Love in the 'Corral': Conjugal Spirituality and Anti-Theatrical Polemic in Early Modern Spain.(Book Review)

Publication: The Modern Language Review

Publication Date: 01-JUL-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Modern Humanities Research Association

Love in the 'Corral': Conjugal Spirituality and Anti-Theatrical Polemic in Early Modern Spain. By THOMAS AVSTIN O'CONNOR. (Iberica, 31) New York: Peter Lang. 2000. xv+395 pp. 44 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-8204-4493-6.

This, as few scholarly books may claim to be, is a work of love, born of a profound regard for the sacrality of marriage and its liberating potential for the human individual. Over its four hundred pages, O'Connor sets out what the Spanish Comedia could teach its audiences as regards the nature of marriage; and he does this by setting the Comedia's dramatic praxis against the theoretical debates that raged particularly at the end of the seventeenth century over the licitness of different types of dramatic representation and of their setting. The work is divided into two parts. The first offers a taxonomy of the criticism levelled and abuse thrown at the theatre by its opponents: on one level, through the topics they aimed their fire at (for example, actresses were really prostitutes, plays encouraged licentiousness, and theatres gave opportunities for illicit meetings); on another, through the political significance of the campaign to have theatre banned; and finally, through the attitudes taken in general by members of religious orders to the question of theatrical licitness. The second part provides an analysis of works by major literary figures (Lope, Salazar y Torres, Sor Juana, Calderon,...

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