Table Of ContentGendering the Crown
in the Spanish Baroque
Comedia
María Cristina Quintero
GENDERING THE CROWN IN THE SPANISH
BAROQUE COMEDIA
The Baroque Spanish stage is populated with virile queens and feminized kings.
This study examines the diverse ways in which seventeenth-century comedias
engage with the discourse of power and rulership and how it relates to gender.
A privileged place for ideological negotiation, the comedia provided negative
and positive reflections of kingship at a time when there was a perceived crisis
of monarchical authority in the Habsburg court. Author María Cristina Quintero
explores how playwrights such as Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina,
Antonio Coello, and Francisco Bances Candamo—taking inspiration from legend,
myth, and history—repeatedly staged fantasies of feminine rule, at a time when
there was a concerted effort to contain women’s visibility and agency in the public
sphere. The comedia’s preoccupation with kingship together with its obsession
with the representation of women (and women’s bodies) renders the question of
royal subjectivity inseparable from issues surrounding masculinity and femininity.
Taking into account theories of performance and performativity within a historical
context, this study investigates how the themes, imagery, and language in plays
by Calderón and his contemporaries reveal a richly paradoxical presentation of
gendered monarchical power.
New Hispanisms
Cultural and Literary Studies
Series editor: Anne J. Cruz
New Hispanisms: Literary and Cultural Studies presents innovative studies that
seek to understand how the cultural production of the Hispanic world is generated,
disseminated, and consumed. Ranging from the Spanish Middle Ages to modern
Spain and Latin America, this series offers a forum for various critical and
disciplinary approaches to cultural texts, including literature and other artifacts of
Hispanic culture. Queries and proposals for single author volumes and collections
of original essays are welcome.
Gendering the Crown in the Spanish Baroque Comedia
María Cristina Quintero
Reading Inebriation in Early Colonial Peru
Mónica P. Morales
Gendering the Crown
in the Spanish Baroque
Comedia
MARÍA CRISTINA QUINTERO
First published 2012 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2012 María Cristina Quintero
María Cristina Quintero has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Quintero, María Cristina.
Gendering the crown in the Spanish Baroque comedia. – (New hispanisms)
1. Spanish drama – Classical period, 1500–1700 – History and criticism. 2. Spanish
drama (Comedy) – History and criticism. 3. Baroque literature – History and criticism.
4. Kings and rulers in literature. 5. Queens in literature. 6. Women and literature –
Spain – History – 17th century.
I. Title II. Series
862.3’09352621–dc23
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Quintero, María Cristina.
Gendering the crown in the Spanish Baroque Comedia / by María Cristina Quintero.
p. cm. — (New hispanisms: cultural and literary studies)
Includes index.
1. Spanish drama—Classical period, 1500–1700—History and criticism. 2. Sex role in
literature. 3. Kings and rulers in literature. I. Title.
PQ6105.Q56 2012
862’.3093521—dc23
2012003111
ISBN 9781409439639 (hbk)
ISBN 9781315584249 (ebk)
To Roland
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Contents
List of Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 Women and Drama in Early Modern Spain 11
2 Beauty and the Machiavellian Beast 47
3 Transgendered Tyranny in La hija del aire 91
4 English Queens and the Body Politic 123
5 Christina of Sweden and Queenly Garb(o) 169
Epilogue 215
Works Cited 223
Index 239
This page has been left blank intentionally
List of Figures
2.1 Juan Carreño de Miranda. King Charles II, 1673. Madrid,
Museo del Prado. (Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY) 60
2.2 Antonis Mor. Queen Mary of England, 1554. Madrid,
Museo del Prado. (Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY) 62
2.3 Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio). Joanna of Aragón, Queen of Naples,
1518. Paris, Louvre. (Photo: Réunion des Musées Nationaux/
Art Resource, NY) 63
4.1 Anonymous. Ann Boleyn, late 16th century. London, Ann
Ronan Picture Library. (Photo: HIP/Art Resource, NY) 136
4.2 George Gower. The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I, 1588.
Bedfordshire, Great Britain, Woburn Abbey. (Photo: Scala/
White Images/Art Resource, NY) 153
5.1 Diego Velázquez and others. Margarita of Austria, Wife of
Philip III, on Horseback, ca. 1631. Madrid, Museo del Prado.
(Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY) 170
5.2. Diego Velázquez and others. Equestrian Portrait of Queen
Isabel of Bourbon, Wife of Philip IV, 1635–1636. Madrid,
Museo del Prado. (Photo: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY) 171
5.3 Diego Velázquez and others. Philip III on Horseback,
ca. 1631. Madrid, Museo del Prado. (Photo: Erich Lessing/
Art Resource, NY) 172
5.4 Diego Velázquez. Philip IV on Horseback, 1631–1636.
Madrid, Museo del Prado. (Photo: Scala/Art Resource, NY) 173
5.5 Diego Velázquez. Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares,
on Horseback, 1635. Madrid, Museo del Prado. (Photo: Scala/
Art Resource, NY) 175
5.6 Sébastien Bourdon. Queen Christina of Sweden on Horseback,
1653–1654. Madrid, Museo del Prado. (Photo: Erich Lessing/
Art Resource, NY) 177
