"Lo político a verdad y lo fabuloso a sueño"la invectiva política bajo la máscara del sueño en la España del siglo XVII

Abstract

All along the history of literature the use of dreams as a narrative strategy to hide specially controversial contents has been frequent. In particular, in 17th century Spain, political texts using the resource to the dream are frequent. They may contain criticism to the system of the «validos» (like Melchor Fonseca y Almeida's Sueño político) or try to indoctrinate the ruler (like Antonio López de Vega's El perfecto señor). Due to of such a strategy, the author's responsibility towards the criticism contained in the dreams seems to attenuate. On the other hand, the use of the dream's framework could reveal some scepticism toward the ideological and political utopias expressed inside the works, since the resource was being parodied since the 16th century, mainly after the popular Sueños y discursos, by Francisco de Quevedo.