Performing the King Divine. The Early Modern Spanish Aulic Festival

Performing the King Divine proposes a framework for the systematic consideration of early modern festivals in the Spanish courts as a coherent phenomenon of ritual performance for the creation of a divine image of royal power using a historical, artistic, literary and anthropological approach. Starting with medieval examples that convey the ruler’s physical proximity to the divine, and ending with the identification of the ruler with the divine during the reign of the last Spanish Habsburg monarch Charles II, this study looks at the evolution of the discourse that represents the Habsburg dynasty’s divinely inspired imperial rights by means of performance within the cultural context of the productions. As ritual, the performance of these spectacles represent the place of the ruler in the order of things. The ideal society and culture surrounding him are represented and secured under the auspices of divine ordainment. In the process of the representation of this ideal order, these spectacles do not just reflect, but actually create such an order. Hence, the title of this book, Performing the King Divine, conveys a double meaning. On the one hand, in the process of the performance, the image of the king is performed onstage as the connection between his subjects and the divine realm. On the other, the spectacle, just as what John Searle termed a performative utterance, creates a new reality in the world: the body of the king as a divine being. Lucas A. Marchante-Aragón is an Associate Professor of Spanish at the College of Staten Island – City University of New York. Edition Reichenberger Pfannkuchstr. 4 D-34121 Kassel Alemania