A vueltas con la fiesta teatral del Barroco español: modelos, normas y rasgos

in spite of the numerous and relevant contributions about the Baroque court drama, that collect data, gather information and trace the peculiar code of this dramatic genre, the critical essays written according to Anglosaxon Posmodernism ignore certain aspects of the historical and cultural contextualization of these dramatic texts. Specifically, it’s questionable their political interpretation of the myths and their conviction that the tragic genre is compatible with the court feast. This essay, according to the semiotics, tries to synthesize the main aspects that characterize the court drama as a very peculiar artistic work with its specific rules, considering that we have to interpret it inside the communicative circuit of the court as the place where it is produced and performed. The court dramas of Lope and Calderón, expression of two different theatrical visions, allow us to define the code of the Spanish Baroque court drama all along its development.