Challenging Confinement: The Redress of Captivity in La gran sultana
In La gran sultana doña Catalina de Oviedo (1615), Miguel de Cervantes presents an implausible story line in which the Ottoman sultan offers Spanish captive Catalina de Oviedo autonomy and imperial authority in return for her hand in marriage. Although she remains physically confined to the harem of...
| Published in: | The sixteenth century journal |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Sixteenth Century Journal Publishers, Inc.
[2019]
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| In: |
The sixteenth century journal
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| IxTheo Classification: | CD Christianity and Culture KAH Church history 1648-1913; modern history KBH Iberian Peninsula NCF Sexual ethics ZC Politics in general |
| Further subjects: | B
LA Gran Sultana (Play)
B CERVANTES Saavedra, Miguel de, 1547-1616 B CLASSICAL Period Spanish literature B SPANIARDS in literature B HAREMS IN LITERATURE B LITERATURE & history B Ottoman Empire B TURKISH history; Murad III, 1574-1595 |
| Summary: | In La gran sultana doña Catalina de Oviedo (1615), Miguel de Cervantes presents an implausible story line in which the Ottoman sultan offers Spanish captive Catalina de Oviedo autonomy and imperial authority in return for her hand in marriage. Although she remains physically confined to the harem of Constantinople, Catalina negotiates the conditions of his proposal in order to preserve the signifiers of her Spanish identity. Although critics have long debated the historicity of the drama, recent scholarship has clarified the play’s historical indebtedness. The present essay examines precisely how and why Cervantes turns to history, both in terms of the space of the harem and the women within, as a means to avenge his own captivity. Through the unlikely figure of Catalina, Cervantes is able to both re-dress and redress the captive experience as he simultaneously rejects and reconciles his own afflicted past. |
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| ISSN: | 2326-0726 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: The sixteenth century journal
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