Clase y “trabajo sucio” en la guerra calderoniana

Resumen

One of the never-ending debates among critics of the drama of Pedro Calderón de la Barca revolves around the punishment of the rebel soldier in La vida es sueño who sparked the rebellion that overthrew Basilio and brought Segismundo to power. Some argue that it is patently unjust; others attribute it to a prudent reason of state that condemns treachery to the established order even to achieve a desired end, and blame the soldier’s self-serving claim that he deserves a reward. This article illuminates that debate from the perspective of several other Calderonian dramas of war and rebellion: El sitio de Breda, El Tuzaní de la Alpujarra, La aurora en Copacabana, El divino cazador and El segundo Scipión. Bringing into my treatment consideration of the changing status of military service in early modern Spain as the army became semi-professional, I argue that Calderón regularly assigns the dirty but necessary work of war to self-serving actions of lower-class characters whom he depicts unfavorably, thereby safeguarding an aristocratic ideology of the nobility of military service by upper-class officers.

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