Images of Portuguese identity and the reception of Lope de Vega’s theatre in Portugal

Abstract

This article aims at discussing the topic of “Portuguese themes” in Lope de Vega’s plays, and it will consider the role of the images of a Portuguese national identity in both the political context of the Iberian Peninsula in the beginning of the 17th century and in the contemporary Portuguese reception of Lope de Vega’s theatre. The analysis of the play El guante de Doña Blanca [Doña Blanca’s glove] and its 1972 Portuguese translation will show the complex dialogue between historical reference and poetic conventions, and it will lead to a reflection on the possible political reading of cultural referents in Lope’s plays. Even if in a less obvious way, Lope de Vega was also, somehow, a writer between cultures.