«Entre bobos (no) anda el juego»: Gender Conventions, Metatheater and Reception Effect in the Comedy from Rojas Zorrilla.

Abstract

We propose to analize Entre bobos anda el juego from Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla, doubly characterized as comedia de enredo and comedia de figurón by critics. Among these, the reading of Maria Grazia Profeti (1998) stands out. She considers don Lucas del Cigarral representative of the “violencia de las cosas, del dinero” and the “corporeidad grotesca”, although at the end he turns out the wisest uncovering the socioeconomic crisis of Empire. To understand the reason of this apparent incoherence, we based on the concept of metatheater, gender that materializes the theatrical perception of life and the self-consciousness of the character and/or of the playwright. Thus, don Lucas would not be that grotesque being who everybody laughs about but who feels satisfaction by directing the actions of the other characters like a “fictionalized playwright/director”, using specific strategies of dramatic art to produce certain effects on their receptors (characters and spectators).