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Staging Violence explores gender violence in Spanish early modern short theater.
This book deals with domestic violence against women, extortion of prostitutes, and violence against men who display non-conventional forms of masculinity. The author argues that many "jácaras" and "entremeses" stage subversive discourses that repudiate or complicate official narratives of gender and the use of violence as a tool for achieving gender compliance. Short comic pieces are read against comedias. Each section of the book is expertly contextualized through an overview of the legal and moral contexts and the analysis of a variety of primary sources (law codes, manuals of conduct, church rulings, transcripts of civil and religious trials, and medical manuals) as well as statistical information. Staging Violence invites the reader to consider the transgressive potential of performance.¿
As the first monograph entirely dedicated to the study of gender in this genre, this book is a vital resource for students and scholars interested in gender studies and theatre.¿
List of contents
Introduction: Gender, Violence, and Theater in Early Modern Spain Part 1. On Violence Against Women 1. Women and Domestic Violence in Early Modern Spain 2. Wife Battering in the Entremeses 3. Prostitution in the Underworld of the Jácaras Part 2. On Violence Against Men 4. Renegotiating Masculinity in the Advent of Modernity 5. Lindos, Sodomites, Cross-dressers, and Impotent Men 6. Juan Rana: Neither Nor Afterword
About the author
Tania de Miguel Magro is Associate Professor at West Virginia University, where she teaches courses on Spanish literature and culture. Her main area of study is early modern Spanish theater, with an emphasis on issues of gender and social struggles.
Summary
In Staging Violence the author explores what is common to both the short theater and the comedia: gender violence. Through three main themes, the book deals with violence against women in the entremeses (mainly wife-battering), violence against men in the entremeses (mainly queer and older men), and violence in the jácaras.
