In 1531, Andreas Alciatus published the first emblem
book, Emblematum liber. It consisted of a series of
illustrations, each with a motto and an epigram. Emblem
writers tried to create a universal language that would
communicate ideas through visual images, but felt it necessary
to add explanations to avoid the misinterpretation of their
compositions. The result was the complex relationship between
verbal and pictorial elements that characterizes the
emblematic mode of thinking. Emblem books and the emblematic
mode permeated European society and culture in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. Emblematic images appeared in
decorations, pageants, clothing and other expressions of
culture including literature and the theatre.
This thesis studies the relationship between emblem and
theatre in the dramatic production of the Spanish playwright
Tirso de Molina (1584-1648). Two main questions are explored:
how do emblems appear in Tirso de Molina's drama? and, what
function do they perform? The first question deals with how
the emblematic form passes from a static medium, the printed
page, to a dynamic one, the theatre. The second one explores
the function that the emblem and the emblematic mode play
within specific plays.
The method is based on a case-by-case study. Each example
of an emblem in Tirso's dramatic production is studied
separately to see how it becomes theatre and how it behaves
within the confines of the play. This approach allows general
conclusions to be drawn about how the emblem works in the
theatre and opens the way to more structural or theoretical
studies.
The thesis shows that the emblematic form appears
abundantly and in a variety of ways in Tirso de Molina's
plays. Although the emblematic form may keep its original
structure when it becomes dramatized, it may also lose one or
several of its parts. The original emblematic structure
sometimes disappears and only the relationship between image
and word, characteristic of the emblematic mode, remains.
Finally, it is shown that the emblematic form in the theatre
can play both a dramatic and an ideological role.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/7602 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Restrepo-Gautier, Pablo |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | Other |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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