ENGLISH

The Limits of Illusion: A Critical Study of Calderan

By Anthony J. Cascardi

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2005
ISBN
9780511659416, 9780521262811, 9780521022774
DOI
10.1017/CBO9780511659416
Google Books ID
3CyDPwAACAAJ
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
4 MB (3886707 bytes)
Series
Cambridge Iberian and Latin American Studies
Pages
200\200
Orientation
yes
Scanned
yes
Time added
2011-08-31 04:54:40

Description

This is the first thorough study of Calder?n in comparison with other important dramatists of the period: Lope de Vega and Tirso de Molina in Spain, Racine and Corneille in France, and Shakespeare and Marlowe in England. Cascardi studies Calder?n's paradoxical engagement with illusion in its philosophical guise as scepticism. He shows on the one hand Calder?n's moral will to reject illusion and on the other his theatrical need to embrace it. Cascardi discusses plays from every period to show how in Calder?n's best work illusion is not rejected; instead, scepticism is absorbed. Calder?n is placed in and defined against the philosophical line of Vives, Descartes, and Spinoza. Of central importance to this argument is Calder?n's idea of theatre and the various transformations of that idea. This emphasis will give the book an additional interest to students, readers in philosophy and comparative literature.

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