Apologetics and Religion in Early Modern Corpus Christi Drama

  • Rasmus Vangshardt (Underviser)

    Aktivitet: Foredrag og mundtlige bidragKonferenceoplæg

    Beskrivelse

    The Spanish Golden Age dramatist Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s El gran teatro
    del mundo famously ends with shouts of exaltation and joy and an apology of
    the play, yet this seminal early modern religious play is situated in a time of social-political crisis, and several of the play’s characters express grave feelings
    towards the human condition. The paper will suggest a way to understand why
    Calderón still fashioned a theatrum mundi of celebration and not one of metaphysical pessimism otherwise popular at the time. This will be carried out with
    a focus on the historical development of the auto sacramental and a reading of
    the drama with intratextual reference to Calderón’s thoughts on the purpose of
    the genre. The paper thus suggests that in both historical and systematic perspectives
    Calderón’s world theatre can and should still be seen in the light of
    celebration and of a certain form of theodicy, namely a defence of the world as
    a work of art.
    Periode6. maj 2021
    BegivenhedstitelTenth Annual RefoRC Conference on Early Modern Christianity 2021
    BegivenhedstypeKonference
    PlaceringBudapest, UngarnVis på kort
    Grad af anerkendelseInternational

    Emneord

    • Pedro Calderón de la Barca
    • Baroque
    • Corpus Christi