The game(s) of love and language in Anton de Montoro, Rodrico de Cota and Fernando de Rojas

Following the theoretical precepts of French philosopher Jacques Derrida as well as the literary formulations of Argentinean thinker and writer Jorge Luis Borges, this study analyzes the conception of language underlying the works of three Spanish fifteenth-century converso authors: namely Anton de Montoro's poetic corpus, Rodrigo de Cota's Dialogo entre el amor y un viejo, and Fernando de Rojas' Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea. It shows that these authors' view of language as an ever-changing and deceiving entity is intimately connected with their own feeling of instability and alienation in fifteenth-century Castile.;Anton de Montoro, Rodrigo de Cota and Fernando de Rojas choose the literary school of courtly love as the point of departure for their reflections on the treacherous nature of language. In fact the concepts, but more significantly the language, of fin'amor---is hyperbolic by nature and therefore perfectly illustrates the power of language to manipulate reality and create fictions. The male protagonists of Cota's Dialogo, Viejo, as well as Rojas' male lover protagonist, Calisto, are parodic courtly lovers while Amor and the old bawd Celestina, are personifications of the deceit and treachery involved in everyday language practices.;Such a vision of language did not originate in fifteenth-century Spain and is traced in some of the Midi troubadours' verses as well as in fourteenth-century Spanish author Juan Ruiz, author of the Libro de Buen Amor. Anton de Montoro, Rodrigo de Cota and Fernando de Rojas' respective texts reiterate an issue---the self-reflexivity of language---already expressed by earlier Medieval authors; yet, their vision of language becomes a metaphor for their own social and religious status in pre-renaissance Spain. Conversos were scrutinized by the dominant caste of Old Christians and constantly submitted to higher levels of repression; as a consequence, they were condemned to wear successive masks in order to adapt to any new given situation. Similarly, language is a malleable and a-centric entity. It is ironical, yet highly logical, that these three authors should have chosen language as the means to express their sense of otherness; in fact, their "language practices" oftentimes were the cause of their tragic vision.;This study allows the reader to come to realize that self-reflexivity---at the core of modern and post-modern literary debates---is also of central importance in Medieval texts. Moreover, this dissertation demonstrates that the negative view of language shared by Anton de Montoro, Rodrigo Cota and Fernando de Rojas---and conveyed through the game(s) of love and language in their respective works---unveils a human tragedy: that of the newly converted Jews in fifteenth-century Spain, condemned to dissimulate and pretend in order to survive.