Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-238) and index
Women and drama in early modern Spain -- Performing gender in the comedia -- Feminine exemplarity -- The body politic -- Historical queens and/in the comedia -- Beauty and the Machiavellian beast -- Calderón's La gran cenobia -- Tirso de Molina's La república al revés -- Transgendered tyranny in La hija del aire -- English queens and the body politic -- Calderón's La cisma de inglaterra and Pedro de Rivadeneira's -- Historia eclesiastica del scisma del reino de inglaterra -- Taming the shrew in Antonio Coello's El conde de sex -- Christina of Sweden and queenly Garb(o) -- Calderón's Afectos de odio y amor -- Christina postscripts
Taking into account theories of gender, performance and performativity within a historical context, this study explores how the Baroque comedia's preoccupation with kingship goes hand in hand with the obsessive representation of women (and women's bodies). The question of royal subjectivity in plays dealing with fantasies of feminine rule-by Calderón de la Barca, Tirso de Molina and others-is rendered inseparable from issues surrounding masculinity and femininity
