Laberinth of Errors: Celestinesque Ploys against Death

Abstract

Of all the types of prose fiction popular throughout the Spanish Golden Age the family of texts composed as continuations and/or derivations of Fernando de Rojas’s La Celestina (1499), stands out as a veritable museum of death, dying, mourning, and melancholia. As prescribed by Rojas’s foundational text, all too frequently the characters of the celestinesque genre meet cruel ends. Lovers die, servants murder each other, revenge is exacted, relatives stand alone grieving, and, as sure as old age often prefigures death, an air of melancholy is common to these texts. Yet, the texts of the celestinesca consistently aim to stand out on their own. This article aims to explore the tangled web of death and dying, mourning and melancholy present in the works of the celestinesca. It shows the extent to which Rojas’s followers at-tempted to open ways out of his dreadful «laberinto de errores».