Academic literature on the topic 'The Spanish Tragedy'

An object-relations concept of transmission of turbulence illuminates the phantom structure of Thomas Kyd’s Elizabethan metatheatrical play The Spanish Tragedy and my response to it. In 1972, interpreting the arbor imagery and the rhetoric of reversal and self-cancellation in the play, I wrote, “Kyd is his father attacking himself in the womb he is in”. After researching my suppressed family history, this peculiar sentence suggested to me unconscious knowledge of a run of murders in my family line, going back to the 1760 Long Cane Massacre of Irish settlers by Cherokee Indians in what is now South Carolina; continuing in the 1799 murder of Major William Love near what is now Harpe’s Head, Kentucky; the suicide of my maternal grandfather in Philadelphia in 1931; and culminating in a Mafia-style execution of my father near Cleveland, Ohio in 1943. Objectification of violence drives Hieronimo and informs this essay.

During the height of the English Renaissance, the revenge tragedies The Spanish Tragedy and Hamlet were introduced to the English literary canon. In this essay, I will focus on the similarities that the protagonists, Hamlet and Hieronimo, share as prototypical avengers. Although Hamlet’s contribution to the genre should not be discredited, I will argue that the similar characterisation of Hieronimo in The Spanish Tragedy, portrays the same depth and entitlement to the acclaim as a prototypical avenger as Hamlet. Even though their portrayal may differ in tone, their shared commonality attributes equal complexity to both characters. I will compare and analyse the two plays in order to demonstrate that both characters should be considered prototypical avengers. The essay concludes that a reluctance to revenge and a tendency to contemplate the morality of the action is prominently shared by both prototypical avengers. Although critics generally infer Hieronimo is a less complex character in comparison with Hamlet, this essay will show how both avengers deserve equal credit. This essay illustrates this statement by juxtaposing their equal need to find justification before taking revenge, use of suicide to emphasise their moral dilemma, and comment on the tragic consequences of revenge.

At the heart of Thomas Kyd's revenge tragedy The Spanish Tragedy lies an arranged marriage around which all of the other action revolves. Bel-Imperia of Spain has been betrothed against her will to Prince Balthazar of Portugal, but she is no ordinary woman, and she has plans of her own. Bel-Imperia's unwillingness to participate in the arranged marriage is indicative of the rise of the companionate marriage; it represents a rejection of the arranged marriage that dominated upper class society in earlier years. This study seeks to throw light upon early modern attitudes towards marriage, focusing particularly on the arranged marriage, the companionate marriage, and the state marriage. Additionally, it examines the role of woman as peace-weaver, a practice that dates back as far as the Beowulf manuscript. Using historical as well as literary sources to delineate these forms, I apply this information to a study of the play itself, with an emphasis on its performative value. Since the proposed marriage dictates all of the action of the play, an analysis of the bartered bride, Bel-Imperia, is of particular importance. This essay examines her character in depth as well as her relationships with Andrea and Horatio, who love her; with Lorenzo, the King, and her father, who seek to exploit her; and with Hieronimo, who becomes her partner in revenge. Additionally, I contrast her with Isabella, one of only two other female characters in the play and conclude by delineating how my analysis would affect a performance of the play and by "directing" a hypothetical interpretation of The Spanish Tragedy.

This paper explores the depiction and function of madness on the Renaissance stage, specifically its development as trope of the English revenge tragedy from its Elizabethan conception to its Jacobean advent through a representative engagement of Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi. Madness in these plays selectively departs from popular conceptions and archetypal formulas to create an uncertain dramatic space which allows its sufferers to walk moral lines and liminal paths unavailable to the sane. “Madness” is responsible for and a response to vision; where the revenger is driven to the edge of madness by a lapse in morality only visible to him, madness provides a lens to correct the injustice. It is the tool that allows them to escape convention, decorum and even the law to rout a moral cancer, and, in this capacity, is enabling rather than disabling.

Thesis advisor: Irene Mizrahi
This study is an analysis of the theatre of the Spanish contemporary playwright Raúl Hernández Garrido. It explores in depth his tragedy Los engranajes and it applies (in a more referential manner) the results of this investigation to the rest of his plays: Los malditos, Los restos: Agamenón vuelve a casa and Los restos Fedra, included in the cycle Los esclavos. The author utilizes myth and greek tragedy intentionally in order to make readers reflect upon the concepts of destiny and the fragility of human action as well as the fragmentation, hopelessness and dissatisfaction of contemporary societies. My study demonstrates that the formal innovation of these plays and the use of tragedy as their argumental framework present not only a criticism about these concepts but also an approach towards change and a social ethic of hope founded in creative freedom and the cooperation between the text and all people involved in the creative process. As a theoretical frame of reference for my study I use texts from Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Friedrich Nietzsche, René Girard and Emmanuel Levinas. Their reflections about the genre of tragedy and/or the concept of the tragic shed light upon my analysis of themes such as human suffering, trauma, the abuse of power, violence and the ethics of responsibility in the works of our author
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Romance Languages and Literatures

The aim of this study is to demonstrate the destructive effects of infidelity in the old-aged husband-the young wife marriages which end up with tragedy. In John Ford&rsquo
s Love&rsquo
s Sacrifice (1633) and Lope de Vega&rsquo
s Punishment Without Revenge (1631), tragedy turns out to be the inevitable consequence of the plays since the motives of jealousy, honour, revenge and love converge and lead people to commit sinful crimes. Within this scope, the first chapter of the thesis is devoted to the historical information about the state of English and Spanish theatres together with the biographies of the playwrights. In the second chapter, the tripartite relationship between jealousy, revenge, and honour is dealt with based upon examples from the primary sources in a historical framework. The reasons and results of these themes are studied through the characters in the plays. The third chapter covers the theme of love, its history and its influence on characters. In this chapter, the nature of love between the characters and its consequences are examined. The conclusion asserts that the old-aged husband and the young wife create a mismatched union and accompanied with the motives of honour, jealousy and revenge, the institution of marriage breeds tragic consequences. The analysis of the above mentioned themes is based on a historical context and it is also concluded that although Love&rsquo
s Sacrifice (1633) and Punishment Without Revenge (1631) belong to the Renaissance age, both plays bear the influences of the Greco-Roman drama tradition. Thus, the similarities and differences between classical and Renaissance tragedy are demonstrated.

El presente estudio muestra de qué manera la tragedia simbolista de Federico García Lorca -nos referimos a Bodas de sangre, Yerma, La casa de Bernarda Alba y Doña Rosita la soltera- sigue presente en la dramaturgia femenina española contemporánea. Con el propósito de crear un diálogo intertextual que nos permita ver en qué medida estas obras influyen en seis textos teatrales pertenecientes a la escena española más reciente: El color de agosto, 1987, de Paloma Pedrero (1957); Atra bilis (cuando estemos más tranquilas…), 2000, de Laila Ripoll (1964); El matrimonio de Palavrakis, 2000, de Angélica Liddell (1966), Como si fuera esta noche, 2002, de Gracia Morales (1973), Las voces de Penélope, 1996, de Itziar Pascual (1967); y Selección natural, 2007, de Pilar Campos Gallegos (1973). Todos ellos representados o editados entre las primeras décadas de la democracia, esto es, entre el «renacer» de la dramaturgia femenina (años 80) y el 2011, año en el que iniciamos nuestra investigación. El diálogo intertextual resultante presenta dos lecturas; una que presta atención a la temática de las obras y nos deja ver el conflicto dramático, el trazado psicológico y social de los personajes, la organización de la acción, del espacio y del tiempo. Y una segunda lectura que atiende al simbolismo del texto, a las imágenes que están dotadas de doble significación. Esta segunda lectura nunca es contradictoria de la primera, sino complementaria y muestra la hondura poética y la universalidad que contiene la obra, rasgos imposibles de trabajar en la primera lectura. Silenciadas durante siglos, es de esperar que su escritura se dedique/decante, en primer lugar, por cuestiones de género. Haciendo de su obra una acción combativa y política, de la que no hemos encontrado modelos femeninos anteriores, pero sí el teatro de Federico García Lorca. Con el que no sólo comparten la misma misión artística, esto es, el exterminio de la sociedad androcéntrica, sino, además, la extraordinaria capacidad de presentar un teatro impregnado de poesía, en el que combinan tradición y vanguardia y consiguen un teatro muy personal. El enfrentamiento entre el amor y el desamor, la vida y la muerte, la sociedad y el individuo, la vejez y la juventud, la fertilidad y la infertilidad,... entre muchos otros eternos opuestos, pueblan sus letras y por encima de todos, dos fuerzas que resumen sus obras: «principio de autoridad» y «principio de libertad». Puesto que, tanto Federico como las dramaturgas defienden por encima de todo la libertad personal, al derecho de escoger individualmente frente a las convenciones sociales aunque esto suponga una tragedia. Preocupación universal que afectaba a la época anterior a la II República y sigue afectando en la actualidad. Sin embargo, y aquí radica la diferencia, lo que verdaderamente separa los personajes de la dramaturgia lorquiana de los de las autoras contemporáneas es la impronta de una época que resolverá de manera bien distinta los conflictos de sus personajes. Lo interesante de este primer enfrentamiento que proponen sus escritos es reconocer entre líneas un segundo enfrentamiento que nada tiene que ver con su condición genérica, histórica y social, sino metafísica. Nos referimos al sentimiento trágico de la vida. De esta manera, pasan a ser las continuadoras de un pensamiento que entronca con la filosofía alemana del XIX y del existencialismo del XX. Reconociendo ese tiempo que se les escapa, esa desilusión que tiene el vivir, o lo que es lo mismo, ese sentimiento de desgarro que sufren al aceptar su esencia finita. Situándose, de este modo, en el territorio de lo trágico existencial, que es el mismo en el que se sitúan Federico García Lorca y los grandes escritores.
This study shows how the symbolist tragedy of Federico Garcia Lorca - specifically Bodas de Sangre, Yerma, La casa de Bernarda Alba and Doña Rosita la Soltera - is present in contemporary Spanish female drama. We have created an intertextual dialog which allows us to see to what extent these plays influence six theatrical texts belonging to the present-day Spanish scene: El color de agosto, 1987, by Paloma Pedrero (1957); Atra bilis (cuando estemos más tranquilas…), 2000, by Laila Ripoll (1964); El matrimonio de Palavrakis, 2000, by Angélica Liddell (1966), Como si fuera esta noche, 2002, by Gracia Morales (1973), Las voces de Penélope, 1996, by Itziar Pascual (1967); and Selección natural, 2007, by Pilar Campos Gallegos (1973). All of these plays have been produced or edited during the first decades of democracy, that is, between the renaissance of femenine dramaturgy (1980s) and 2011, which is when we began this investigation. The resulting intertextual dialog presents us with two possible readings; firstly, one which focusses on the plays' themes and looks at dramatic conflict, the characters' psychological and social outline, and the organization of action, space and time. Secondly we propose a reading which focusses on the text's symbolism, on the images which are full of double meanings This second reading is not contradictory to the first, rather it complements it, showing the poetic depth and universality contained in the play, features which are impossible to derive from the first reading. Silenced for centuries, it is no surprise that these women's writing focusses primarily on the question of gender, making their work a militant and political action the like of which we have not seen in previous female authors. This aspect is, however, clearly present in the work of Federico García Lorca, with whom the authors not only share an artistic mission - the downfall of male-centred society - but also the extraordinary capacity to present a theatre steeped in poetry where tradition and modernity combine to create a very personal creation. The interesting thing about this first reading offered by their works is to recognize between the lines a second reading, which has nothing to do with the writers' gender or socio-historical condition, but rather is related to their metaphysical condition, namely the tragedy of life. In this way, these writers are representatives of an idea which connects both with 19th-century German philosophy and the Existentialism of the twentieth century, recognizing that time escapes them, that life is disappointment, and the ripping sensation which they suffer upon accepting their mortality, placing themselves thus alongside great writers such as Federico García Lorca in the territory of existential tragedy.

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Was Federico García Lorca a political agent? This is the question that frames the research here presented. However, this question must be split in two in order to be properly answered: first, who was García Lorca, taking into account his life and work; second, the several possibilities for political action. Politics is not restricted to the institutional realm, but permeates individual and societal relationships, being present both in public and private affairs, touching and being touched by art. A tragic artist, Federico García Lorca constitutes the main focus of this research. To find the politics in Lorca, it is essential to understand the relationship between his art and his life and society. With that in mind, the investigation starts from both external and internal analyses of Lorca's works. The external analysis explores Spain before its Civil War, given the importance of the period which is mirrored in Lorca's works. For internal analysis, the theatrical pieces Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba were analyzed to investigate both the relationships among characters, and the social conventions shown in these works. Furthermore, a number of conferences and interviews with the author are employed in a dialogue with the theatrical works, with the goal of understanding his relationships with art and society. García Lorca's art, voiced by flamenco, communicated with his society and received an answer: death by firing squad. Lorca wasn't limited to his own time and space, but survives today, be it through his deeply disquieting art, or be it through his still mystery-shrouded death
Federico García Lorca foi um agente político? Sobre este questionamento se desenvolve a presente pesquisa. Porém, para responder a essa pergunta, é fundamental dividi-la em duas, voltando um olhar para quem foi García Lorca levando em consideração sua vida e obra e outro olhar para as diversas possibilidades de atuação da política. A política não está apenas no âmbito institucional, mas permeia as relações dos indivíduos e sociedades, se faz presente nos âmbitos público e privado, alcançando e sendo alcançada pela arte. Artista trágico, Federico García Lorca é o foco central deste estudo. Para buscar a política em Lorca, é fundamental entender a relação de sua arte com a sociedade e a vida do escritor. Para tanto, a investigação parte de uma análise externa e uma análise interna a obra de Lorca. A análise externa mapeia a Espanha que antecede a Guerra Civil Espanhola, tendo em vista a importância desta época que se encontra refletida na obra de Lorca. Para análise interna foram escolhidas as obras teatrais Yerma e A casa de Bernarda Alba, sobre as quais é feita uma análise das relações das personagens entre si e os códigos sociais que essas obras expõem. Além disso, são usadas para dialogar com as obras teatrais algumas conferências e entrevistas do autor, com a finalidade de entender sua relação com a arte e com a sociedade. A arte de García Lorca, entoada pelo flamenco, dialogou com sua sociedade e recebeu resposta desta: seu fuzilamento. Mas Lorca não coube em seu tempo e espaço e transborda para os dias de hoje, seja por sua arte, profundamente inquietante, seja por sua morte, até hoje envolta em mistérios