After Its Kind: Approaches to the Comedia (review)

Reviews169 Los profesores F. Ruiz Ramón, de la Universidad de Vanderbilt, y J. M. Ruano de la Haza, de la Universidad de Ottawa, investigaron aspectos de La vida es sueño. El primero, continuando su labor interpretativa de esta comedia, analizó la caracterización del personaje Basilio ("El rey Basilio: entre el miedo y la violencia" 147-153); y el segundo ofreció un trabajo de crítica textual en el que examinó la versión zaragozana (Z) con la madrileña (M) para establecer la hipótesis de Z como una copia alterada por un autor de comedias de un prototexto ("Las dos versiones de La vida es sueño: estudio preliminar" 133-146). La Prof. Adrienne Schizzano Mandel, de la Universidad Estatal de California (Northridge), consideró la relación de la figura histórica de Giambattista della Porta con la pieza El astrologofingido ("Della Porta: El astròlogo non fingido de Calderón" 160-180). Finalmente el Prof. Henry W. Sullivan, de la Universidad de Missouri, realizó un cuidadoso examen de la obra calderoniana en Inglaterra a través de tres etapas: el teatro de la Restauración, el del Siglo XVIII, y la acogida que le otorgaron radicales y románticos ("Calderón en Inglaterra desde la restauración hasta el romanticismo" 181-188). Además, el Prof. John Varey, de Queen Mary y Westfield College, leyó una nota en memoria del Prof. A. A. Parker, fallecido recientemente (189-191). En resumen, el volumen sexto de Hacia Calderón constituye una firme y cohesiva aportación para el conocimiento de la dramaturgia del genial escritor. Debe añadirse que hay algunos errores tipográficos. A. Valbuena-Briones University of Delaware James A. Parr. After Its Kind: Approaches to the Comedia. Edited by Matthew D. Stroud, Anne M. Pasero, & Amy R. Williamsen. Kassel : Edition Reichenberger, 1991. This is a unique volume, edited by three former students of James A. Parr. It contains ten of Parr's articles published previously and one which he wrote specifically for inclusion in this volume. In the Introduction by Matthew Stroud, who studied under Parr at the University of Southern California from 1972 to 1977, Parr is lauded for the strong impetus he gave to eclectic approaches to comedia criticism at a time when this area of Hispanic studies was heavily under the influence of Alexander A. Parker's "Approach," or the "approaches" of fig- 770BCom, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Summer 1993) ures such as Americo Castro, Menéndez y Pelayo, or Arnold G. Reichenberger . Stroud states that while other disciplines were evolving exciting methodologies through structuralism, psychoanalysis, and deconstruction , Parr sensed that the consecrated "approaches" used in his field were not only keeping Golden Age comedia criticism marginal to the literary enterprise in general, but they also were failing to offer particularly interesting readings ofthe plays. Parr is praised by his former students for his constant encouragement to question both the texts and the methodologies used in their study. Through his editorship of the Bulletin of the Comediantes (1973 to the present), Parr is credited with leadership far beyond the classroom, particularly for his editorial policy of publishing work by younger scholars, and for furthering the aims ofcontextualism and eclecticism. Stroud claims that this volume "is simultaneously a tribute to Parr's scholarship in Golden Age dramatic literature and, indirectly, a history of comedia criticism from 1970 to 1990" (p. 2). Through the writings of a single author, according to Stroud, we see quite clearly the change in the profession from initial straightforward descriptive criticism, to genre studies, followed by a consideration of poststructural approaches and the role oftheory itselfin the critical project. Parr's articles are arranged in three methodological groupings rather than chronologically. The titles of seven of the ten previously published articles have been modified to a slight degree, but Stroud's introductory remarks assure us that "the articles appear almost entirely as they did originally" (p. 3), and all but Parr's 1974 major article on critical method have some bibliographical updating. Part I: Life and Works: Themes and Structure: Contexts includes five articles whose approaches are more traditional, published by Parr from 1972 to 1986 on the theater of...