The Metamorphoses of Don Juan's Women: Early Parity to Late Modern Pathology

Citation

Davies A (2004) The Metamorphoses of Don Juan's Women: Early Parity to Late Modern Pathology. Spanish Studies, 28. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press. https://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=6006&pc=9

Abstract
While many scholars have approached Don Juan in terms of myth, this study argues for the understanding of Don Juan as a discourse of gender relations, changing over time. Using examples from the plays by Tirso de Molina, Molière, Mozart, Zorrila, Shaw and Frisch, it argues that Don Juan's entire identity as a male individual is constructed around women, but that over time - reflecting a growing sense of crisis in the male individual - the women appear more and more pathological in their desire for Don Juan. In contrast with early modern works where women fend for themselves in a positive manner, the heroines of later Don Juan works actively prey on the individual male. This book argues that these changes in approach to the female characters, and, in tandem, the developing identity of the male protagonist, suggest Don Juan as dischronic discourse rather than myth. Don Juan is not the eternal seducer, but one of a variety of discourses through which gender relations are negotiated. This book will interest not only Don Juan scholars but also scholars and students of European literature, theatre and gender discourses in literature and culture.