James Mandrell

Language and Seduction in El burlador de Sevilla

Seduction in Tirso de Molinas El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra is not merely sexual in nature; it also has serious implications for language, including the ways in which language can be used and abused. In this study of the comedia, I explore the linguistic implications of seduction, relating them to concerns pertinent to seventeenth-century Spanish society and religious orthodoxy. Moreover, this interpretation demonstrates the ways in which Don Juan serves a positive function in patriarchal society as well as the extent to which Tirso was profoundly concerned with language and its capacity both to create and to deceive. By recognizing and recuperating the worldly importance of language as it relates to seduction in El burlador de Sevilla, I hope to restore to the comedia the lessons it offers us as readers and critics. (JM)

Literary Theory and Medieval Texts: Authority and the Worldly Power of Language in "El Conde Lucanor"

One of the more serious challenges to traditional methodologies employed in the study of medieval Hispanic literature has come from recent developments in literary theory, in particular, theories of textuality. This challenge consists in part of a revision of assumptions regarding the value and importance or even the meaning and nature of literature. But it also is true that recent literary theory oftentimes tends towards the restatement of notions that are by now clich4s of medieval scholarship, even as it does so in a new-and distinctly uncomfortable-way. It might be said that the problem begins with the concept of the text itself. Peter Haidu remarks:

Dentro/Fuera: El espacio homosexual masculino en la poesía española del siglo XX (review)

The virgule—or forward slash—plays a critical role in Enrique Álvarez’s Dentro/Fuera: El espacio homosexual masculino en la poesı́a española del siglo XX, and not just in the book’s title where it would seem to mediate the relative disclosure or visibility of, in this instance, a male subject’s sexuality, his in-ness or out-ness of the closet. The virgule also marks the conceptual signposts of this study by mediating, along with ‘‘dentro/fuera,’’ binaries such as ‘‘homo/heterosexual’’ and ‘‘poder/saber’’ (14) as well as ‘‘incorporación/transformación’’ (22) and ‘‘silencio/garganta’’ (37). The result is a consideration of the poetry—and drama and prose—of Federico Garcı́a Lorca, Luis Cernuda, Jaime Gil de Biedma, and Luis Antonio de Villena that discloses the ways in which ‘‘la experiencia homosexual masculina en las variantes del espacio social español a lo largo del siglo XX determina en gran medida la consideración formal en el proceso creativo de estos poetas’’ (10). More particularly:

Tirso and the Scene of Writing: El castigo del penséque and Quien calla, otorga

El castigo del penséque and Quien calla, otorga offer a unique opportunity to reflect on Tirso de Molinas penchant for developing ideas over two and three distinct comedias and work together to illustrate their authors intense interest in language, speech, and writing. The comedia that announces a continuation, El castigo del penséque, addresses in conjunction with the second play, Quien calla, otorga, the very processes of writing and interpretation. With these two comedias, Tirso once again demonstrates the power of speech and the way in which the dramatic word, indeed, all language, works in concert with worldly action even as he subtly shows how two distinct and discrete works open to interpretation can form a single conceptual whole. (JM)