To Embody the Marvelous
eBook - ePub

To Embody the Marvelous

The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain

  1. 284 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

To Embody the Marvelous

The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain

About this book

Winner of the Vern Williamsen Comedia Book Prize, Association for Hispanic Classical Theater, 2023
Winner of the Nancy Staub Award, UNIMA-USA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette), 2023


In its exploration of puppetry and animation as the performative media of choice for mastering the art of illusion, To Embody the Marvelous engages with early modern notions of wonder in religious, artistic, and social contexts.

From jointed, wood-carved figures of Christ, saintly marionettes that performed hagiographical dramas, experimental puppets and automata in Cervantes' Don Quixote, and the mechanical sets around which playwright Calderón de la Barca devised secular magic shows to deconstruct superstitions, these historical and fictional artifacts reenvisioned religious, artistic, and social notions that led early modern society to critically wrestle with enchantment and disenchantment.

The use of animated performance objects in Spanish theatrical contexts during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries became one of the most effective pedagogical means to engage with civil society. Regardless of social strata, readers and spectators alike were caught up in a paradigm shift wherein belief systems were increasingly governed by reason—even though the discursive primacy of supernatural doxa and Christian wonder remained firmly entrenched. Thanks to their potential for motion, religious and profane puppets, automata, and mechanical stage props deployed a rationalized sense of wonder that illustrates the relationship between faith and reason, reevaluates the boundaries of fiction in art and entertainment cultures, acknowledges the rise of science and technology, and questions normative authority.

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Yes, you can access To Embody the Marvelous by Esther Fernández in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & European History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Epigraph
  6. Contents
  7. List of Illustrations
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Introduction. Stages of Animation
  10. 1. Mechanics of Reductionism
  11. 2. Matters of God
  12. 3. Articulating Saintliness
  13. 4. Unruly Puppets
  14. 5. Technologies of Wonder
  15. 6. Trapdoors to Desengaño
  16. Conclusion. When Statues Move
  17. Notes
  18. Bibliography
  19. Index