Witchcraft and illusion. The staging of magic in Spanish and French theatre of the 17th century

• Applicant: Dr. Anna Isabell Woersdoerfer
• Subject Area: European and American Literary and Cultural Studies ; General and Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 431647111

The theatre of the 17th century designates the dawn of the modern age with its rapid verbal (rhetorical) and non-verbal (concerning stage machinery) developments. Baroque dramas are based on significant innovations in theatre engineering and linguistic expression. Their impact is unbroken and staging them is still a challenge. The modernity and vitality of the early modern theatre can be demonstrated specifically by the presentation of magic and its effects. Therefore it will be the focus of this project.The investigation aims to create new insights on three levels from the perspectives of literary and cultural studies: First on a theoretical conceptual level the early modern phenomenon is combined with the concept of staging to develop an analysis model in order to explain the theatricality of magic in its aesthetic as well as historical manifestations. Secondly specific plays and nonfictional documents about magic from known (e. g. Calderón, Corneille, Del Río) and mostly unknown authors are subjected to a close reading on the content micro level to process the theatrical, primarily rhetorical and visual methods of staging. On the content macro level the project will thirdly compare the concepts of drama in Spain and France (cultural area aspect) and analyze the diachronic developments (time aspect) between approximately 1600 and 1685. Up to this point, the divergence of the two blooming drama conceptions hindered further studies in this area. Now the project will reveal genre based similarities and differences (comedia vs. tragédie and comédie) of the literary magic stagings on one hand and replacement processes over time of genres as well as fundamentally of mentalities (national fashions of theatre; magical beliefs and skepticism) on the other hand.With significant historicization of its subject, the project methodically resorts to three inter-disciplinary approaches to the performative: First ethnological studies of ritual and magic are used to describe the mode of operation of historical and literary magic, taking into account the separation of magical and aesthetic illusion. Secondly linguistic and rhetoric models will be used to describe the verbalization of magical acts. Thirdly deliberations from theatre and literary studies to (theatrical) machines and acting technique establish links to the analysis of the visual spectacular transfer of magic and its effects onto the viewer.Based on the reciprocal elucidation of magic and theatricality profound findings are to be expected not only concerning the early modern phenomenon of magic in its historical context, but also selectively and in particular concerning its aesthetic-poetic potential in the baroque theatre.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants