Golden-Age Studies in Honour of A.A. Parker (review)

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- Reviews269 tuai authority for criticism of Siglo de Oro works. This special number of BHS, rich in insight and texture, honors his contributions and verifies his influence. The twenty-one essays include fourteen on the comedia, the most prolific and arguably the most polemical area of Parker's investigations . In «Irony as Structure in the Drama,» Peter N. Dunn examines the interrelation of verbal and spatial codes in the performance text. Movement , space, and conceptual paradox combine to form an ironic (deep) structure in plays such as Peribáñez and La vida es sueño. The dramatic performance is the focal point of J.W. Sage's «Music as an 'Instrumentum Regni' in Spanish Seventeenth-century Drama» and J.E. Varey's«The Audience and the Play at Court Spectacles: The Role of the King.» Sage sees court drama as a means of fostering a genuine sense of community rather than as a show of aristocratic superiority. Using recent studies in musicology as a point of departure, he synthesizes a sociopolitical approach with the moral premises of Parker and E.M. Wilson, through a shared emphasis on reconciliation between men in a Christian republic. For Varey, the court spectacle encompasses the complete literary text (including loa, entremés, andfin de fiesta) and the theatrical event from the ceremonial entry to the departure of the monarch. The play is ultimately a reflection of royal tastes directed to an audience of one, an image of the court with the court as its central image. Seven of the articles deal with Calderón. Margaret Wilson's study of Amar después de Ia muerte stems from Parker's observation that the play has not received due consideration as an example of Calderón's tragic vision. By foregrounding deviations from the primary source, Guerras civiles de Granada, Wilson analyzes the work within the context of diffused responsibility and as a product of the historical circumstance in which it develops. Parker's attention to the integration of elements in Golden Age drama...