La Celestina

In this Illuminated Lecture from theatre dybbuk, Professor Barbara Fuchs addresses La Celestina, an extraordinary text from an extraordinary time. Written in Spain at the turn of the sixteenth century, soon after the expulsion of the Jews, La Celestina gives powerful voice to marginal characters somehow central to every exchange and transaction— wily go-betweens, panders, and disaffected servants. Along the way, it asks radically uncomfortable questions of its society and our own: what do we owe each other, especially across lines of class or gender? How do we make room for ourselves, when society has already decided on our place? In a time of profound dislocation, how do we find meaning in the world? A mix of manifesto and cautionary tale, bawdy story and philosophical meditation, La Celestina haunts us with its devastating insight.