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La estructura y la función del emblema en el teatro de Tirso de Molina

University of British Columbia

In 1531, Andreas Alciatus published the first emblem book, Emblematum liber. It consisted of a series of illustrations, each with a motto and an epigram. Emblem writers tried to create a universal language that would communicate ideas through visual images, but felt it necessary to add explanations to avoid the misinterpretation of their compositions. The result was the complex relationship between verbal and pictorial elements that characterizes the emblematic mode of thinking. Emblem books and the emblematic mode permeated European society and culture in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Emblematic images appeared in decorations, pageants, clothing and other expressions of culture including literature and the theatre. This thesis studies the relationship between emblem and theatre in the dramatic production of the Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina (1584-1648). Two main questions are explored: how do emblems appear in Tirso de Molina's drama? and, what function do they perform? The first question deals with how the emblematic form passes from a static medium, the printed page, to a dynamic one, the theatre. The second one explores the function that the emblem and the emblematic mode play within specific plays. The method is based on a case-by-case study. Each example of an emblem in Tirso's dramatic production is studied separately to see how it becomes theatre and how it behaves within the confines of the play. This approach allows general conclusions to be drawn about how the emblem works in the theatre and opens the way to more structural or theoretical studies. The thesis shows that the emblematic form appears abundantly and in a variety of ways in Tirso de Molina's plays. Although the emblematic form may keep its original structure when it becomes dramatized, it may also lose one or several of its parts. The original emblematic structure sometimes disappears and only the relationship between image and word, characteristic of the emblematic mode, remains. Finally, it is shown that the emblematic form in the theatre can play both a dramatic and an ideological role.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-04-27

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7602

Hispanic Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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