Manuscript Res. 19 of the Biblioteca Nacional de España, a copy of Calderón’s court spectacle Basta callar, partially written by the author himself, paradigmatically illustrates the logic and working of Jacques Derrida’s notion of the parergon («frame»). In the manuscript, we observe the (graphic) intrusion of the frames into the text. These frames were used by stage directors and/or the authors to mark sections to be suppressed in a particular representation. They both contain and suppress elements which are dispensable because they seem not to contribute to our understanding of the central notions of the play: The high nobility’s renunciation of passion for the sake of state and power. A detailed analysis of the barred materials shows that perversion, in its 17th-century meaning of a corruption of the «good customs» (ethical, sexual, and religious), is the necessary supplement of the logic of power.
Abstract
Manuscript Res. 19 of the Biblioteca Nacional de España, a copy of Calderón’s court spectacle Basta callar, partially written by the author himself, paradigmatically illustrates the logic and working of Jacques Derrida’s notion of the parergon («frame»). In the manuscript, [...]