The imaginary space of America in the Golden Age drama

The aim of this dissertation is to examine the shift in the dramatic representation of the New World from the sixteenth to the seventeenth centuries in the Spanish Theater. I argue that the representation of the New World did not correspond to the American reality, but rather to the projection of the humanist ideals of reformation and renewal during the first half of the sixteenth century. Spanish perception of the indigenous peoples and their social organization was at first seen as an empirical exemplification of the ideal of utopia of the Renaissance. However, at the end of the sixteenth century and during the seventeenth century, this utopian imagining of America in Spanish Literature gave way to a deep disenchantment with the possibilities and challenges represented by the New World.;The first chapter on Micael de Carvajal's Cortes de la Muerte analyzes the early humanist vision of America. Subsequent chapters on the plays on America by Lope de Vega and Calderon de la Barca concentrate on the reassessment of this early vision. A final chapter on Solorzano Pereira's Politica Indiana intends to detect, as a conclusion, the relationship of this conception of the New World with that of the drama in Imperial Spain.;I believe that my dissertation pursues an original line of inquiry that reveals a fluctuating process in the treatment of the New World in Spanish Theater, and that attempts to set it in a wider context of ideas.;The plays examined construct an imaginary America in which the needs of a changing Spain to modern state are represented. My study takes up the specific representation of these profound changes, its implications in Spanish policies toward the Indians and the complexities of Spain's response to this non-European world.