De fieras y dramaturgos. El animal salvaje y su representación escénica: ¿una dimensión puramente visual del espectáculo teatral?

Abstract

In the Spanish classical theatre, the representation of animals on stage, although its occurrences might seem rather infrequent, appears as a revealing feature, as we can see in this paper centred on the representation of lions and bears, the major «fieras» endowed with strong symbolic contents. Through a series of examples taken from Lope and Calderón, it is possible to follow an evolution towards a growing presence, and a major diversity of uses and intentions: the visual effects, initially mostly based on surprise, are not the only ones, since animal presence is also liable to generate a wider range of speech, from moral comments to witty remarks.

Keywords

• animal staging
• imagination
• visual effects
• Vega Lope de
• Calderón de la Barca Pedro