Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the World Theatre in Early Modern Europe: The Theatrum Mundi of Celebration

Rasmus Vangshardt

Published by Medieval Institute Publications 2024

Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the World Theatre in Early Modern Europe

The Theatrum Mundi of Celebration

Rasmus Vangshardt

In the series Early Drama, Art, and Music

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781501517006

Overview
Contents

About this book

Rasmus Vangshardt offers an original interpretation of one of the most famous images of literary history, the theatrum mundi. By applying methods of comparative literature, hispanic studies, and theology, he reconsiders the world theatre’s historical peak in early modern Europe in general and the Spanish Golden Age in particular.

The author presents a new close reading of Pedro Calderón’s El gran teatro del mundo (c. 1633–36) and outlines the historical and systematic framework for a theatrum mundi of celebration. This concept entails using art to justify human existence in the face of changing conceptions of the cosmos: an early modern aesthetic theodicy and a justification of the world in that liminal space between drama and ritual.

By discussing historiographical theories of early modern Europe, especially those of Hans Blumenberg and Bruno Latour, and through conversations with Shakespearean drama and Spanish Golden Age classics, Vangshardt also argues that the theatrum mundi of celebration questions traditional assumptions of great divides between the Middle Ages and Early Modernity and challenges theories of a European-wide early modern sense of crisis.

Author / Editor information

Rasmus Vangshardt (born 1988) is a Danish scholar of comparative literature. He is a visiting research fellow (2023–2025) at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, University of Oxford, and a junior research fellow at Linacre College. He is a 2020 recipient of the Danish Government’s Young Elite Researcher’s Travel Scholarship. His research is currently funded by the Carlsberg Foundation.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
Texts and Translations Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
Introduction: Plaything or Purpose Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 A Poetics of Festivity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
Chapter 2 A Circular Colosseum: The Loa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
Chapter 3 El gran teatro del mundo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
Chapter 4 Aesthetic Theodicy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Conclusion: “The Modern Age Begins with an Act of Theodicy” Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Index of Names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications
Audience: Researchers working in the fields of Early Modern History, Cultural History, Spanish Studies, History of Drama
Pages
- Front matter: 14
- Main content: 240
Keywords: Pedro Calderón de la Barca; Theatrum Mundi; World Theater; Early Modern Europe; Golden Age Spain

eBook

Published: November 20, 2023
ISBN: 9781501517006

Hardcover

Published: November 20, 2023
ISBN: 9781501527173