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Thinking in La vida es sueño

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

C. Christopher Soufas Jr
C. Christopher Soufas Jr*
Affiliation:
West Chester UniversityWest Chester, Pennsylvania
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Abstract

Examining the epistemological assumptions governing Calderón's theocentric view of life provides an accessible framework to overcome the many difficulties in reading La vida es sueño as a document of human experience. Segismundo's problems arise from an incomplete understanding of himself and the world. A prisoner since birth, the prince overcompensates intellectually for a life of sensual deprivation. Alienated from both the world and the sensitive centers of his humanity, he thinks to excess because his principal conduit to the world, his imagination, has remained underdeveloped. Through his palace experiences and his three encounters with Rosaura, Segismundo learns to adapt his inappropriate thinking by understanding that he must dialogue with the world rather than construct arguments against it.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 100 , Issue 3 , May 1985 , pp. 287 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1985

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