Taking as its point of departure the debate over the existence of a medieval Hispanic theatrical tradition, Radical Theatricality argues that the search for extant medieval play scripts depends on a definition of theater more literary than performative. This literary definition—largely established by the myth of Thespis’s “invention” of Western theater in his dialogic interaction with his dithyrambic chorus—pushes aside evidence of Spain’s medieval performance traditions because this evidence is considered either intangible or “un-dramatic” (that is, monologic). The emphasis on written, dialogue-based texts has left researchers unprepared to deal with the clowns, mimes, acrobats, jugglers, troubadours, and singers that, in one way or another, have continued to perform their arts from well before the fall of Rome up through the present day. By focusing on the dialogic relationship that exists in performance between performer and spectator—rather than on the kind of literary dialogue between characters that is traditionally associated with drama—Radical Theatricality diachronically examines the performative poetics of the jongleuresque tradition (broadly defined to encompass such disparate performers as ancient Greek rhapsodes and contemporary Nobel Laureate Dario Fo) and synchronically traces that tradition’s performative impact on the Spanish theater of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

“Significant and innovative, the study argues for the fundamental importance of performance in understanding the historical development of Spanish theater. It thus addresses (and offers a key to exploring) a phenomenon that has puzzled historians for generations: the ostensibly spontaneous birth of early modern peninsular theater.” John J. Allen, author of The Reconstruction of a Spanish Golden Age Playhouse

For further reviews, see:

The Chronicle of Higher Education 26 Jan. 2007.

Reference and Research Book News May 2007.

Bruce R. Burningham, Illinois State University, specializes in medieval and early modern Spanish literature, Hispanic drama, and performance theory. His most recent book project is “Tinted Mirrors: Baroque Reflections on Contemporary Culture.”

ISBN-10: 1-55753-441-1; ISBN-13: 978-1-55753-441-5
2007. Vol. 39. xii, 260 pp. Paper $43.95

Display Case in Stanley Coulter Hall, January 2007.

Close-up of Mandolin. Courtesy of Paul Dixon.

Poster for Burningham's Radical Theatricality; image © 2006 Jupiterimages Corporation

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