Abstract
The article provides an analysis of the “Spanish code” inscribed in the text of Lesia Ukrainka’s drama Kaminnyi hospodar (The Stone Host). The constituents of the code include: 1) conventions of 17th century Spanish baroque drama, in particular, use of the dialectics of the concepts of dignity and reputation as a driving mechanism for confl ict throughout Lesia Ukrainka’s play and transformation within the classical scheme of characters suggested by Lope de Vega and his followers; 2) stereotypes of “Spanishness” through which the playwright produced a heteroimage of Spain. Lesia Ukrainka’s variant of the famous legend of Don Juan is a sophisticated modernist drama. The “Spanish code” serves as a prism through which the playwright examines the world. Lesia Ukrainka created an astonishing modernist tragicomedy of dishonesty, full of the spirit of uncertainty.
Highlights
The article provides an analysis of the “Spanish code” inscribed in the text of Lesia Ukrainka’s drama Kaminnyi hospodar (The Stone Host)
The constituents of the code include: 1) conventions of 17th century Spanish baroque drama, in particular, use of the dialectics of the concepts of dignity and reputation as a driving mechanism for conflict throughout Lesia Ukrainka’s play and transformation within the classical scheme of characters suggested by Lope de Vega and his followers; 2) stereotypes of “Spanishness” through which the playwright produced a heteroimage of Spain
The definition of Lesia Ukrainka’s Kaminnyi hospodar (1912; The Stone Host) as a “Spanish play” was coined by Oksana Zabuzhko in her book Notre Dame D’Ukraine: Ukrainka in Conflict of Mythologies: “Let us call it Spanish, following the same logic which in England is used to define Macbeth as the Scottish play.”[1]. The strongest evidence to prove this statement is the fact that Lesia Ukrainka was familiar with The Trickster of Seville or The Stone Guest, attributed to Tirso de Molina, and Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorilla, and developed a number of motifs from both works when creating “a Ukrainian variant of the world legend about Don Juan,” as she stresses in her letter to Liudmyla Starytska-Cherniakhivska.[2]
Summary
The article provides an analysis of the “Spanish code” inscribed in the text of Lesia Ukrainka’s drama Kaminnyi hospodar (The Stone Host). The constituents of the code include: 1) conventions of 17th century Spanish baroque drama, in particular, use of the dialectics of the concepts of dignity and reputation as a driving mechanism for conflict throughout Lesia Ukrainka’s play and transformation within the classical scheme of characters suggested by Lope de Vega and his followers; 2) stereotypes of “Spanishness” through which the playwright produced a heteroimage of Spain.
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