Acceso usuarios
Ben Post
This article analyzes Juan Ruiz de Alarcón's El Anticristo in the context of the play's performance and print history. The play's premiere was marred by a stink bomb and a last-minute actor switch that saw the play's dama step into the costume of Antichrist, while its first printed edition includes an ambiguous sign for Antichrist in the stage directions, which future critical editions represent in at least five different ways or omit altogether. I clarify the possible meanings of the printed sign and demonstrate that the rest of the play is also marked by identity games and ambiguous signs. The play dialogues with a frequently contradictory corpus of theological treatises on the Antichrist and shows a surprising interest in representing Jewish ethnoreligious alterity. I connect these traits to the playwright's broader interest in crypto-religion, which, I argue, cannot be separated from the diverse and complex social landscape of New Spain, where Ruiz de Alarcón spent his formative years.
