Book Details

Anagnorisis - `recognition' or `discovery' - is a key element of Aristotelian literary theory. This book is the first systematic study of its presence in Spanish drama of the sixteenth century, a period in which Aristotelian theory was widely disseminated. Professor Garrido begins by examining the theory of anagnorisis developed by Aristotle and his sixteenth-century commentators. She then analyses its use in a large corpus of Spanish plays from the period 1515-87. Her survey is divided into two parts, corresponding to the years before and after the appearance, in 1548, of Robortello's commentary, which expanded and developed Aristotle's definition of anagnorisis. In earlier decades its use is largely confined to humanistic plays, which seek to allow the recognition to arise naturally from the plot; plays from the second half of the century tend to model their use of anagnorisis on Plautus's Menaechmi and regularly resort to a deus ex machina to bring about the recognition. PATRICIA GARRIDO CAMACHO is Professor of Spanish at the University of Montana.