Celestina: Authorship, Editions, Genre, Structure, and Themes

Celestite

Authorship

Attributed primarily to Fernando de Rojas, with Act I possibly by Rodrigo de Cota. Initially 16 acts, later expanded to 21.

Editions

• 1^st Edition (1499-1500): Untitled, also known as Comedia de Melibea. Contains 16 acts and annotations, including an acrostic verse prologue.
• 2^nd Edition (1502): Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea, with 21 acts.
• 3^rd Edition: Mid-16^th century, titled La Celestina.

Genre

Debated between:

• a) Play: Division into acts, absence of a narrator, action driven by dialogue, specific time and place setting.
• b) Dialogue Novel: Length and complexity make it difficult to stage.

Structure

• Act I: Introduction to the action.
• Acts II-XII: Development of conflict between characters.
• Acts XIII-XX: Development of Calisto and Melibea's passionate love.
• Act XXI: Pleberio's lament.

Style

• a) Richness of Language: Alternation of cultured and popular language.
  • Calixto and Melibea's dialogues.
  • Dialogues of Celestina, servants, and pupils.
• b) Discursive Varieties: Monologue, dialogue, asides.

Characters

• a) The Gentry: Calisto, Melibea, Pleberio, and Alisa.
• b) Celestina: Connects characters, facilitates their desires, known for intelligence and manipulation.
• c) The Servants: Sempronio, Pármeno, Elicia, Areusa, Lucrecia, and Centurio.

Themes

• Love: Begins as courtly love, transitions to carnal love, affecting all characters directly or indirectly.
• Death: Linked to love, passion, and the unbridled greed of servants and Celestina, leading to murder.
• Transience of Life: Numerous references to the fleeting nature of life and pleasure.

Popular Lyric Poetry

Jarchas

• 1. Date of Composition: 10^th-11^th centuries.
• 2. Language: Mozarabic.
• 3. Speaker: Female, a woman in love.
• 4. Receiver: Sisters, mother.
• 5. Main Theme: Loving complaint: absence, abandonment.
• 6. Figures: Rhetorical questions.

Songs of a Friend

• 1. Date of Composition: 13^th-14^th centuries.
• 2. Language: Galician-Portuguese.
• 3 & 5. Repetition.
• 4. Addressee: Mother, brothers, nature.
• 6. Parallelism and leixaprén.

Carols

• 1. Date of Composition: Medieval.
• 2. Language: Castilian.
• 3 & 5. Repetition.
• 4. Addressee: Mother, brother, beloved.
• 6. Symbolism.