Memoria y Civilización (Dec 2016)
The Dark Side of the Public Opinion: Avisos, Pasquines and Intercepted Letters in the Spanish Court in XVIIth Century
Abstract
The Baroque Age calls attention to spectacle and power. It directs perception through official news in gacetas and forms historical memory through paintings, tombstones or relaciones de sucesos. Thus, communication media are usually associated with positive notions like «news» or «public opinion». This essay studies secrecy as part and counterpoint in the creation of zones of information, disinformation or informational lacunae at the Madrid court during the childhood and early reign of Charles II. It will focus on three phenomena: the pasquín as an efficient tool for manipulating the image of rulers and their ministers; the aviso as a means of avoiding the control of information governments sought to impose; the private letter as a vessel of most valuable information and therefore subject to enemy attacks. Finally, the study will relate changes in the distribution of news to a new perception of the present and its reflec-tions in the imagined, secret or possible worlds acted out in theatre.
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