The «Franciscan Connection» in the Early Castilian Theater

This study focuses on three Castilian plays (Gómez Manrique's Representaçión del Nasçimiento de Nuestro Señor, the anonymous Auto de la huida a Egipto, and the anonymous Auto del día de la Asunción) composed for convents of Franciscan nuns in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. All three works develop devotional or theological motifs particularly associated with medieval Franciscan spirituality. Gómez Manrique demonstrates the relationship between the Incarnation and the Redemption through the juxtaposition of the Nativity and the Passion. The Auto de la huida a Egipto links the Flight into Egypt to St. John the Baptist's sojourn in the wilderness as an exhortation to the ascetic life. The Auto del día de la Asunción juxtaposes the exaltation of the Virgin to the Fall of Lucifer in order to dramatize the theme of the Immaculate Conception. The three plays also share the concept of drama as mimesis, an approach to the theater that distinguishes them from other contemporary dramatic traditions (the Salamancan plays of Encina and Fernández, for example). (RES)