Media Conversion and Recontextualization of Biblical Text: Focusing on the Parable of the Prodigal Son

This article examines the recontextualization of the Biblical parable of the prodigal son when it was converted into a Spanish Baroque sacramental act. José de Valdivielso converted the biblical original narrative into Catholic Spanish Baroque theater. He expanded, transformed, and strengthened the original narrative in order to elicit sympathy from contemporary audiences and fulfill the purpose of religious drama, which is religious education. In order to embody in the work other parables of the same subject that were mentioned outside of the parable of the prodigal son, the author expanded the content of the narrative by assigning roles to characters in the play. And he strengthened the narrative of the original parable with extensive quotations that crossed the New and Old Testament, Greek and Roman mythology, and Spanish Baroque secular literature. Above all, the author recontextualized the original narrative to express the Catholic view of salvation: the tragedy, repentance, and salvation of a universal human being who left God, away from the problem consciousness of the Palestinian region in the first century AD covered by the "parable of the prodigal son" in his work.