"Rumours are"

the authoritative speech in La Celestina

Abstract

The main objective of this research is to demonstrate that the strategies of power in La Celestina pass through language, eloquence and rhetoric to impose a vertical model of authority among the characters. Celestina is the main source of manipulation in this tragicomedy thanks to what Mikhail Bakhtin calls “authoritative discourse”. The characters move in a chaotic and multidirectional world sponsored by various instances of manipulation that permeate the discourse of Celestina. The approach used is that of textual and comparative analysis. As a result, this investigation shows that the death of Celestina is directly related to the ideological awakening of Pármeno and Sempronio or what Bakhtin calls "internalpersuasivediscourse."