Review Source: Hispanic Review, Vol. 72, No. 1 (Winter, 2004), pp. 206-208 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3246989 Accessed: 21-07-2015 22:04 UTC
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world view of the comedia de costumbres of the past century. In effect, Sebold recognizes the heavy debt of the costumbristas, realists, and naturalists of the nineteenth century to the Enlightenment: "pues fue en el Siglo de las Luces en el que de hecho naci6 la minuciosa t6cnica realista modema" (206). Likewise, in "El desconocido Espronceda neoclasico," Sebold points out that nearly 60%of the poems of one of the supreme representatives of Spanish Romanticism-Jose de Espronceda-are Neoclassic in form and subject. "Ningin poeta romantico tuvo mas completo aprendizaje neoclasico que Espronceda, si hemos de juzgar por el nimero de versos que compuso en tal estilo (244)." Other writers analyzed in La perduraci6n de la modalidad cldsica include Guillen de Castro, Antonio de Solfs y Ribadeneyra, Francisco Antonio de Bances Candamo, Feijoo, Garcia de la Huerta, Maria Gertrudis Hore (la Hija del Sol), Moratin, Olavide, Manuel de Cabanyes, Becquer, and Campoamor. A close study of these literary figures demonstrates, as with Solis and Candamo, a steady and uninterrupted presence of ancient and Spanish classical writers and "confirmase de nuevo el largo auge de los valores neoclasicos en Espafia, asi como la alentadora perspectiva de esa tendencia literaria" (39). La perduraci6n de la modalidad cldsica offers important insights into the classical roots of many significant Spanish writers during Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and even Realism, and represents a lifetime of reflection. Along the way, Sebold also touches upon related matters, such as Tomas de Iriarte's concept of connaturalizaci6n (in which a translator's duty was seen to correct the errors of the original manuscript as well as even place it in another cultural context); and further discussion of the evolution (not revolution) of Neoclassicism into Romanticism. Sebold also acknowledges that readers will come to his collection of essays with various goals. "Un libro como el presente no siempre se lee de cabo a rabo, sino que algin lector, buscando su tema favorito, empezara por el capftulo segundo, otro por el octavo, y todavia otro por el peniltimo" (16-17). As a whole, Sebold's collected essays provide convincing and conclusive evidence of the presence of classical forms in Spanish literature through the modem era and again confirm the proverb that states "Donde el agua pasa, la humedad queda." DANIELS. WHITAKER
California State University, San Bernardino
El escenario de la imaginacion. Calderon en su teatro. By Juan Luis Suarez. Pamplona: U de Navarra, 2002. 244 pages. Imagination constitutes the backbone of the art and thought of early modem Spain in general, and of Calder6n's theater in particular. Calder6n
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developed an original technique of representation by synthesizing diverse concepts of the image or fantasy which came to play a key role in his staging of human knowledge. The playwright renovated in theatrical form the Aristotelian notion that the imagination creates potential representations, ideas that are realizable through perceptions. In the present study, Juan Luis Suarez redirects his initial inquiry into the world of the senses in Calder6n's comedias toward the world of the imagination in order to avoid the pitfalls of applying postmodern mental and cognitive patterns to forms of thought that are quite different from our own. Suarez examines imagination as the link between the sensorial and the intellectual, an intermediary function of human knowledge that lies at the heart of Calder6n's aesthetic project. Theater thus becomes the stage of and for the imagination. Suarez's thesis that the concept of imagination articulates the construction of Calder6n's "aesthetic point of view" concludes with three key ideas in which the playwright grounds his aesthetics: perspective as a central element of Calderonian epistemology; the "theory" of the point of complication, with its inherent "opposition" between words and images; and the notion of limit, interpreted in terms of representation. The essay adeptly dialogues with many of the writers and thinkers who laid the foundation for Calder6n's art, subjecting the dramatic texts to philosophical, psychological, and social analyses. The book is well organized into five chapters: 1. "Sobre el imaginar y la imaginaci6n"; 2. "Teoria y practica de la imaginaci6n"; 3. "La comunicaci6n de los afectos"; 4. "El juego de los sentidos"; 5. "Gusto, opini6n piblica y desenganio." Throughout his study, Suarez is careful to consider time as a chief construct of human imagination and a constant in Calder6n's ontological inquiries, which treat time as "un fen6meno constitutivamente subjetivo y, por tanto, dependiente de los gustos, pasiones, deseos y expectativas del sujeto" (41). Suarez finds in Aristotle the connections between image, time, and memory that allow him to delve successfully into the problem of perception, presence, and appearance in Calder6n. While Suarez's approach is solid, he does make some radical assertions, such as the dating of Gustos y disgustos son no mds que imaginacion as early as 1617, rendering that the playwright's "primera obra" (39). The author's discussion of admiraci6n in the third chapter follows the theoretical groundwork posited 40 years ago by E. C. Riley, who was primarily concerned with the relationship between admiratio and verisimilitude. Suarez conjectures that "el objetivo de un autor como Calder6n era crear los efectos que mas facilmente tocaran la sensibilidad del espectador ... para provocar la maxima admiraci6n sin llegar a romper el limite de la verosimilitud" (119). Examples from plays like Auristela y Lisidante or Cefalo y Pocris may have resulted in a modified conclusion regarding that limit. In his fourth chapter, Suarez analyzes the age-old "debate" between
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sight and sound as manifested in some of Calder6n's secular plays, leading to an illuminating discussion of skepticism and the contemporary distrust of technology. In the final chapter, the author cogently presents the concepts of gusto, public opinion, and desengano as "limits" of the imagination. Suarez contextualizes the thought of Julian Marfas-"la ilusi6n esta en la frontera de la imposibilidad"-in terms of Calder6n: "lo que busca Calder6n son formas positivas de esa ilusi6n, es decir, de la imaginaci6n, que sitien al sujeto precisamente en el limite desde el que la frontera no se percibe y la realidad es un continuo de posibilidades abiertas" (212). A brief reflection on the role of imagination in the playwright's autos sacramentales may have rounded out this essay, and may have given the lie to certain claims, such as King Basilio being "el inico personaje calderoniano en que coinciden poder y ciencia" (67). Also, the author could have smoothed the edges by translating secondary sources into Spanish, or leaving them in their original form, rather than citing in English titles and passages from authors like Pico della Mirandola, Proclus, etc. An index would have further enhanced user-friendliness. Notwithstanding these minor glitches, Suarez's essay is quite effective and makes a valuable contribution to Calder6n studies. What he brings to the table is a fluent dialogue with philosophy that broadens the discourse on one of the most central elements of Calder6n's art and thought, and on the aesthetics of early modem Spain. VINCENT MARTIN
University of Delaware
Canciones and the Early Poetry of Lorca. A Study in Critical Methodology and Poetic Maturity. Por D. Gareth Walters. Cardiff: U of Wales P, 2002. 293 paginas. Gareth Walters vuelve a ofrecemos un libro excepcional. Sensibilidad, dulzura y rigor intelectual. Reflexi6n informadfsima de la primera poesfa de Lorca entrelazada con cuestiones fundamentales acerca de la tarea hermeneutica; esas grandes preguntas sobre la verdad de la interpretaci6n que la critica poetica no debiera dejar de plantearse. El subtftulo "A Study in Critical Methodology and Poetic Maturity"indica el metodo y el objetivo del libro. El metodo: evitar tanto la interpretaci6n infundada como la frialdad de la lectura literal, manteniendo un constante compromiso con la bisqueda de la precisi6n y la fidelidad. En pocas palabras, rigor y modestia a la hora de leer. El objetivo: elucidar la madurez de la joven poesfa lorquiana, una madurez sorprendente y emocionante. La minuciosa lectura de Walters rescata el goce de leer del arido esfuerzo metodol6gico, convirtiendo el
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