed in a hierarchical and historico-political context which allows for few if any new readings of Golden Age plays. Honor and honra are differentiated, although the distinctions are not always clearly observed in the corpus of drama itself, nor do all critics accept them as sig- Reviews377 nificantly different. The author conveniently ignores much critical debate on interpretation in order to concentrate on method. Cantalapiedra's discussion of narrative phases and transformations, ofthematic paths and modalities , requires great initial investment of time and concentrated thought, for they are the fruit of borrowed and synthesized axioms, schemes, paradigms and definitions, while the complex terminology and the theoretical nature of the discourse add to the ponderous reading. There are many graphs and illustrations accompanied by exemplary passages from the comedia. One soon understands the potential ofthis cerebral study as a reference and seminal work, a purpose the author states as he excuses the sketchy, sometimes unpolished aspects of his chapters. The author has carefully analyzed semiotic terms and their definitions from studies by Greimas, Panier, Rastier, Fontanille, Courtes and others (he often cites his own studies) he believes most appropriate. We learn that from the simple binomial /honor-honra/ and its seven fundamental thematic paths (political, social, religious, familial , etc.) various combinations are possible with the subject, antisubject and object of value, among the modalities of /doing/ or /being/ and among the various narrative programs ranging from desagravio to no-afrenta which all add up to five hundred possible narrative programs. When these programs are multiplied by eight types of transformations (dynamic, actualizing, stationary , etc.) more than four thousand variations are produced from the simple binomial /honor-honra/. In chapter two, not only does the author trace important developments relating to the actant —from Vladimir Propp to Souriau to Greimas— he also makes some fascinating distinctions among types of roles, characters, actors, functions of actants and actantial systems. He ends by postulating a configuration ofroles which shapes the actor-comediante. A particularly interesting discussion, expanded in chapter four, under the title of a figurative analysis ofthe actor, centers on actor, figure and role in Don Gil de las calzas verdes and El burlador de Sevilla. This chapter is perhaps of greatest interest to the...

pdf

Share