The Prince in the Tower

Perceptions of La vida es sueño

Frederick A. De Armas (Ed.)

1993
ISBN 0838752527

When Calderón de la Barca included La vida es sueño as the lead play in the first volume of his collected works (1636), he may have been signaling the centrality of this comedia in his dramatic production. It is clear that the play has engaged the imagination of writers and directors not only in Europe but also in Asia and Latin America during the last three centuries. Indeed, over a long period of time, La vida es sueño proved more popular than any of Shakespeare's plays in a number of countries.

In spite of its centrality, La vida es sueño has not been subjected to a book-length study in almost twenty years. The Prince in the Tower is an attempt to capture the openness in contemporary scholarly discourse, and to gather some of the latest thoughts and controversies surrounding La vida es sueño. Although it aims to free the Prince from his canonized tower where he has been relegated through our continued repetition of accepted forms of reading, the dynamics of the texts included in this volume evince an awareness that new visions can construct new towers. Rather than proposing one approach or hiding in the hermetic language of a particular theory, the fifteen essays included here utilize approaches and theories so as to meet within the space of the text and illuminate many facets.

About the editor:

Frederick A. de Armas is Distinguished Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature and Fellow of the Arts and Humanistic Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park.