Calderon in England: A Social Theory of Production and Consumption

Abstract

A social theory of production and consumption clarifies the dialectical relationship of the genesis, structure, and impact of Calderón's plays. The masterpieces of the 1630's emerged from a period of crisis that was roughly duplicated in Shakespearean England of the early seventeenth century. Calderón influenced British literature most powerfully during the Restoration, when trivialized versions of his comedias de capa y espada appealed to aristocrats returning to power after exile on the continent during the Civil War decades. Much later, Shelley felt significant affinities with Calderón, identifying with the rebelliousness of El mágico prodigioso in a manner which enables us to understand that play as a response to the problems of Habsburg absolutism. Since the 1930's, the British Hispanists have seen in Calderón's drama an attractive expression of their own conservative views. On the other hand, the Marxian approach adopted here would link Calderón and his age to the present by stressing the political malaise common to both eras. (WC)