Proceedings of the Third Annual Golden Age Spanish Drama Symposium (review)

REVIEWS Proceedings of the Third Annual Golden Age Spanish Drama Symposium . El Paso: University of Texas at El Paso. March 9-11, 1983. Paper. 121 pages. The Golden Age Spanish Drama Symposium—held annually in conjunction with the Siglo de Oro Drama Festival, sponsored by the Chamizal National Memorial—provides a unique opportunity for the convergence of the literary critic and the actor/director to work mutually, resulting in the enhancement of both areas. The Proceedings of the Third Symposium, reproduced in offset printing, includes seven studies, principally of the theater of Tirso. Everett Hesse, in «Ironic Dimensions in Tirso's El burlador de Sevilla ,» reviews the familiar irony of situation and character, but, more interestingly , suggests Tirso's universal portrayal of humankind as the victim of an inherent irony, thereby raising the provocative question of theological determinism in El burlador. El vergonzoso en palacio is studied by several critics: Deborah Hill, in «El vergonzoso en palacio and Don Gil de las calzas verdes,» contrasts freedom and imprisonment through the use of disguise; Vern Williamsen, in an insightful paper, ranges from the date of composition of El vergonzoso and the sensual nature of the play as a possible cause of Tirso's censure by the Junta de Reformación to the multiplicity of mutually reflecting themes, etc.; and a particularly pertinent paper for the present collection, with its dual focus on literature and theater, is «El vergonzoso en palacio: Poetic Structure and Performance» by David Gitlitz, who attempts to ascertain to what extent the spectators were able to recognize and appreciate complex structural devices so characteristic of Golden Age dramatic text. One of the most popular of Tirso's plays, albeit one which has received relatively little critical study, is the subject of Henry Sullivan's 267 268BCom, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Winter 1 985)«The Sexual Ambiguities of Tirso de Molina's Don Gil de ¡as calzas verdes .» The author's application of the psychoanalytical theories of Jacques Lacan to elucidate the sexual ambiguities of Don Gil leaves the present reviewer, at least, with many questions. The theme of sexual ambiguity , which pervades not only the theater of Tirso but the entire corpus of comedias as well, is especially noteworthy in a society which defined individual status and role in life by gender, and merits further study. A less common theme in Tirso's theater is analyzed by Matthew Stroud in «Tirso's Wife Murder Play: La vida y muerte de Herodes,» and the volume is rounded out by Francisco Ruiz Ramon's perspicacious contribution to the much-studied wife murder plays of Calderón:«Tragedia de honor: Introducción a un sistema dramático.» In the continuing controversy over Calderón's honor tragedies this study is notable in that the author does not limit himself to any exclusive approach —sociological, ethical, dramaturgical—but considers aspects of characterization and plot which lead inexorably to a tragic conclusion, illuminating both the structure of the plays and Calderón's concept of tragedy. The papers make a useful contribution to comedia scholarship, and share with other contemporary research evidence that Tirso is one of the most timeless and universal, as well as one of the most Baroque, of the Spanish playwrights, whose multifaceted work continually offers new dimensions and interpretations. But perhaps the greatest value of the Symposium is the unique occasion it presents for combining literary criticism with live theater before a mixed but enthusiastic audience, much as in the seventeenth century. Ruth Lundelius University of Georgia McKENDRICK, MELVEENA, editor. Golden-Age Studies in Honour of A.A. Parker. Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (Liverpool) 61, 3 (July 1984), 263-457. Paper. $25.00 Alexander A. Parker's studies offer illuminating views of Spanish Golden Age literature and now-classic readings of individual texts. Parker is, in a manner of speaking, the Borges of Golden Age rsearch in Great Britain and the United States: an implied presence and intertex- ...