From National Theatre to Spanish Classical Theatre: the conquest of the centre of a new literary system

Abstract

The literary histography constitutes a determining agent in establishing and displacement of literary canons. The present work explores the shift of the term National Theatre to the expression Spanish Classical Theatre exploring the basic points of different sections of historiography which make possible the terminological evolution. We study the different attitudes towards the national character of Spanish Golden Age theatre in order to determinate which elements are most critical to the terminological displacement. The term National Theatre, dealing with ideological content, over time, will be replaced by Spanish Classical Theatre, where these values will be amalgamated with the semantic components of universality and timelessness, beyond any doubt its central place in Spanish Theatrical Canon.