The Moral Hazard of <i>La Celestina</i>. A Legal-Economic and Literary Interdiscursive Analysis on the Circularity of Goods

Abstract

The connection between elements of legal-economic and the literary work is proposed as to the case of La Celestina. An interdiscursive analysis is achieved in order to explain a legal-economic component which is necessary for the textual and literary constitution of this work. The chain of chance in La Celestina is a commercial chain built up upon a series of contracts that outcome with an ironic structure and purpose: the equalisation between the haste in living and the haste in dying ends up in the innate misfortune that the gift provides in order to receive a counter-gift. The general misfortune in the work is a consequence of that inverse gift and this conversion will explain the ironical deaths of Melibea (the only character who, without any will, has a desire to die) and Celestina (since she will not be a part of the chain created by herself). The love business, to which every character is thrown into, is considered in terms of “moral hazard”, concept used regularly in insurance’s vocabulary. Therefore, “moral hazard” as a concept will be brought to the interpretative field of interdiscursive studies in order to consider the risks of economical gift in relation to the goods and the legal spoken exchange of promises.

Keywords

• Interdiscursive analysis
• gift
• value
• promise
• moral hazard