A Study of the Sacramental Aesthetic of Tirso's Dramaturgy as a Manifestation of the Art/Nature Dichotomy...

FAIN: FB-13094-77

Frederick H. Fornoff
University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown Campus (Johnstown, PA 15904-2912)

To study the sacramental aesthetic of Tirso de Molina's drama as a primary manifestation of the art/nature dichotomy underlying siglo de oro aesthetic theory and practice. C.S. Lewis defines sacramentalism as the attempt to read "that something else through its sensible imitations, to see the archetype in the copy...". La Tirso's work, those "sensible imitations" are everything seen and heard on the stage, and "that something else" to which the stage action must be referred for its meaning is the liturgical superdrama that is progressing unseen on a transcendent stage.