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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Modern Languages
Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands: Heroic Women Of The Early Reconquest In The Spanish Comedia, Matthew D. Stroud
Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands: Heroic Women Of The Early Reconquest In The Spanish Comedia, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Against the backdrop of the uncertain and troubling history of Christian Spain at the turn of the ninth century, three comedias highlight the heroic deeds of the women of Asturias and León. In Lope de Vega’s Las doncellas de Simancas, women who are to be sent as tribute to the Emir of Córdoba sever their own hands, threaten suicide, and ultimately lead the resistance against the barbaric exchange. In Las famosas asturianas, also by Lope, Sancha, selected, as well, for delivery to the Moors, shames her countrymen by appearing undressed before them but not in the presence of …
The Biblical Ruth As Dama Principal: Tirso’S La Mejor Espigadera, Matthew D. Stroud
The Biblical Ruth As Dama Principal: Tirso’S La Mejor Espigadera, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The comedia mined a variety of source texts for its plots—Italian novelle, Spanish history, Greek and Roman mythology, and, of course, the Bible—but always managed to adapt plot, setting, and characters to the conventions of the Spanish national theater. This process offered great benefits, such as audience familiarity, as well as challenges, including inherent and unavoidable limitations on artistic freedom. One of the more interesting adaptations is Tirso de Molina’s reworking of the Biblical story of Ruth in La mejor espigadera, primarily because of the lack of dramatic potential offered by the original: there are no villains, no obstacles …
Undocumented And Queer: Carlos Manuel’S La Vida Loca, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Undocumented And Queer: Carlos Manuel’S La Vida Loca, Rita Urquijo-Ruiz
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
No abstract provided.
The Conversion Of Polyeucte’S Félix: The Problem Of Religion And Theater, Nina Ekstein
The Conversion Of Polyeucte’S Félix: The Problem Of Religion And Theater, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The relationship between religion and theater gave rise in seventeenth-century France to much discussion and dissent, commonly referred to as the Querelle de la moralité du théâtre. The 1640s were a rare period during which religious subjects were popular on the French stage; almost all of the major playwrights wrote at least one play that could be thus categorized (Pasquier 201). I propose to examine the friction between the domains of theater and religion through a discussion of the two most enduringly famous religious plays of this period, Pierre Corneille's Polyeucte (1643) and Jean Rotrou's Le Véritable Saint Genest …
The Play Of Means And Ends: Justice In Lope's Fuenteovejuna, Matthew D. Stroud
The Play Of Means And Ends: Justice In Lope's Fuenteovejuna, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Lope’s masterpiece, Fuenteovejuna, is generally considered to be a glowing endorsement of the reign of Fernando and Isabel, who represent not just a glorious and hopeful Spanish history but political acumen, justice, and the triumph of good over evil. A closer examination of several key plot elements, however, reveals that almost every time characters are called upon to make decisions, they choose the option that at best circumvents the requirements for justice and at worst actively works to the detriment of the proper administration of justice and law. This study focuses on four pivotal moments—when Frondoso takes the Comendador’s …
Entre El Dinamismo Ideológico Y El Estatismo Filosófico: La Aproximación Al Género Y A La Mujer En La Obra De Valle-Inclán, Estrella Cibreiro
Entre El Dinamismo Ideológico Y El Estatismo Filosófico: La Aproximación Al Género Y A La Mujer En La Obra De Valle-Inclán, Estrella Cibreiro
Spanish Department Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Another Look At Calderón’S El Príncipe Constante As Tragedy, Matthew D. Stroud
Another Look At Calderón’S El Príncipe Constante As Tragedy, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The forms and definitions of tragedy have been a frequent preoccupation for James Parr over the course of his distinguished career. One of his more influential articles was "El príncipe constante and the Issue of Christian Tragedy," published in 1986. Parr's approach was primarily ethical and formalist, dealing with the Aristotelian requirements of tragedy: areté, hubris, catharsis. He countered the long and distinguished scholarship that maintains that Christian tragedy is an impossibility by reconsidering, even redefining, hamartia and anagnorisis, and essentially ignoring peripeteia. Hamartia, in his reading, is much more than a flaw or an …
Defining The Comedia: On Generalizations Once Widely Accepted That Are No Longer Accepted So Widely, Matthew D. Stroud
Defining The Comedia: On Generalizations Once Widely Accepted That Are No Longer Accepted So Widely, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Defining the comedia is a challenge that is rarely addressed directly in the pages of the Bulletin of the Comediantes. Those of us who spend our professional lives working with the plays that are brought together under this cover term have a visceral or intuitive understanding of what falls into the category of comedia and what lies outside of it. We are hardly exempt from having to articulate our definitions in concrete terms, however, because students, colleagues, and organizations to whom we write grants all want us to establish the limits, scope, and parameters of our field of study. …
The Odd Man Out: The Kings In Corneille's Machine Plays, Nina Ekstein
The Odd Man Out: The Kings In Corneille's Machine Plays, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Andromède and La Conquête de la Toison d’or have a largely unenviable status in Corneille’s oeuvre. They are often either dismissed or marginalized, and almost inevitably read as different from, and therefore inferior to, the more canonical Cornelian works. In fact, both plays are richer and more interesting than commonly thought, as I hope to suggest by an examination of the curious and curiously similar role of the king.
Catalunya Invisible: Contemporary Drama In Barcelona, Sharon G. Feldman
Catalunya Invisible: Contemporary Drama In Barcelona, Sharon G. Feldman
Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies Faculty Publications
During the winter of 2000, Lluís Pasqual staged a Catalan version of Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard at Barcelona's Teatre Lliure, the historic home of Catalonia's most stable, accomplished, and distinguished repertory theatre company. In Chekov's play, Madame Lyobov Andreyevna Ranyevskaya, an emblem of the fading elegance and dwindling supremacy of the Russian aristocracy, is compelled by her situation of financial despair to sell her estate and cherry orchard to the nouveau-riche Lopakhin and then return to Paris on the eve of the Revolution. The orchard that was once admired for its beauty eventually will be destroyed in order to …
Staging The Tyrant On The Seventeenth-Century French Stage, Nina Ekstein
Staging The Tyrant On The Seventeenth-Century French Stage, Nina Ekstein
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The tyrant is a frequent figure of seventeenth-century theater. While not as ubiquitous as young lovers, fathers, or kings, the tyrant is a persistent subset of this last group throughout the period. Like so many elements of seventeenth-century theater, the tyrant has it origins in antiquity, both in terms of political theory and drama. Tyrants first appeared on the stage of fifth-century Athens, and the legends and histories of the tyrants of antiquity are often repeated on the French stage of the seventeenth century, from Hérode sending Marianne to her death, to Brute assassinating César, to Néron eliminating his rival …
The Comedia In Amsterdam, 1609-1621: Rodenburgh's Translation Of Aguilar's La Venganza Honrosa, Matthew D. Stroud
The Comedia In Amsterdam, 1609-1621: Rodenburgh's Translation Of Aguilar's La Venganza Honrosa, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
In the seventeenth century, the Spanish comedia was not only known outside of Spain, it informed other national literatures and was even performed abroad, either in Spanish or in translation. In most cases, it was received into an established cultural environment, such as Corneille's adaptations in France; its appearance was not considered politically inflammatory in any sense as the host cultures were able to deal with the comedia as only a literary phenomenon. In the case of the Low Countries before 1648, however, the comedia was translated and performed in a colony in more or less open rebellion against Spain …
Some Practical Thoughts On Producing Calderón’S Court Plays, Matthew D. Stroud
Some Practical Thoughts On Producing Calderón’S Court Plays, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
Calderón's comedias de tramoyas present special problems to a modern producer attempting an authentic stage presentation. This article discusses possible answers to questions relating to staging (the theater itself, sets, the length of the performance, funding, etc.), direction, special effects, costumes, hairstyles, and text (cuts, versions, the use of loas and entremeses, etc.). In addition, court plays also require decisions about the music—tessitura, pitch, instrumentation, and orchestration—most of which must rely on conjecture rather than on concrete knowledge of the original. For each problem, it quickly becomes apparent that absolute authenticity is quite impossible. Stated generally, one must simply …
Stylistic Considerations Of Calderón’S Opera Librettos, Matthew D. Stroud
Stylistic Considerations Of Calderón’S Opera Librettos, Matthew D. Stroud
Modern Languages and Literatures Faculty Research
The two plays of Calderón that were set to music in their entirety have a number of common characteristics beyond those associated with the mythological plays as a whole. Both of the plays were performed in 1660, La púrpura de la rosa on January 17 to celebrate the marriage of the Infanta María Teresa to Louis XIV of France, and Celos aun del aire matan on December 5 to celebrate the third birthday of the Infante Felipe Próspero. Presented in the Palacio del Buen Retiro, set to music by Juan Hidalgo, staged with the appropriate elaborate machinery, and performed by …