El transformismo de santa Eugenia. Del cuerpo medieval al ingenio barroco
ISSN: 1475-3839, 1478-3398
Year of publication: 2016
Volume: 93
Issue: 1
Pages: 1-28
Type: Article
More publications in: Bulletin of Hispanic studies ( Liverpool. 2002 )
Sustainable development goals
Abstract
In this study Medieval and Golden Age versions of the legend of Saint Eugenia are compared, and manuscripts, incunabula and old editions are collated with Calderón’s drama. Noting that this narrative is inserted into the motif of women crossdressing as monks, the aim is to show the variants of this story in the Spanish literary tradition, and especially the changes introduced by Calderón, like the addition of another two male disguises for Eugenia. It can be seen that the playwright softens the intensity of the body and yet achieves greater impact as he dramatizes the tension between good and evil by means of typically baroque wittiness like the conceptual subtleties, the supernatural in its divine or demonic dimension enhanced by stage machinery, entanglements of love and jealousy, and the humour of the gracioso. The legend contains feminist proposals, though burdened by misogynistic conventions