Year: 1985
Type: article
Abstract: The modern oral tradition can frequently shed "light upon the past, disclosing facts which might otherwise have remained shielded from knowledge." 30 lt was partly due to a modern folk joke, a conundrum and a somewhat cryptic, burlesque version of the ballad A Vofta do Navegante from the Azores that I wás able to document Rosario Ferré's and Otis Handy's interpretation of hilado and sorne cognate symbols in LC. • 1 The abundant use of terms such as aguja (a needle but also a phallic symbol), puntos (stitches as well as a euphemism for coitus), hilado (thread and semen) rolled up in skeins (madejas, i. e., testi cles), 3 2 llaga (wound, suffering or love, vagina), and the frequent references to doctors, illnesses, remedies and cures (the medieval belief that unrequited love was a real illness with severe physical consequenc es plus the modern [?] concept of "playing doctor"), particularly dur ing the interview that Handy has perceptively designated as "The Rhe torical and Psychological Defloration of Melibea," indicates that the heroine, rather than being a poor, innocent victim of Celestina's evil machinations, is "a willing, eager participant in loco amor" (Handy, 25) 30 1 am quoting from the conclusion to my forthcoming Barca Befa in the Portuguese Oral Tradition" (RPh).The two stories on which the present note is based were recorded in Canada thanks to a Fellow ship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.They will be included in O Conto Popular Portugués na América do Norte, 111: Canada, a collection of folktales that I am still editing (to be published in the Acta Universitatis Conimbrigensis).• 1 Rosario Ferré, "Celestina en el tejido de la 'cupiditas'," Celestinesca 7: 1 (1983), 3-16, Otis Handy, "The Rhetorical and Psychological De floration of Melibea," Celestinesca 7:1 (1983), 17-27, y M. da Costa Fontes, "Celestina's hilado and Related Symbols," Celestinesca 8: 1 (1984), 3-13 (further references to this article will be indicated in the text.
Source: Celestinesca
Author: Manuel da Costa Fontes
Language: English
Topic: Medieval Iberian Studies
Subfield: Classics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W72016851