Melibea and becoming a subject: questions and ambiguities surrounding will and consent in <i>La Celestina</i>

Abstract

This paper proposes a reading of La Celestina and, more precisely, of the character of Melibea in the light of a series of categories that nourish the most current systems of thought: contemporary feminist thought, contemporary philosophies (in particular philosophies of desire), and legal debates (some of them very recent) around the questions of discernment and consent. This apprehension of the Celestinesque text through the most contemporary systems of thought will lead us to analyse (and question) the categories of object and subject, the "becoming subject", as well as the notions of will, agency, freedom of choice and consent. Such a reading will lead us to question certain readings that see in Rojas's play a pre-feminist work, a hymn to freedom or the dramatization of a progressive feminine "liberation", in which Melibea passes from the category of object to that of subject.

Keywords

• celestina
• féminismes
• sujet
• objet
• agentivité
• consentement
• liberté
• désir