Gendering the crown in the Spanish Baroque comedia

Abstract

A privileged place for ideological negotiation, the comedia provided negative and positive reflections of kingship at a time when there was a perceived crisis of monarchical authority in the Habsburg court. Author Maria Cristina Quintero explores how playwrights such as Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Tirso de Molina, Antonio Coello, and Francisco Bances Candamo-taking inspiration from legend, myth, and history--repeatedly staged fantasies of feminine rule, at a time when there was a concerted effort to contain women's visibility and agency in the public sphere. The comedia's preoccupation with kingship together with its obsession with the representation of women (and women's bodies) renders the question of royal subjectivity inseparable from issues surrounding masculinity and femininity.