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In this thesis, I will present self-reflexive specularity and
gross materialityas two representations of the seventeenth
century royal power. I will alsodiscuss the roayl power
displayed in Las Meninas , a seventeenth century Spanish
painting by Diego Velasquez.In chapter one, I will discuss how
Webster, in The Duchess of Malfi, presents royal power through
grotesque images. Royal spectacle is portrayed as a
reaffirmation of transcendental sovereignty. Ferdinand's
fascination with grotesque images explains his inability to
transcend the physical order and develop a self-reflexive
capacity. Specifically, I will examine Ferdinand's doubling
projection of identity onto his sister and how this projection
is related to his obsession with the ghastly and the obscene to
produce effects of horror and tortures of the Duchess as
manifestations of his sovereignty.In chapter two, I will examine
how Calderon, in Life Is a Dream, develops the self-reflexive
mode of royal power through dream mechanism. Self-reflexive
speculation is a perspectival invention which is concerned with
the confrontation between the king and his subjects. This
perspectival device does not take royal identity as divine
entity or a transcendental signifier, rather,it is a self-
conscious subjectivity which results from the king's
confrontation with his subjects. It depicts royal spectacle as
a reciprocal game between the king and his subjects. I will
also discuss the development of self-reflexive capacity in
Segismund which makes him curb his violent actions.Las Meninas
is introduced into this thesis to portray a pictorial
representation of self-reflexive mode of royal power. In this
painting, through the vanishing point or the mirror, Velasquez
disintegrates the anteriority of things and divine kingship. We
will also see reciprocal interactions between the painter, the
reflected figures in the mirror, and the spectators.From Las
Meninas, The Duchess of Malfi, and Life Is a Dream, we can see
how the seventeenth century royal spectacle not only illustrates
its fascination with gross materiality and physical projection
of royal image, but also contains metaphysical meditations upon
the king's body as well.
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