Rewriting Theatre: The Comedia and the Nineteenth-Century Refundicion

by Charles Ganelin

Rewriting Theatre undertakes a study of the refundicion or "recast" of the Spanish Golden Age comedia in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Reception Theory orientation discusses how the recast was received in its time; performance reviews contemporary with the new versions of old plays indicate the controversy elicited between those who believed, on the one hand, that the "classics" should be preserved as they have been handed down, and on the other, that a work of art is never "finished" and is always open to new stagings and interpretations. Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Pedro Calderon de la Barca, and others have been and continue to be reinterpreted in the light of new literary, social, and political orientations. By studying the refundiciones we can begin to acquire a much broader understanding not only of the comedia's reception but also of the ramifications for the development of Spanish theatre.

273 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1994