La función de la risa en el discurso de la Comedia : absorción y manipulación de los rasgos grostescos y carnavalescos

Author

David Gomez-Torres

Date of Award

5-1994

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Modern Foreign Languages

Major Professor

Denise M. DiPuccio

Committee Members

Carl Cobb, Nancy Lauckner

Abstract

The object of this dissertation is to establish a paradigm of the grotesque and carnivalesque elements in the Comedia,/i>, using as a point of departure Bakhtin's theories. This method will allow for a study of laughter and its function in the theater of Golden Age Spain. These elements have been studied in Egloga del Carnaval o de Antruejo by Juan del Encina and in Tinellaria by Bartolome de Torres Naharro, two Renaissance pieces, and in El mejor alcalde, el rey and La dama boba by Lope de Vega, and finally, in Egloga del Carnaval and in Tinellaria, the grotesque / carnivalesque elements are essential and following Bakhtin's theories, the Carnival world has positive connotations. In the remaining plays, these elements serve to identify certain individuals isolated, due to social origin (Pelayo in El mejor alcalde, el rey or inadequate social integration (Finea in La dama boba and don Diego in El lindo don Diego). In the baroque Comedia, the confrontation produced by the juxtaposition of two disparate discourses, one pertaining to Carnival and the other, to the dominant ideology, the latter prevails. We conclude that as Bakhtin has shown for other European literatures, in post-Renaissance Spanish literature, laughter undergoes a process of devaluation. It no longer shows positive aspects of the world, but negative aspects of certain individuals.