Risa y sociedad en el teatro español del siglo de oro (review)

Reviews111«Sed más galán cortesano» (v. 1407, Primera Parte de Comedias, Madrid, Clásicos Hispánicos, CSIC, vol. I, 1974; vol. II, 1981, p. 490). En el acto III, no se hace mención del descubrimiento de Segismundo de que la experiencia en palacio haya sido realidad y no sueño, como él había supuesto («Luego fue verdad, no sueño» v. 2934, p. 534); y, sin embargo, este dato es revelador para el estudio del desarrollo de la psicología del protagonista. En resumen, la obra de los profesores Tyler y Elizondo informa sobre el aspecto onomatológico de las comedias calderonianas, y la inclusi ón de los argumentos puede facilitar el comienzo de las investigaciones de los que se aventuran por los caminos interpretativos de la obra del eximio dramaturgo. A . Valbuena Briones University of Delaware FONQUERA, Y.-R., ed. Risa y sociedad en el teatro español del siglo de oro. Paris: C.N.R.S., 1981. Paper. 237 pp. The volume has thirteen ponencias which were presented at the University of Toulouse-le Mirail on Jan. 31-Feb. 2, 1980. It is not possible in the space permitted by this brief review to give deserved comment on each of them; a summary of generalized conclusions by one of the participants appears after the final ponencia, and at the end of the volume each author has a résumé of his contribution. This reviewer, interested especially in the theory of the comic, will confine his remarks to the three articles which to his mind most successfully elucidate in broader terms than the other articles the exploration of the areas named in the book's title. Robert Jammes, in «La risa y su función social en el siglo de oro,» suggests that laughter in the Comedia is aroused by five major elements: 1. Io disparatado, such as a clown's stupidity, 2. Io descompuesto , perhaps a physical mishap such as one's slipping and falling, 3. lo escatològico, 4. Io picaresco: thievery, lying, deceptions, 5. Io erótico. This last is the most prevalent of all, while numbers 3 and 5 are the most effective because of their shock value. Jammes sees the function of comedy in each of the five elements as an assault on established cultural norms; this implies a revolutionary intention either on the author's part or in the audience's interpretation of him. 112Bulletin ofthe Comediantes But even if the author intended a disruption of society-and Jammes does not say that he did-the jesting, Jammes feels, was taken as no more than that by the audience; for them, the fun-making served to relieve the frustrations inspired by the restrictive norms of their society . One kind of jesting, however, had a serious aim. This was the mockery of the less respected members of society: Jews, moriscos, gypsies, merchants, medical quacks, as examples. Jammes seems to infer that comedy always includes laughter, but most theorists of the comic do not accept this. Jammes appears to have in mind a function of comedy akin to Tirso's Deleitar aprovechando, the Horatian dulce et utile, or perhaps to some degree the Castigai mores ridendo of Plautus and Terence. For scholars intrigued by the theory of the comic, Maria Grazia Profeti's «Código ideológico-social, medios y modos de la risa en la comedia del siglo XVII» is an unusually pleasant find. She is the one participant of the thirteen who chooses to give details of her substantial knowledge of comedie theory, a knowledge based on an acquaintance with the writings of several of the major thinkers in that philosophical area. For her the comic must include the heroic, wise, and serious as well as the prosaic, absurd, and jesting. All of these are present in the Comedia. She remarks on the relative lack of attention given thus far to comedie theory by students of the Comedia. She concludes her article with cogent comments on who and what the subjects of laughter are, on the kinds of laughter and the reasons for it as inspired in the theater audience. The Notes to her article offer an extensive bibliography...