Carmen Hsu examines Lope's characterization of the courtesan in a selection of fourteen plays and in La Dorotea. The literature of the courtesan achieves its culmination and transcendence with La Dorotea (1632) by Lope de Vega. Lope's originality lays in his development and renovation ot the type of the emotionally vulnerable courtesan.

Introduction

1. Courtesans in Classical and Renaissance Literature

I. Classical Predecessors

II. The Creation of the Literature of Courtesans in the Italian Renaissance

III. Renaissance Courtesans

IV. Louise Labé and Veronica Franco

2. Beginning of the Portrayals of Courtesans in Spanish Literature

I. The World of Prostitution

II. La Celestina

III. Carajicomedia

IV. La Lozana andaluza

V. Antonio de Guevara

3. The Romancero General

4. Lope de Vega’s Comedias

5. The Short Fiction of the Seventeenth Century

I. Salas de Barbadillo and Castillo Solórzano

II. María de Zayas y Sotomayor

III. Cervantes and La tía fingida

6. La Dorotea

Appendix I: Chapter XXIII of the Capítulo de Reformación (1623)

Appendix II: Courtesans in Lope de Vega’s Comedias

Works Cited