Early Modern Spanish theatre is viewed by many scholars as entertaining propaganda that channelled the emotions and beliefs of the masses into mechanisms for social control. This book identifies the limitations of this model and how its deficiencies become evident when we examine the portrayal of criminal heroes on stage, as well as in spectacular public displays of law enforcement outside the playhouse. Bergman's main purpose is to see to how Baroque spectacle (a term of art in theatre that refers to a particular event, often in expressions of popular culture) appears either to align itself, work against, or be independent of the social means of control of the day.The book is structured in a way that moves between analyses of theatre, crime, and law enforcement while covering the intersections between these three phenomena. The author's main argument is that that the propaganda power of early modern Spanish spectacle has been vastly overstated.
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