Gendering the Crown in the Spanish Baroque Comedia

Taking into account theories of gender, performance and performativity within a historical context, this study explores how the Baroque comedia's preoccupation with kingship goes hand in hand with the obsessive representation of women (and women's bodies). The question of royal subjectivity in plays dealing with fantasies of feminine rule-by Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina and others-is rendered inseparable from issues surrounding masculinity and femininity.

Maria Cristina Quintero is Professor of Spanish and Director of the Comparative Literature Program at Bryn Mawr College, USA.

Introduction; Chapter 1 Women and Drama in Early Modern Spain; Chapter 2 Beauty and the Machiavellian Beast; Chapter 3 1Portions of this chapter appeared in a special volume commemorating the 400th anniversary of Calderón's birth. See Quintero, "Gender, Tyranny, and the Performance of Power in Calderón's La hija del aire," Bulletin of the comediantes 53.1 (): 155-78; Chapter 4 English Queens and the Body Politic; Chapter 5 Christina of Sweden and Queenly Garb(o); epilogue Epilogue;