Fausta Antonucci (ed.), Metrics and dramatic structure in the theater of Lope de Vega , Kassel, Reichenberger, 2007. ISBN 973-3-937734-41-5. Handbook Author: Javier Rubiera
Université de Montréal. Fausta Antonucci
released two years ago this book collects several valuable contributions on a topic that fortunately has become increasingly interesting to researchers from the Golden Age theater, theatrical text segmentation and the role of metrics in relation to the dramatic structure in this case exemplified in various comedies of Lope de Vega.
is an article from 1998 Marc Vits on "Polarimetry and dramatic structures in the poultry comedy seventeenth century" ( The writer and the scene, VI) in which, as exemplified The Trickster of Seville, developed and sustained arguments in his famous thèse d'Etat published ten years earlier. Vits there defending the absolute priority of the metric approach in the structuring of the play, as opposed to those proposed as a priority the division of each day in "frames", in which as Vits would reveal the absolute primacy accorded to certain critics wrong spatial elements. This text of 1998-which has been replicated cordial debate JM Ruano de la Haza in an essential article in Done theatrical (n º 7, 2007) - was spurred in another article on the segmentation of Peribáñez , Fausta Antonucci explore in the year 2000 ( Yearbook Lope de Vega, VI ) the scope of the analysis method proposed by Vits analysis was based on the one hand, the distinction between metrical forms encompassing and encompassed metric forms and, secondly, the recognition and role of "sequences" or basic metric units. Between 2003 and 2005 were invited to Rome Tre Italian by Professor Marc Vits, Güell and Delia Monica Gavela to discuss metric and structural issues in the comedy, while his host was involved with these concerns, as evidenced by the segmentation hypothesis The affectations of Belisa and Belisa The gallantry of working for then with their students. Manuela Silerio, with many personal contributions, reworked in an article in this book the results of these classes with Fausta Antonucci.
This volume published by Edition Reichenberger, and that the same editor is in a sense as the minutes of a special seminar, includes texts of the five researchers together in Rome and at different times around a same question that has been getting criticism for decades: beyond the uses explicitly included in the new Art what role does Polarimetry in the comedies of Lope and how to explain the structural value and structuring such a variety of meters on with the dramatic action?
Foremost among the large contribution of Fausta Antonucci, who also edited the volume makes a perfect introduction to the subject through a "state of affairs" by going on parade, including the positions of John E. Varey, Diego Marín, V. Dixon, Ruano de la Haza and Marc Vits, in whom particular stop, since it is the starting point of the 2000 article we referred to above and which includes as Appendix now ("More on the segmentation of the play: the case of Peribáñez and the Commander of Ocaña ) . Antonucci explains with great clarity Vits approaches, emphasizes what he considers his successes and shows some objections or limitations of their analytical method, based on segmentation as a key measure of dramatic structure, method "extremely useful and fruitful results" (p . 15), although perhaps too categorically deny the importance of space in the building of the play.
rigor is admirable Antonucci to discuss the arguments do not convince and elegance in the way of dissent from the positions of Professor Vits, who describes himself as "stubborn champion of the supremacy of metric structural criteria on spatial approach "(p. 192).
Following the introduction, the first article is also collected Antonucci and he looks at three pieces of Lope, dated between 1596 and 1603, containing chivalrous characters cycle Carolingian The Marquis of Mantua, Galiana Palaces and The youth of Roland.
We are two articles Delia Gavela, Monica Güell and Manuela Silerio which carefully examines the segmentation of several comedies Lopes from different eras, combining testing and mainly the analysis criteria and Marc Vits Ruano de la Haza. Delia Gavela analyzes the beauty prize , custom comedy represented in 1611 by members of the royal family and court ladies in the park of the town of Lerma. Güell Monica devotes his attention to the dramatic and aesthetic uses of versification in The dog in the manger and Manuela Silerio deals to clarify differences of dramatic organization in two different urban comedies times Lope de Vega, Belisa The fuss (from to 1607) and The gallantry of Belisa (1634). Finally Marc Vits, inspiring much of a widely used method, with some qualifications, by previous researchers, responds with verve, good humor and with renewed weapons to the proposals and hypotheses about the Peribáñez that Antonucci had made in the 2000 and, as mentioned, are collected in a final Appendix. As a result of reviewing the work of Antonucci and his own careful analysis Peribáñez , Vits argues that both approaches are "perfectly legitimate", but lead to 'divergent interpretations of the work practices examined "(p. 199).
I can not hide that, while admiring the subtlety and thoroughness with which Marc Vits conducts its analysis, the final leg of their exposure leads to a very desirable not know if complication, which curls the curl of the macro-, meso-and microsequences and variations on the "globe" (encompassing, subsumed, semienglobada ...). On the other hand, it is surprising that the teacher be able to distinguish Vits so perceptively to the smallest detail to find the nuances in a very complex picture ( Car nous voulons the Nuance Encor ...) but insist on summarizing its position on reducing extreme forms as the paramount in repeating that in the comedy Omnia tempus regit , determined not to recognize the structural value and structuring space. I share much the tone of his final thoughts when he insists that "there is no segmentation in the work of the golden play, nothing can be done automatically, no method that can be applied mechanically. If I am convinced that [...] exists between the conventions of writing comedy, the system, silent but sure, the metrical structure, I am also convinced that each specific translation This structural principle is 'original', that each work can offer a combination studied combinatorial [sic] different from the same constituent elements of the invention unparalleled theatrical polymetry golden "(p. 201).
This book highlights the importance of studying the role of Polarimetry in the Golden Age theater, which also devoted its attention in recent years other researchers as Christophe Couderc, Leonor Guillermo Fernández, Emmanuelle Garnier, Melchora Romans or Pedro Ruiz Pérez, for example, which I think shows a renewed interest in this topic.
All items are accompanied by books reviewed of explanatory tables collected from each studied comedy detailed information in relation to the type of diversification, segmentation into tables indicating the time when the stage is empty, and microsequences macrosequences (Vits's terminology) and other criteria which vary according to the researcher (action, space, weather, scenery, characters). These tables and their corresponding analysis, are invaluable idea to go slowly becoming a drama as large and complex as that of Lope, which adequately meet here examples of comedies that come from different eras, belonging to different genera and were designed for public spaces and diverse. The hardest thing is to move from anecdote to the class, draw general conclusions from a work or a limited number of cases, especially if you want to jump to Lope consideration of Comedy, as changing over XVII century. Without leaving Lope, how to conciliate the case of El arenal de Sevilla , written in quatrains in almost 95%, with no cleaning stained , where changes are noted verse 54? One must be very cautious to generalize the findings from case very interesting in themselves, but may not be very representative of trends general. For my part, on questions of segmentation of the dramatic text, the concept of "frame" and the "scene" I put my room to swords soon, but the record that, for starters, I stand in line Fausta Antonucci when he advocates see the joint together and the spatial metric, but obviously this can be done in many different ways. Antonucci agree to recognize as she did at the end of his article in 2000 that "even if we accept, with VITS, estucturante primacy of audibility (or legible, which is now perceived as more clearly the game polymetric), no that forget the visual reality of the theater, and the importance in their interpretation of any visible signs that this is, first of all entrances and exits of the characters to the stage where it represents the work "(p. 227).
