Histeresis creativa traces how courtly spectacles, short and full-length plays, and picaresque narratives arose under Philip III of Spain, and were then adopted by popular culture. The book focuses on some of the most prominent writers of the early, middle, and late Baroque (Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega and Alonso de Castillo Solorzano) but considers their works through the optic of creative hysteresis, i.e., the artistic appropriation of the past to defend the present. The prestige system under Philip III was in need of justifying the imbalance between the increasing...