Calderonian Stage Body and Soul

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"The Calderonian Stage" is a collection of essays on the works of Pedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681), who became the most important and influential dramatist of the second period of the spanish Golden Age. As a playwright for both public playhouses and performances at court, Calderon always distinguished between the soul and the body of a play, that is, between its poetry, its ideas or conceptual content, and the props, machinery, and accessories needed for the spectacle. Until now, many of Calderon's critics have focused their attention on how the poetic devices, particularly metaphors and symbols, appearing in his plays represent his philosophy or his ideas. But as some scholars have argued, the study of Calderon's theater must take into account not only the literary text, but also the physical conditions of the stage, the elements used in the representation (decor, costumes, lighting, music) and the house dynamics at each performance. The individual contributing essayists to "The Calderonian Stage" successfully undertake that task. From different perspectives, they show how Calderon gives concrete shape to the concepts and tales from the Bible, theology, mythology, the Corpus Hermeticum, emblematic literature, philosophy, and realities of civic and domestic origin. "The Calderonian Stage" is an exceptionally impressive body of historical, literary and theatrical scholarship.