Resumen de Staging the Crusade against Islam: The Twelve Peers of France and European Popular Theatricality
This essay deals with the performances of the staged combat against Islam, its Iberian origins and medieval records, its spread around the world (America, Africa, Asia) and the distinctive manifestations of its present-day survival, particularly in Mexico and Ihla do Príncipe. My analysis focuses on the salient spectacular aspects of two traditional festivals: Los doce pares de Francia, which I witnessed in 2013 in Tlalnepantla (Morelos, Mexico), and the Auto de Floripes de Santo António (São Tomé and Príncipe), which Alexandra Gouvêa Dumas studied in 2009. I explore the genetic link between the aspects in question and the type of drama that originated and flourished in the Iberian Peninsula in the late Middle Ages. My discussion evolves into a two-pronged argumentation: stage direction and acting, costumes and props. It delves into the issues that have to do with authorship, text, audience, and social context. I intend to identify in the two festivals in question the significant common theatrical features that characterize popular dramaturgy and stagecraft.
