Towards Celestina : paradoxes of courtly love ideal in castilian sentimental texts

Abstract

This paper studies some aspects of courtly love ideology in the Castilian 15th century —from Juan II to Isabel I—, focusing on the complex construction of the hierarchical relationship between the lover and his Lady in texts of sentimental fiction. It proposes that this construction is essentially paradoxical, and that these paradoxes shape a sort of sub-text upon which the story of Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea is elaborated. Departing from Fernando Gómez Redondo’s idea that the Tragicomedia belongs to the sentimental fiction genre, and using some considerations of Roger Chartier about Norbert Elias’ work, we attempt to understand the background for Celestina’s semantic resonances.