Silencio o blasón. Escribir entre dos extremos

Abstract

The first four verses of the acrostic poem that accompanies Celestina as a preliminary text stress the importance of two concepts, silencio and blasón, to remain silent or to publish, that represent two extremes from which the author must choose a middle ground. In this article I argue that Rojas, as author of the book or, at least, as a continuator of the manuscript of the first author, adapts Aristotle's well known idea of the golden mean to his own work in two levels. First, he represents his characters deliberating between extremes when they act or when they reflect upon their actions. In a second level, Rojas, as author, also deliberates on the consequences of publishing a book (Comedia) and on the response he can give to the opinions coming from his early audience (Tragicomedia). In the dynamics between writing and reception of his own work, Rojas finds as a place of enunciation a golden mean from which articulate his didactic purpose.