Spain's Golden Research Articles

El muerto disimulado/Presumed Dead

El muerto disimulado/Presumed Dead

Subject, Structure, and Imagination in the Spanish Discourse on Modernity by Christopher Soufas Jr

Reviewed by: Subject, Structure, and Imagination in the Spanish Discourse on Modernity by Christopher Soufas Jr William Viestenz Soufas, Christopher, Jr. Subject, Structure, and Imagination in the Spanish Discourse on Modernity. Palgrave, 2015. 192 pp. The Spanish resistance to the Enlightenment modality of a self-determinant, autonomous subject in Golden Age and eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literature is the focus of Christopher Soufas Jr.'s welcome study, Subject, Structure and Imagination in the Spanish Discourse on Modernity. Soufas frames Spain's primary contributions to the unfolding of modernity as a dialectical engagement with the primacy of the subjective capacity for reason, and an objection to the repurposing of the imagination from serving as a conduit for a dialogic relation with the world, to becoming a rival of the intellect in the act of consciousness and elaboration of reasoning practices. Through a wide-ranging and convincing exegesis of canonical texts from Spain's Golden Age and fin de siècle periods, Soufas demonstrates that Spanish attitudes towards subjectivity and imagination remained predicated, to varying degrees, on an early-modern epistemology "which assigns greater value to the concrete physical world (the 'body' of nature as opposed to the 'mind' of a subject) and which continues to depend upon a structural model that resists subject-centered discourse" (7). In lieu of proposing that Spanish authors advocate for one model of the imagination over another, Soufas's tenet is that the discourse on modernity in Spain has roots that precede the epistemological and aesthetic notions of Descartes, Burke, and Kant, to name a few frequently cited names in the text. In his elaboration of the emergence of modernity in Spain as a phenomenon to be understood in both historical and philosophical terms, Soufas's study serves, for Hispanists, as a useful companion to Anthony Cascardi's major study, The Subject of Modernity. Cascardi challenges Jürgen Habermas's contention that the specificity of the modern subject can be understood as a function of philosophy and advocates for studying an intersectionality of discourses, some contrasting with, and others extrapolating upon what came before in the Ancient and Medieval periods. Cascardi's approach, though committing considerable space to Cervantes, is amply theoretical, whereas Soufas's work offers an expanded meditation focused on two important historical periods in Spain, and a series of close readings of essential literary texts, which helps scholars distil a more concentrated understanding of how the tensions and contradictions of the discourse of modernity developed on the Iberian Peninsula. Soufas notes that the majority of writers, including Fredric Jameson with his influential work on the intellectual signposts of modernity's emergence, locate the articulation of the Cartesian cogito as one of the primary fault lines in the transition from a subjectivity intimately associated with the physical and sensorial world, to an autonomous, self-reflexive subject. In the first chapter of the book, [End Page 318] Soufas proposes from this approach that Lazarillo de Tormes constitutes not only an exercise in the picaresque genre, but also an interrogation of the negative fallout from the emergence of an autonomous thinking subject, in contrast to a mode of being attuned to pre-modern and early-modern value systems. This chapter, taken together with contributions focused on Don Quijote, La vida es sueño, El burlador de Sevilla, and Velázquez's "Las meninas," comprises the first section of the text, and demonstrates how the pre- and early-modern Spanish authors exhibited an allegiance to superseded value systems in the face of Europe's transition to modernity. The second chapter dedicated to Cervantes's magnum opus asserts the provocative claim that Quijote's madness was a consequence of modernity's emergence and the demand to exert reasoning practices upon the world in lieu of dialoging with external reality via the senses. Madness, then, becomes less a longing for a past, as documented in the books of chivalry, to which the protagonist is famously attached, and more the end result of an imagination that can no longer direct reason, in a predictable fashion, to "physical and moral circumstance" (44). In the following chapter, Soufas interprets the concluding act of La vida es sueño as a disavowal of...

A History of Theatre in Spain ed. by María M. Delgado and David T. Gies

Reviewed by: A History of Theatre in Spain ed. by María M. Delgado and David T. Gies Bárbara Mujica María M. Delgado and David T. Gies, editors. A History of Theatre in Spain. CAMBRIDGE UP, 2012 (PAPERBACK EDITION 2015). 558 pp. THIS NEW CONTRIBUTION TO HISPANISM by María M. Delgado and David T. Gies is an unconventional literary history. Because it is a compendium of articles by specialists, A History of Theatre in Spain avoids some of the major pitfalls that plague other literary histories. Single-authored chronicles inevitably offer a limited perspective, as no one scholar can be an expert in every aspect or period of a national literature. Even highly qualified experts in one area—say, the Spanish comedia—may be deficient in others, such as the zarzuela or contemporary feminist theater. However, the editors of A History of Theatre in Spain offer an overview of Spanish theater from the Middle Ages to the twenty-first century provided by over two dozen eminent scholars of diverse backgrounds, areas of expertise, and approaches. The result is a history of Spanish theater that is panoramic, profound, and multifaceted. The editors' insightful Introduction poses some questions usually ignored by scholars. The most basic is: What is Spanish theater? The tendency of critics, historians, and politicians to equate Spain with Madrid or Castile has led scholars to overlook the existence of cultures that have flourished in the Iberian Peninsula in languages other than Spanish, for example, Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Navarro-Aragonese. Furthermore, the primacy given to Spain's Golden Age has led scholars to neglect the rich theatrical traditions of Spain's eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Theatrical culture is much broader than a selected group of canonical works, argue the editors. Performance techniques, audience tastes, dramatic space, and myriad other elements all come into play. Rather than assigning hegemony to either text or performance-related issues, the editors have sought to view theater in its totality, including script, stage architecture, kinetics, the role of publishers, and paralinguistic material. Although their focus is on peninsular Spain, they have sought to expand our notion of Spanish theater by exploring issues of colonialism and the broad influence of Spain's theater abroad, both in Latin America and Europe. The editors' frankly revisionist approach calls into questions conventional assumptions about what constitutes a national theater and the parameters of Spain's theater. [End Page 135] In "The Challenges of Historiography: The Theatre in Medieval Spain," Ángel Gómez Moreno challenges the long-accepted 1958 statement by Fernando Lázaro Carreter that the history of theater in Medieval Spain is "the history of an absence" (18). For decades it has been assumed that almost no evidence exists of a theatrical tradition between the Auto de los Reyes Magos, composed at the end of the twelfth century, and the plays of Juan del Encina, the first of which appeared in the Cancionero de 1496. However, Gómez Moreno argues that records attesting to payments for scenery and costumes and references to paratheatrical productions do survive. Furthermore, scholars are now recovering some missing theatrical texts or finding references to them in other works. To gain an understanding of the breadth of theatrical activity in medieval Iberia, argues Gómez Moreno, we need to expand our horizons. Gómez Moreno examines the liturgical theater of Toledo and elsewhere, as well as momos and other medieval theatrical forms in Portugal. He concludes, "Modern scholarship has allowed us to perceive, albeit in indirect ways, the existence of a vigorous tradition of performance during the Middle Ages in Spain" (35). The following four chapters examine different aspects of the theater of the Golden Age, impugning some widely held assumptions. In "Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca and Tirso de Molina: Spain's Golden Age Drama and its Legacy," Jonathan Thacker considers Lope de Vega, the most influential playwright of Spain's Golden Age, not only as a creator of plays but also as a theatergoer. Thacker believes that Lope's greatest source of inspiration was his experience as a spectator. By watching plays, he learned what pleased the audience. If Lope rejected the neo-Aristotelian rules that...

2015 International Siglo de Oro Drama Festival Coordinated by Anna-Lisa Halling

2015 International Siglo de Oro Drama Festival Coordinated by Anna-Lisa HallingIn 2015, Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso, Texas, celebrated forty years of Golden productions as it hosted both professional and student troupes from Spain, Colombia, Mexico, and United States. The festival ran from Wednesday, March 18, through Sunday, March 22, and featured five unique performances by four very different companies. Performances by these groups ranged from recreation of baroque celebration (iFiesta!) to theatrical adaptations of both novel and novella (El buscon and El coloquio de los perros), as well as pastoral play (El amor enamorado) and tonadilla ( Villa y Corte-The Music of Goya). Far from usual comedia fare, these productions not only include wide variety of genres, but also artistic vision, thus creating rich and diverse experience for spectators.iFiesta!It is not without reason that Morfeo Teatro has recently become perennial presence at Chamizal National Memorial's Siglo de Oro festival. In this production, company's minimalist approach to sets and scenery, attention to visual detail, incorporation of variety of genres of early modern theater, and clear respect for texts that they bring to life all demonstrate production approach that aligns well with stated objective of festival. In his opening statement in event program, Fernando Gus Sanchez, park superintendent, indicated that purpose of event was to increase public's awareness and appreciation of the rich tradition of drama from Spain's Golden Age through a significant encounter with performing arts.Each member of this small company shoulders variety of roles, and quality of production demonstrates success of their cooperation. The artistic decisions of company's director, Francisco Negro (who also played role of lead actor in majority of pieces presented), paralleled rather than duplicated those of comedia production in corral theater. Scenery and props consisted of such basic items as chair, few pieces of rope, fan, and semitransparent scrim. The use of lighting changes and fog added modern touch to production and effectively augmented audience's response to emotionally charged scenes. Each of these staging techniques drew audience focus to actors and dramatic texts themselves. The actors took advantage of and heightened this attention through very deliberate, considered physicality of their interpretations. The combination of these elements was particularly apparent in selected scene from Lope de Vega's El caballero de Olmedo. Dim lights, enough fog to initially obscure dancer portraying physical representation of death omen that Alonso sees, and musical adaptation accompanying lines all combined to make Alonso's death particularly frenetic and emotionally draining scene.The attention to detail paid to various visual representational elements speak to talent and precision of Mayte Bona (who also portrayed variety of female characters) as costume designer. The masks worn by actors at various moments throughout production were beautifully detailed nod to influence of commedia dell'arte tradition. At outset, they contributed to element of mystery created by cast as actors stepped onto stage in front of main curtain, speaking while audience wondered what lay behind curtain and ahead in play. Rather than relying on costume changes to mark scene transitions, each actor maintained single costume throughout production. To adjust for dramatic differences in character types, costumes incorporated added elements like manto, hat, an eyepatch, tucked-up skirt hem to make respectable lady's dress short and revealing, and particularly memorable tied-on apron that transformed galan into nagging wife. …

The (Ir)relevance of the Aside in Golden Age Drama

The professionalization of public theatre in late sixteenth-century Spain transformed the public street drama of playwrights and actors such as Lope de Rueda into an activity whose survival and success depended on ticket sales and attendance. It is within this context that the aside became one of the most popular dramatic techniques of Spain's Golden Age theater. This article seeks to answer two questions about the aside: (1) Do Golden Age playwrights utilize the aside in the same manner? and (2) Does the subgenre of a comedia dictate the use of a particular category of aside? I propose to answer these questions, focusing in particular on the different ways that the following comedias utilize the aside to transform the audience from mere spectators to active accomplices of what they witness on stage: Calderón de la Barca's El alcalde de Zalamea (comedia de honor), Antonio Mira de Amescua's El esclavo del demonio (comedia hagiográfica), and Tirso de Molina's El burlador de Sevilla (comedia moral).

‘las partes donde Amor el cetro tiene’: Uncanonical Love in Francisco de Aldana's ‘Medoro y Angélica’

Francisco de Aldana has been called a ‘forgotten poet’ of Spain's Golden Age perhaps owing to poems, such as ‘Medoro y Angélica’, which continue to challenge attempts at definition and categorization. These difficulties could be attributed to the tension between the poem's inherent sensuality juxtaposed against the legacies of Petrarch and Neoplatonism that are also clearly present. This article examines Aldana's focus on Angélica: his reshaping of common descriptive tropes to produce a hybrid text that seemingly acts as a means to pass off material perhaps considered too risqué by the reader, while it introduces the idea of a successful and loving physical relationship between the lovers. This is made possible by the use of techniques that engender distance between the reader and any perceived erotic content, such as linguistic play and theatricality. The result is the presentation of a hybridized uncanonical vision of love by Aldana that sits in opposition to the ideals of contemporary love lyric.

Collecting Spanish Art: Spain's Golden Age and America's Gilded Age

This is a rich collection of essays on Spanish art in America from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, published by the Center for the History of Collecting at the Frick Collection, New York (established in 2007) with the assistance of the Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica in Madrid. Although comprising a range of contributions, there is a sense of a cohesive whole to this volume, which is conveniently divided into three sections: the formation of the American taste for Spain; great collectors of Spanish art in America (Isabella Stewart Gardner, Henry Clay Frick, Charles Deering, William Randolph Hearst, Archer Milton Huntington and Algur H. Meadows); and the evolution of taste for the great masters (Velázquez, Murillo and Goya). Some themes appear and reappear, for example the question of exporting works of art from Europe to the States, an aspect with which many today might feel uncomfortable. Richard Kagan quotes the dealer Arthur Byrne, writing in 1934 to Julia Morgan, ‘My only role in life is taking down old works of art, conserving them to the best of my ability and shipping them to America.’ Another (more positive) thread which we perceive again and again is the awakening of a taste for Spanish art, a renaissance of sensibilities, partly inspired by some of the collectors discussed here, and partly by nineteenth-century American writers such as Walt Whitman and Nathaniel Hawthorne, and artists such as John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt.

Early Modern: "By Any Other Name . . ."?

Early Modern:"By Any Other Name . . ."? Ryan Prendergast (bio) I am specialist in the field of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish literature and culture. By defining the field by centuries, I am already trying to sidestep the frequently thorny and sometimes fraught issue of periodization and naming. My area of study has been called, both formally and informally, by many a name, including: Golden Age, Siglo de Oro, los Siglos de Oro, Renaissance and Baroque, and finally, Early Modern or its equivalent in Spain de la primera modernidad. As we know, the very validity of periodization has been questioned by postmodern theory. At the same time, these categories, while marked both by history and by ideology, are useful on some level in research and teaching. It certainly seems to be in vogue these days, at least among US Hispanists both in literature and in history, to use the early modern designation, but not to the complete exclusion of what some might consider the more traditional label, Golden Age. The use of early modern may well respond to a critique of the charged term "Golden Age." People question how one can refer to a period as "golden" when it is associated with the expulsion of Jews and Moriscos from Spain, and when it coincides with the colonization and resultant decimation of indigenous peoples in the Americas. The most common answer, though perhaps not entirely satisfying, is that the term "golden" refers to literary and artistic production. Categories like Renaissance and Baroque can be imprecise as well, since they are used to describe often distinct literary or artistic or cultural manifestations across different cultures that occur at unique stages over a varying amount of time and in particular socio-historic contexts. As a result, these terms may be problematic when looking to analyze the artistic or intellectual production of a number of cultures or from a more comparative perspective. The term early modern may just be another misleading category, if colleagues in English departments are using it to speak solely of the English Renaissance. [End Page 76] What can be gained from the use of the term early modern in its broader or even broadest sense speaks to a larger, and perhaps more challenging, issue: comparative studies across national and linguistic traditions. As we know, Renaissance may mean something different, both in temporal and aesthetic terms, for Italy than it does for England or Spain. Associating the term early modern solely with the word Renaissance can result in a limited understanding of the ongoing—if often uneven—development of new directions in intellectual, artistic, and scientific discovery and experimentation. Rarely is anything so neatly or clearly definable. I am taking it as a given that we accept that the developments or shifts that make one period of study apparently different from another (e.g., Medieval vs. Renaissance) are gradual, far from clearly defined in all cases, and ought not be linked to a specific event. The death of author Pedro Calderón de la Barca in 1681 is often used to mark the end of Spain's Golden Age, but it is not the only terminus that is used. Furthermore, just as manuscript culture still existed alongside print culture after the advent of the printing press, it is clear that the transition from one period to another occurs slowly, at times in a kind of tug-of-war, but with significant overlap. My sense of early modern is that it more readily allows for the idea of a continuum that surely reaches back into the fifteenth century and forward into the eighteenth, as opposed to a more arbitrary division that marks the fifteenth century as Medieval and the late seventeenth century or early eighteenth as the Enlightenment. However, to better understand the intricate negotiations and complex growing pains associated with any sort of definable epistemological shift, this transition from one period to the next must always be conceived as a unique process determined by a number of factors that are in flux. Without a doubt, the concept of early modern takes into account the present-day resonances inherent in the use of modern, if even in some embryonic form. The early modern...

Eros en escena: Erotismo en el teatro del Siglo de Oro (review)

Fernandez Rodriguez, Esther. Eros en escena: Erotismo en el teatro del Siglo de Oro. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 2009. 189 pp.Consistent with the approach that views comedias as play scripts (written to be performed rather than read), Esther Fernandez Rodriguez very broadly examines the sensuality of Madrid's public theaters. The author's purpose is to document that the corrales of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain were a vibrant center of eroticism to which various factors contributed, including the steamy atmosphere that existed in and around the playhouses, the sexually evocative undertones of many comedias, the frequently seductive nature of performances on stage, and the licentious lifestyle ascribed to theater people. The public playhouses of Madrid in the age of Lope and Calderon have been widely recognized as sites of popular mass entertainment, charitable businesses supporting the hospitals, and political instruments of lesser or greater degree. The conclusion supported in this study is that they were also the headwaters of provocative erotic sensations (177). The author aims to reclaim for the Spanish stage of the Golden Age a neglected but important part of its nature, thus returning to it an aspect of universality that has been lost (32).Chapter 1 outlines the varying definitions of eroticism and associated terms such as sensuality, seduction, sexuality, sex, love, and pornography (19-20). In the repressive Catholic society of Spain's Golden Age, censorship made difficult or impossible the direct and intentional expression of the sexually redolent. So these basic aspects of human existence were usually presented indirectly, through insinuation (verbal tone, gesture, body language), metaphors, and double meanings (28-30). The author approaches her topic with an awareness of the great differences between what was considered indecent 400 years ago and what is seen as such by the jaded public of our present day (176). The indirect cultural clues used by Golden Age dramatists do not awaken the same erotic sensations as they did in the original audiences (181), a fact that by itself justifies the explanations presented in this volume.Chapter 2 focuses on the sensually charged atmosphere within and immediately outside the public theaters in Madrid, as well as in the surrounding neighborhood. Despite the segregation of women in the cazuela, the interior spaces of the corrales- the various entrances and stairways, dressing rooms, hallways, and back stairs- lent themselves to clandestine social pleasures (41-42). Go-betweens of all types exercised their skills at the theaters- assisting in courtships, seductions, and assignations between lovers - and prostitutes sought clients there (44-45). Citing the many other possibilities for pleasurable indulgences offered in the theater district (e.g., taverns, gaming houses, brothels, the mentidero de los comediantes), the author concludes that the whole area was charged with a tantalizing ambience.Chapter 3 discusses the promotion of sensuality by the performers, who became sexual icons of the age through their acting on stage and their reputed amorous freedom off stage. The author discusses the lives and reputations of various prominent actresses to make plain that their presence in the corrales was a major enticement for audiences and that they, more than their male counterparts, were responsible for the financial success of acting companies, public theaters, and the hospitals that they supported.Chapters 4 and 5 present a representative sampling of specific comedias containing salacious scenes that lend to otherwise nonerotic plays an air of latent sensuality. …

The Rebirth of Tragedy

In 1955, Albert Camus presented a lecture in Athens called On Future of Tragedy. Examining this text, I argue that Camus's late formulation of tragedy can be traced through his major essays and back into his earliest writings, where it provides background for his critical attitude toward philosophy. Here, Camus is less concerned with developing a critical philosophy than is with practicing a form of ethics - an ascesis - operating within context of tragedy. Camus arrives at this position, in part, through his engagement with Friedrich Nietzsche. Through a comparative analysis of some recent studies Nietzsche - David Owen's Contest of Enlightenment: an essay critique and genealogy and Paul van Tongeren's Nietzsche's Greek Measure' - this essay will show depth of Camus's initial identification with Nietzsche regarding value of tragedy and ascesis, followed by his later critical differentiation from Nietzsche in name of these same values. Camus begins his lecture, On Future of Tragedy, by observing that tragedy occurs during periods of great historical change. The first period is in ancient Greece and is marked by period between Aeschylus and Euripides (fourth-fifth century BC). The second period is during seventeenth century. Camus finds it more than a coincidence that Elizabethan theatre in England, Spain's Golden Age, and peak of French tragedy are all contemporary moments.2 Camus argues that these periods of historical change are characterized by shift from a period dominated by universal or cosmic order to one of increasing concern with individualism. Both periods, states, a transition from forms of cosmic thought impregnated with notion of divinity and holiness to forms inspired by individualistic and rationalist concepts.3 It should not be surprising to therefore find - in a parallel intellectual history - that this first period is characterized by shift from pre-Socratic thinkers to Socrates, and second period by shift from Christian dogmatism of Middle Ages to Cartesian rationalism.4 For Camus, Socrates and Descartes are not tragic figures; rather they mark end of a particular period of tragedy when individual triumphs. When Nietzsche accuses Socrates of having dug grave of ancient Camus states, he is right up to a certain point - to exactly same extent that it is true to say of Descartes that marks end of tragic movement born in Renaissance.5 This is because, as Camus states, time final triumph of individual reason, in fourth century in Greece and in eighteenth century in Europe, causes literature of tragedy to dry up for centuries.6 To support his contention, Camus shifts discussion to a closer examination of very nature of tragedy. He notes that tragedy is always construed around meeting of opposing forces; but the confronting each other in tragedy are equally legitimate, equally justified... [and] each force is at same time both good and bad.7 Speaking in general terms, Camus defines these as, on one hand, man and his desire for power, and other, divine principle reflected by world. Tragedy occurs when man, through pride (or even through stupidity as in case of Ajax) enters into conflict with divine order, personified by a god or incarnated in society.8 These two opposing forces may be basic ingrethents of tragedy, but key to its expression is that neither side ultimately triumphs over other. And it is idea of limit, or measure, which is responsible for maintaining this tragic situation. constant theme of classical tragedy, therefore, is limit that must not be transgressed.9 Here Camus explains what happens when one side or other transgresses this balance: If divine order cannot be called into question and admits only sin and repentance, there is no tragedy. …

New World gold: cultural anxiety and monetary disorder in early modern Spain

The discovery of the World was initially a cause for celebration. But the vast amounts of gold that Columbus and other explorers claimed from these lands altered Spanish society. The influx of such wealth contributed to the expansion of the Spanish empire, but it also raised doubts and insecurities about the meaning and function of money, the ideals of court and civility, and the structure of commerce and credit. New World Gold shows that, far from being a stabilizing force, the flow of gold from the Americas created anxieties among Spaniards and shaped a host of distinct behaviors, cultural practices, and intellectual pursuits on both sides of the Atlantic. Elvira Vilches examines economic treatises, stories of travel and conquest, moralist writings, fiction, poetry, and drama to reveal that World gold ultimately became a problematic source of power that destabilized Spain's sense of trust, truth, and worth. These cultural anxieties, she argues, rendered the discovery of gold paradoxically disastrous for Spanish society. Combining economic thought, social history, and literary theory in transatlantic contexts, New World Gold unveils the dark side of Spain's Golden Age.

The Authority of Prints in Early Modern Spain

The importance of printed sources in seventeenth-century Spanish art can be perceived in its drawings, paintings, and sculpture, as well as through contemporary records and theoretical writing on the role of prints in the artist's creative process. Artists' print collections in early modern Spain were unusually large in comparison with those owned by artists elsewhere. The reasons for this tendency are no doubt numerous, but the impressive quantities of prints owned by artists of even modest means must be significant. Documentary and textual evidence, as well as the observation of paintings and drawings, establishes why prints were central to artistic practice, how they were used and their formal influence on images made in Spain. Spain's Golden Age was defined in part by a tradition of censorship, orthodoxy and authority. The social and theological value placed by Spaniards on decorum became a defining component of the national stereotype in the early modern period. An assessment of the authority of printed images in Spain must take account of the Inquisition, the practices it engendered and their assimilation by a largely compliant population of artists. The assimilation of prints by Spanish artists became an integral component in the generation of painted images in the early modern period.

:Sexual Hierarchies, Public Status: Men, Sodomy, and Society in Spain's Golden Age

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Sexual Hierarchies, Public Status: Men, Sodomy, and Society in Spain's Golden Age (review)

BERCO, CRISTIAN. Sexual Hierarchies, Public Status: Men, Sodomy, and Society in Spain's Golden Age. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2007. 201 pp.Durante la temprana Edad Moderna, Miguel Adriz, morisco, residente en tierras valencianas, se vio en grave aprieto con la Inquisicion por haber presuntamente afirmado Mahoma cabalgaba a todos los cristianos. Entre sus muchas acepciones, el verbo cabalgar era un eufemismo de inmediata comprension para aludir al coito anal. En 1625, en la misma region de Valencia, la retorica sodomitica de dominacion y penetracion masculina empleada por el acusado morisco para invertir las relaciones de poder entre musulmanes y cristianos se materializa en un caso que dejo alborotados a los senores inquisidores. Tres adolescentes cristianos pertenecientes a los sectores desposeidos de Valencia, Nicolas Gonzalez, Joseph Carna y Juan de la Vega, fueron acusados de haber tenido relaciones sexuales con esclavos musulmanes. El caso alarmo a los funcionarios de la Inquisicion, ya que a partir de las extensas y pormenorizadas confesiones se descubrio una amplia red de prostitucion masculina en la que Nicolas Gonzalez servia de alcahuete, mientras que, para el espanto de los inquisidores, los penetradores en el acto sexual y los pagadores eran los esclavos musulmanes, cuyos amos pertenecian a la oligarquia valenciana.Los inquisidores se mostraron particularmente feroces con los nueve esclavos musulmanes culpados y mandaron a todos a la hoguera. Condenado a la pira fue tambien el joven Nicolas Gonzalez, mientras que los otros adolescentes cristianos fueron sentenciados a remar en las galeras por siete largos anos. El trabajo forzoso en las galeras era la pena mas severa que se podia aplicar, despues de la muerte en las llamas.La falta de clemencia que la Inquisicivn valenciana manifesto ante este notorio ejemplo de sodomia merece, segun el historiador Cristian Berco, reflexion. ?Por que los inquisidores consideraron el caso excepcionalmente grave? ?Que habia de particularmente amenazador en este delito nefando? En su libro Sexual Hierarchies, Public Status: Men, Sodomy, and Society in Spain's Golden Age Berco aporta la siguiente respuesta: The crime was specially nefarious because the relationship between these men subverted social and religious hierarchies . . . the problem resided not only in the sodomy itself but in the fact that Muslim slaves were sodomizing Christian adolescents (127).En los seis capitules que componen este libro, Berco se fija en el acto sexual como tal, segun aparece descrito en numerosos casos de sodomia masculina incoados por los tribunales inquisitoriales de la Corona de Aragon (en las sedes de Valencia, Zaragoza y Barcelona). Los documentos de archivo consultados por el autor, mas de 500 en total, cubren un periodo de aproximadamente dos siglos, desde un poco antes de mediar el siglo XVI hasta la primera mitad del siglo XVIII. Berco pone de realce como en dichos archives y en otras fuentes no inquisitoriales examinadas se vislumbra una conceptualizacion de los actos sodomiticos masculinos en terminos de una jerarquia de roles sexuales, segun la cual el agente o participante activo, al penetrar al companero sexualmente receptivo o pasivo, ostenta el poder, la autoridad y la superioridad masculina. Esta polaridad activo/ pasivo o penetrador/penetrado produce, de acuerdo con Berco, distinciones entre los participantes del acto sexual en terminos de masculinidad, poder y estatus social. Berco observa que [bjecause the conceptualization of sexuality relied on various gender assumptions that glorified masculinity and sexual activity, erotic encounters between men of various ages signified a particular internal (8). Sin embargo, como precisa este historiador y como se constata en el caso sodomitico al que aludimos lineas arriba, entre muchos otros que Berco habilmente trae a colacion, this sexual hierarchy did not necessarily comply with the subjects' social standing within society, characterized by factors such as class, ethnicity, religiosity, and nationality (8). …

A companion to golden age theatre

Spain's artistic Golden Age produced Cervantes's great novel, Don Quijote, the sublime poetry of Quevedo and Gongora, and nurtured the prodigious talent of Velazquez, and yet it was the theatre that captured the imagination of its people. Men and women of all social classes flocked to the new playhouses to see and hear the latest offerings of their favourite dramatists, and to be seen and heard. As well as dealing with the lives and major works of the most significant playwrights of the period - Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Miguel de Cervantes, Calderon de la Barca - the Companion focusses on other aspects of the growth and maturing of Golden Age theatre, reflecting the interests and priorities of modern scholarship. These include: the sixteenth-century origins of the comedia nueva; the lesser-known dramatists, including women playwrights; life in the theatre; the Corpus Christi street theatre and minor genres; performance studies; and the critical reception of the drama. The Companion also contains a guide to comedia versification, a full bibliography and advice on further reading. JONATHAN THACKER is a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford.

Constructing an Icon: The Self-Referentiality and Framing of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

?Que pincel tan soberanofue a copiarte suficiente??Que numen movio la mente??Que virtud rigio la mano?[Whose was the peerless brushthat could rise copying you?What power could stir the mind?What strength the hand renew?]-Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Decima 103Esmera su respetuoso amor hablando a un retrato[She Adds Luster Her Respectful Love She Addresses a Portrait]1Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648?-1695) is the most famous and celebrated female writer and intellectual of the Hispanic Baroque who, this day, occupies a privileged place among both Mexican and, more broadly, Hispanic writers. A nun and prolific author from Colonial Mexico, Sor Juana gained favor with influential, secular individuals because of her authorial accomplishments, which enabled her exist-at least textually-outside of her convent. The subsequent patronage by these powerful allies resulted in the publication of her work in Spain, which circulated in a secular, often courtly, milieu. The relationships she established with the viceregal couples of New Spain assured her of protection from her detractors-most of them men of the cloth-who perceived her writing be audacious, blasphemous, and unbefitting a woman, let alone a cloistered nun. These individuals sought have her give up her extensive library and her writing in order dedicate herself more appropriate activities. While Sor Juana ultimately did succumb this pressure, she had already amassed a significant corpus of work that showcases her own interest in-and engagement with-questions of subjectivity and representation. Because of her unique subject position a Mexican writer who circulated largely in Spain, she occupies a most uncommon space both a representative of Colonial Latin America and a part of Spain's Golden Age of literature and cultural production.Despite a vast amount of scholarship on Sor Juana and her work, one question that still merits investigation is how her self-inscription and representation coincides with, challenges, or determines how she is framed and represented by others.2 This tension between how Sor Juana sees and represents herself and how others perceive and depict her is the crux of this study. Frederick Luciani posits that Sor Juana was particularly interested in the phenomena of seeing and may well have constructed images of herself to counter and transcend diverse images of her that were in circulation, and that she contemplates herself as a seen object in her writing (Literary 24- 25). The most famous portrait of Sor Juana is attributed Juan de Miranda and is frequently dated between 1680 and 1688. Miranda portrays Sor Juana in a way that diverges from the traditional depiction of nuns at the time. Instead of showing her crowned with flowers or holding candles or other symbols used in the ceremony of a nun's profession, Sor Juana is shown in her library, surrounded by books and with quill in hand. This type of portrait is reminiscent more of male prelates and literary figures than of nuns (Burke 354). Another portrait, a bust-length oval, which is part of the collection at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, has an inscription that states that it is a copy of an image made by Sor Juana herself. This has led many infer that all of the images of Sor Juana may derive from a self-portrait, yet there is no basis for this assumption (Burke 354-55). These and one other portrait of Sor Juana, from 1750 by Miguel Cabrera, are the most widely known portrayals of the Mexican nun. Comparatively little critical attention, however, has been given the role of visual representations of Sor Juana that accompanied her works when they were published in Spain. These portraits are the engraved frontispieces of the Segundo volumen de las obras (Seville, 1692) and Fama y obras posthumas (Madrid, 1700) editions of her works, which participate in many conventional forms of representation on frontispieces and title pages of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. …

A vanished world: medieval Spain's golden age of enlightenment

In a world troubled by religious strife and division, Chris Lowney's vividly written new book offers a hopeful historical reminder: Muslims, Christians, and Jews once lived together in Spain, creating a centuries-long flowering of commerce, culture, art, and architecture. Written with a narrative drive reminiscent of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, this new work takes us back to a medieval Iberia that prefigured the Renaissance. In 711, a ragtag army of Muslim North Africans conquered Christian Spain and launched Western Europe's first (and to date only) Islamic state. In 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella vanquished Spain's last Muslim kingdom, forced Jews to convert or emigrate, and dispatched Christopher Columbus to the New World. In the years between, Spain's Muslims, Christians, and Jews forged a golden age for each faith and distanced Spain from a Europe mired in the Dark Ages. Medieval Spain's pioneering innovations touched every dimension of Western life: Spaniards introduced Europeans to paper manufacture and to the Hindu-Arabic numerals that supplanted the Roman numeral system. Spanish scholars translated what stood for centuries as Europe's standard medical handbook. Spain's farmers adopted irrigation technology from the Near East to nurture Europe's first crops of citrus and cotton. Spanish artisans graced luxurious homes with the fountains, gardens, and decorative tile that remain hallmarks of southern Spain's distinctive decor. Spain's religious scholars authored works that still profoundly influence their respective faiths, from the masterpiece of the Jewish kabbalah to the meditations of Sufism's greatest master to the eloquent arguments of Maimonides that humans can successfully marry religious faith and reasoned philosophical inquiry. No less astonishing than medieval Spain's wide-ranging accomplishments was the simple fact its Muslims, Christians, and Jews often managed to live and work side by side, bestowing tolerance and freedom of worship on the religious minorities in their midst. A Vanished World chronicles this impossibly panoramic sweep of human history and achievement, encompassing both the agony of jihad, Crusades, and Inquisition, and the glory of a multireligious, multicultural civilization that forever changed the West. One gnarled root of today's religious animosities stretches back to medieval Spain, but so does a more nourishing root of much modern religious wisdom. In a world torn by religious antagonism, Chris Lowney offers enduring lessons learned from medieval Spanish villages where Muslims, Christians, and Jews rubbed shoulders on a daily basis.

Love and the law in Cervantes

The consolidation of law and the development of legal writing during Spain's Golden Age not only helped that country become a modern state but also affected its great literature. In this fascinating book, Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria explores the works of Cervantes, showing how his representations of love were inspired by examples of human deviance and desire culled from legal discourse. Gonzalez Echevarria describes Spain's new legal policies, legislation, and institutions and explains how, at the same time, its literature became filled with love stories derived from classical and medieval sources. Examining the ways that these legal and literary developments interacted in Cervantes's work, he sheds new light on Don Quixote and other writings.

Women in the Discourse of Early Modern Spain

Introduction, by Joan F. Cammarata Part I. A Woman's Self-Fashioning: The Private Gendered Spaces of Feminine Authority 1. Authorizing the Wife/Mother in 16th-Century Advice Manuals, by Carolyn Nadeau 2. Identity, Illusion, and the Emergence of the Feminine Subject in La Lozana andaiuza, by John C. Parrack 3. Skepticism and Mysticism in Early Modern Spain: The Combative Stance of Teresa de Avila, by Barbara Mujica Part II. Appropriation and Authenticity of Feminine Identity 4. The Price of Love: The Conflictive Economies of La gitanilla, by William H. Clamurro 5. The Problematics of Gender/Genre in Vida i sucesos de la monja alferez, by Rainer H. Goetz 6. Relaciones de fiestas: Ana Caro's Accounts of Public Spectacles, by Sharon D. Voros Part III. Cultural Constructs of the Feminine Psyche: Body, Mind, and Desire 7. Masquerade and the Comedia, by Anita K. Stoll 8. Dreams, Voices, Signatures: Deciphering Woman's Desires in Angela de Azevedo's Dicha y desdicha del juego, by Frederick A. de Armas 9. Galatea's Fall and the Inner Dynamics of Gongora's Fabula de Polifemo y Galatea, by Joseph V. Ricapito Part IV. Power Stratagems of the Feminine Word: Constraints of Silence and Authority of Discourse 10. De voz extremada: Cervantes' Women Characters Speak for Themselves, by Sara A. Taddeo 11. Silence Is/As Golden...Age Device: Ana Caro's Eloquent Reticence in Valor, agravio y mujer, by Monica Leoni 12. Woman of the World and World of the Woman in the Narrative of Mariana de Caravajal, by Louis Imperiale Part V. Transforming Literary Conventions: Feminine Aesthetics and Gender Norms 13. A Cry in the Wilderness: Pastoral Female Discourse in Maria de Zayas, by Deborah Compte 14. Zayas's Ideal of the Masculine: Clothes Make the Man, by Susan Paun de Garcia 15. Desire Unbound: Women's Theater of Spain's Golden Age, by Lisa Vollendorf

Spain in the age of exploration, 1492-1819

This publication accompanies an exhibition of approximately 120 works of art and science loaned mostly from the Royal Collection of (Patrimonio Nacional) to the Seattle Art Museum. Featuring the work of such artists as Bosch, Titian, El Greco, Bernini, Velazquez, Murillo, Zubaran, and Goya, this publication includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, scientific instruments, maps, armor, books, and documents. Eight essays provide historical context and artistic explication. Chronologically organized, the book charts the evolution of Spanish attitudes toward knowledge, exploration, and faith during three dynasties of Spain's golden age, when the fervor for scientific and geographical knowledge coexisted with the expansion of empire and promotion of Christianity. The four themes of the exhibition are: The Image of Empire; Spirituality and Worldliness; Encounters; Across Cultures; Science and the Court. Spain in the Age of Exploration, 1492-1819, presents art and science from one of the most ambitious, magnificent, and complex enterprises in history. Chiyo Ishikawa is the Seattle Art Museum's Chief Curator of Collections and Curator of European Painting and Sculpture.