Subversive Demythologizing in Calderon de la Barca's Fineza contra fineza : The Metamorphosis of Diana

This paper briefly examines how seventeenth-century Spanish Golden-Age dramatist Pedro Calderón de la Barca treats the classical Diana-Actaeon motif in Fineza contra fineza. The paper contends that Calderón's approach to myth, as underscored in Fineza contra fineza, is subversive in intent, and meant to defy, rather than support, the prevailing social, political, and philosophical structures of his society, thus accentuating the transcendent value of Fineza contra fineza, a relatively unknown play in the dramaturge's repertoire.