The Generic Dimension of Self-Referentiality: Calderón's El médico de su honra as metadrama de honor

A prominent aspect of early modern Spanish literature is the group of literary devices which examine the relationship between perceived reality and its representation. With its alternative poetics, self-conscious art seeks to explore the idea of representation both thematically and aesthetically. Lionel Abel's "metatheater," which focused on the self-conscious theatrical character, is one type of self-referential technique. This paper examines a different aspect, Calderon's deconstruction of the dramatic and generic conventions that govern audience reactions. Throughout the play, and particularly at the conclusion, the "laying bare" of theatrical conventions regarding laughter and horror, marriage and death, provides a modal modification of the tragic and comic events represented, one which has the potential to alter audience response to those events. Thus, self-referentiality constitutes a generic component of El médico de su honra; the play is a metadrama de honor. (BAS)