Lope De Vega In The Invention Of Spain: Historical Theater And The Birth Of National Consciousness

Resumen del Libro

This project explores the correlation between Lopes historical theater and the early stage of the formation of Spanish national consciousness at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Drawing on recent theories of nationalism, I examine the political, cultural and historical context of Iberian society during the Middle Ages and Renaissance and trace the origins of the national idea to works of medieval historiography. I analyze the literary construction of the concept of Spain, nourished by the myth of the Reconquest, in the medieval Peninsular chronicles, along with its gradual acceptance by the heterogeneous population of Las Espanas. I also establish the crucial role of public theater, as one of the earliest kinds of mass media, for the development and dissemination of the national idea. In this light, I study the specific characteristics of Lopes image of the Spaniard as constructed through constant manipulation of national history, along with the possible effects of the propagation of this image among the seventeenth-century audience.