Foreshadowing in Ruano de la Haza’s twenty-first century adaptation of Rojas’ Celestina

Abstract

Ruano de la Haza’s 2004 version of Rojas’ Celestina (ca.1499/ca.1502) can be regarded as an adaptation of the Spanish work intended to be represented on the stage. One of its formal and thematic peculiar traits is its inclusion of a free rendering of Pleberio's soliloquy, which becomes both the Prologue and a closing monologue. As a result, the audience receives an edition with a circular structure, and gets familiar with the denouement of the story from the very beginning, regardless of whether they have been familiar with it or not. Foreshadowing has traditionally been regarded by criticism (e.g. Kayser-Philips 1974) as a structural element of Celestina, which is also linked to the ironic perspective adopted by the author. In this sense, this paper sets out to study whether this form of irony has been reflected in Ruano de la Haza's edition, and, if this is the case, the ways, the reasons and the purposes for which it has been so done, no matter if the audience knows the denouement of the plot from the beginning.