Lope’s El Hamete de Toledo
the infidel’s body as conquered land
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bar.17707Keywords:
Literature, Spanish Literature, Early modern, Immigration, Lope de Vega, BodyAbstract
Set in the aftermath of the 1609 expulsion of the Moriscos decreed by King Philip III of Spain (r. 1598–1621), the play El Hamete de Toledo, by Lope de Vega, has found a new relevance on stage and in political debates linked to the current immigration crisis. This article aims to rethink the current victimization of Muslims, as presented in the production of AlmaViva Teatro, a Spanish theater company which used the Early Modern Spanish tragedy to connect to a contemporary audience, thirsty for social justice. To this end, I will focus on the treatment of Hamete, a Moor imprisoned in Spain, and whose body becomes the symbol of the Other, to be conquered. As such, in the course of the play, his body is vilified, dehumanized, chained, and tortured. The culmination of this process coincides with the final act of surrender, the moment of his conversion, but also of the physical dismemberment of his body, a brutal ritualistic sacrifice carried out in the name of eternal salvation.
References
Arellano, I. (2015) El Hamete de Toledo y el tratamiento del moro esclavo en el Siglo de Oro. Iberoromania 81(1): 16–31. https://doi.org/10.1515/ibero-2015-0004
Case, T. (1999) Violence and reception in Lope’s El Hamete de Toledo. Revista de Estudios Hispánicos 26(2): 193–205.
Ciruelo, P. (1977 [1551]) Reprobación de las supersticiones y hechicerías. Barcelona: Glosa.
Covarrubias, S. de (2006) Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española (I. Arellano and R. Zafra, eds). Pamplona, Spain: Universidad de Navarra.
Dean, M. (2004) A critical and annotated edition of Lope de Vega’s El Amete de Toledo. PhD dissertation, University of California Riverside.
Domínguez Ortiz, A. and Vincent, B. (1978) Historia de los moriscos. Vida y tragedia de una minoría. Madrid: Revista de Occidente.
Fuchs, B. (2009) Exotic Nation. Maurophilia and the Construction of Early Modern Spain. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812207354
García, M. (2016) El (H)amete de Toledo en el contexto de las expulsiones: ecos a ambos lados del Atlántico. In A. A. Gómez Yebra (ed.) Patrimonio Literario Andaluz V 55–63. Malaga, Spain: Servicio de Publicaciones Fundación Unicaja.
Greer, M. (2006) The politics of memory in El Tuzaní de la Alpujarra. In R. Pym (ed.) Rhetoric and Reality in Early Modern Spain 113–30. Woodbridge: Tamesis.
Lope de Vega, F. (2007) El Hamete de Toledo. In M. Presotto (ed.) Comedias de Lope de Vega, Parte IX. Lérida: Milenio.
Lope de Vega, F. (2010) El Hamete de Toledo (A. Sansano and C. Barló, dir.). AlmaViva Teatro.
Perceval, J. M. (1997) Todos son uno. Arquetipos de la xenofobia y el racismo. La imagen del morisco en la monarquía española de los siglos XVI y XVII. Almeria: Instituto de Estudios Almerienses.
