Within the rich tradition of Spanish theater lies an unexplored
dimension reflecting themes from classical mythology. Through close
readings of selected plays from early modern and twentieth-century
Spanish literature with plots or characters derived from the
Greco-Roman tradition, Michael Kidd shows that the concept of
desire plays a pivotal role in adapting myth to the stage in each
of several historical periods.
In Stages of Desire, Kidd offers a new way of looking at the
theater in Spain. Reviewing the work of playwrights from Juan del
Encina to Luis Riaza, he suggests that desire constitutes a central
element in a large number of Greco-Roman myths and shows how
dramatists have exploited this to resituate ancient narratives
within their own artistic and ideological horizons. Among the works
he analyzes are Timoneda's Tragicomedia llamada Filomena, Castro's
Dido y Eneas, and Unamuno's Fedra.
Kidd explores how seventeenth-century playwrights were
constrained by the conventions of the newly formed national
theater, and how in the twentieth century mythological desire was
exploited by playwrights engaged in upsetting the melodramatic
conventions of the entrenched bourgeois theater. He also examines
the role of desire both in the demythification of prominent
classical heroes during the Franco regime and in the cultural
critique of institutionalized discrimination in the current
democratic period.
Stages of Desire is an original and broad-ranging study that
highlights both change and continuity in Spanish theater. By
elegantly combining theory, literary history, and close textual
analysis, Kidd demonstrates both the resilience of Greco-Roman
myths and the continuing vitality of the Spanish stage.
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