"Mis escritos, caudal de pobreza de mi ingenio": Lope de Vega y la autoconstrucción de la figura del escritor en sus prólogos, dedicatorias y grabados

Abstract

In 1617, Lope de Vega wrote the prologue to the Parte IX of his comedies, and there he manifested that he took care of the publication. This act went hand in hand with the exposure that he was aware that writing was his profession, with the search for his texts to be perpetuated in a reliable way, and with the affirmation that his production constituted a contribution to the Castilian letters. Since then, through the dedications and the prologues of his dramatic pieces and the volumes that nucleate them, Lope defined meticulously and peculiarly which were the characteristics that defined his image as writer, and the iconographic apparatus which he commissioned for these publications accompanied this underlying intentionality. In the pages that follow, we will inquire about that self-construction of his own author image and we will determine the modifications that this paratextual configuration acquired gradually.