Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-15T14:11:44.048Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Principles of interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2012

Get access

Summary

The revaluation of ‘baroque’ poetry in Spain started shortly before the tricentenary of Góngora's death in 1627 and proceeded rapidly thereafter. Round about the same time Ángel Valbuena Prat attempted to associate a ‘Vuelta a Calderón’ (Return to Calderón) with the fashionable ‘Vuelta a Góngora’, but though a new interest in Calderón can be said to date from this time, he lagged far behind the new interest in Góngora. Culterano, or ‘Gongoristic’, vocabulary and metaphors in the dramatist were evidence of the extensive influence of Góngora in Spain towards the end of his life, but they did not serve as tools for dramatic criticism, especially since the interest in Góngora's poetry scarcely carried, at that time, an interest in his subject-matter. Dramatic poetry, being written for an audience, must have something to say. The ‘intentional fallacy’ theory, which maintains that we cannot and must not attempt to extract from a poetic work what the authors had in mind when writing it, cannot possibly apply to writing for the stage. A stage play had to communicate ideas through poetic dialogue and action, and those ideas had to give the action unity and purpose. Unless the poetry of drama expresses these ideas, in the way proper to drama, it will only give rhetorical colour, a range of intensified emotions, and excitement. This will not represent human life in action in a way that can lead the audience to pass judgements on it.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Mind and Art of Calderón
Essays on the Comedias
, pp. 13 - 24
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×