Edición y estudio de Bencimarte de Lusitania

La historia del invencible y clarísimo principe Bencimarte de Lusitania, emperador del gran Cairo y de otros principes de su linaje, is a handwritten Romance of Chivalries found by José Manuel Lucía Megías in the library of the Royal Palace in Madrid. There are two known copies in the forementioned library. The two copies (B1 and B2) dońt have the same content, the depth of the work is found in B1 which is selected for this thesis whereas in B2 we could only find incoherent and unconnected parts due to book binding and covering as some texts had been lost. In the present work is going to be offered a manuscript description, inner and outer features, dating issues, text variations, narrative voices and structure, chronology and worḱs primary and secondary sources, characters, summaries, arguments and what́s new according to the world of chivalry. Our initial aim was to set a conclusive text of Bencimarte de Lusitania as to it has remained unknown for the reader until nowadays. It dealt with the transcription of both manuscripts, reinterprated their contents and compared them with the original texts. On the other hand, we could make a critical edition of the final version which highlighted Bencimarte himself and its possible interpretations. Thus, we could suitably arrange the text in its period as there is no date on it by means of the text itself or any further reference. We will do the same regarding to either the author or the authors. We would study the book itself offering an interpretation and a deep analysis of its elements, both the structural ones and those that belong to Romance of Chivelries themselves (mythical and marvellous adventures, knights and ladies , prodigious characters, the topic of the found manuscript, challenges and so on) as well as what is new and unique in this work of art which means to follow a pattern apart from introducing something new in the Chivelry books...

From ‘Bad’ to ‘Mad’: Labelling and Behaviour in Peter Shaffer’s Equus

The process of ‘labelling’ (whereby labels are socially imposed on a given behaviour by a given person) is an extensive and recurrent one in our society, as proved by the labelling of behaviours and people even into the literary text. In our analysis, we will try to show how applying one of two most different labels (psychopathic or psychotic) greatly influences our understanding of the existence of ‘evil’ or moral responsibility in the deeds of a person. To such end, we will use Peter Shaffer’s play Equus (1973), which requires both the characters in the play and the spectators to decide whether Alan Strang’s terrible crime is a result of evil or of insane behaviour: whether he is ‘mad’ or simply ‘bad’. We will try to evince the current social and cultural confusion between madness and evil, and how processes of medicalization or criminalization affect our understanding of those around us and those living in the books we read.