De novela a comedia: Persiles y Sigismunda de Rojas Zorrilla

Abstract

Based on dramatology, i.e. the theory of drama as a specific ‘mode’ of representation, this paper deals with Rojas Zorrilla’s comedy Persiles y Sigismunda as a theatrical version of Cervantes’ Byzantine novel Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda. Transmodalisation from narrative to drama affects the play’s structure (space, time, characters, metatheatricality) in a sometimes disturbing way. Dramatic discourse undergoes narrative hipertrophy through the many tales told by characters on stage. However, apart from the shortcomings that result of such an extreme adaptation, emphasis is put on the comedy’s positive value in termes of ‘diction’ and ‘thinking’.