Cervantes's critique of verisimilitude as intertext for the "new comedy"

This essay attempts to outline the intertextuality between Cervantes' criti que of verisimilitude and Spain's "new comedy," which culminates in the ske pticism and meta-representation of Calderon's stage. Cervantes' attachment to the neo-Aristotelian precept of verisimilitude is ironic, paradoxical, a nd equivocal, forcing the reader to distinguish between the writing of pres umably verisimilar texts(Numancia) and the writing of texts that are presum ably implausible(Coloquio). The author's interweaving of the verisimilar an d the implausible, challenges the reader to enter a world of writing that l ies beyond the boundaries of truth and falsehood imposed by contemporary pr eceptists. Spain's "new comedy" would reread the Cervantine practice of ver isimilitude as a stage between truth and falsehood. It would also amplify t he sense of self-reflexivity and self-parody that abounds in Cervantine tex ts by constructing a stage that became fully meta-representational. The ess ay ultimately hopes to demonstrate how intertextuality as a function of ver isimilitude may offer a theoretical possibility toward a better understandi ng of Cervantes' role as interlocutor with Spain's "new comedy."