| 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. |
