The Achillean Hero In The Plays Of Tirso De Molina

Tirso de Molina has been the subject of less than half as much scholarly research as either of his Golden Age counterparts, Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca. Tirso's only mythological play, El Aquiles, remains one of the least studied of his plays, and when studied, is generally considered in isolation from the rest of his dramatic production. The Achillean Hero in the Plays of Tirso de Molina traces the development of the figure of the Achillean hero in three of Tirso's plays, El Aquiles, La vida y muerte de Herodes, and La venganza de Tamar, and in doing so connects the early mythological play to the dramatist's later works.

In 1991, Laura Slatkin published The Power of Thetis: Allusion and Interpretation in the Iliad, in which she argued that Homer knowingly situated the storyworld of the Iliad against the backdrop of an older world of mythos by which the events in the Iliad are explained and given traction. Slatkin’s focus was on Achilles’ mother, Thetis: an ostensibly marginal and powerless goddess, Thetis nevertheless drives the plot of the Iliad, being allusively credited with the power to uphold or challenge the rule of Zeus. Now, almost thirty years after Slatkin’s publication, this timely volume re-examines depictions and receptions of this ambiguous goddess, in works ranging from archaic Greek poetry to twenty-first century cinema. Twenty authors build upon Slatkin’s readings to explore Thetis and multiple roles she played in Western literature, art, material culture, religion, and myth. Ever the shapeshifter, Thetis has been and continues to be reconceptualised: supporter or opponent of Zeus’ regime, model bride or unwilling victim of Peleus’ rape, good mother or child-murderess, figure of comedy or monstrous witch. Hers is an enduring power of transformation, resonating within art and literature.

These dialogues express different world visions. If the expected cultural exchange takes place, then an enduring relationship of tolerance and understanding forms between the two worlds. Bonds that surpass temporal, geographic, and philosophical specificity attest to humankind's universal and atemporal need for myth. The questions, proposed answers, and subsequent revisions will, it is hoped, coexist in an ongoing dialogue among ancient, Golden Age, and contemporary individuals.

The first comprehensive study of Tirso de Molina and his work in English Tirso de Molina (c.1583-c.1648) may not have written El Burlador de Sevilla, but the works of this prolific author, one of the three pillars of Golden Age Spanish theatre, are notable for their erudition, complex characters, and wit. Informed by a multidisciplinary critical perspective, this volume sets Tirso's plays and prose in their social, historical, literary, and cultural contexts. Contributors from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Spain offer a state of the art in current scholarship, considering such topics as gender, identity, spatiality, material culture, and creative performativity, among others. The first volume in English to provide a richly detailed overview of Tirso's life and work, Tirso de Molina: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Twenty-First Century grounds the reader in canonical theories while suggesting new approaches, attuned to contemporary interests, to his legacy.