La Escuela de Calderón

This critical evaluation in Spanish of the dramatic art and ideology of the School of Calderón is the product of much primary research into early manuscripts and editions of plays preserved in Spanish libraries. The book includes discussions of ideological preoccupations, artistic attitudes and theatrical circumstances during the Baroque Age, as well as of the main dramatic genres practised by Calderón and his school. The principal causes of the decline in quality of plays and playwrights which characterized the final decades of the Golden Age (Siglo de Oro) of Spanish literature are also discussed. Among key techniques and preferences of Calderón and his imitators studied are their creative exploitation of earlier plays, and their composing of dramas in collaboration