"El circular coliseo": The Loa to El gran teatro del mundo Reconsidered

This essay reconsiders the status of the loa to Pedro Calderón de la Barca's highly influential auto sacramental El gran teatro del mundo (ca. 1633–36). For the last century, it has been conventional among scholars to consider the loa inauthentic and as having been written by Francisco Bances Candamo. The article begins with an examination of the arguments for this assumption. The second half comprises a textual interpretation of the loa regardless of its author. This analysis focuses on four dimensions: the stylistic figure of metalepsis, the motif of the fiesta, and the theological themes of theodicy and divine law. In so doing, the study proposes that the loa carefully prepares ways to see the theatrum mundi as a means to foment an appreciation or celebration of baroque reality. This interpretation invites a reconsideration of the widely held notions of the theatrum mundi as a pessimistic experience of desengaño or vanitas.