Shakespeare and the Spanish Comedia

Translation, Interpretation, Performance: Essays in Honor of Susan L. Fischer

Edited by Bárbara Mujica

Shakespeare and the Spanish Comedia is a nearly unique transnational study of the theater / performance traditions of early modern Spain and England. Divided into three parts, the book focuses first on translating for the stage, examining diverse approaches to the topic. It asks, for example, whether plays should be translated to sound as if they were originally written in the target language or if their “foreignness” should be maintained and even highlighted. Section II deals with interpretation and considers such issues as uses of polyphony, the relationship between painting and theater, and representations of women. Section III highlights performance issues such as music in modern performances of classical theater and the construction of stage character. Written by a highly respected group of British and American scholars and theater practitioners, this book challenges the traditional divide between the academy and stage practitioners and between one theatrical culture and another.

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 308 • Trim: 6½ x 9½

978-1-61148-517-2 • Hardback • October 2013 • $128.00 • (£98.00)

978-1-61148-518-9 • eBook • October 2013 • $121.50 • (£94.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Shakespeare, Literary Criticism / Comparative Literature, Literary Criticism / Drama, Literary Criticism / European / Spanish & Portuguese, Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Performing Arts / Theater / History & Criticism

Shakespeare and the Spanish Comedia

Translation, Interpretation, Performance: Essays in Honor of Susan L. Fischer

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Shakespeare and the Spanish Comedia is a nearly unique transnational study of the theater / performance traditions of early modern Spain and England. Divided into three parts, the book focuses first on translating for the stage, examining diverse approaches to the topic. It asks, for example, whether plays should be translated to sound as if they were originally written in the target language or if their “foreignness” should be maintained and even highlighted. Section II deals with interpretation and considers such issues as uses of polyphony, the relationship between painting and theater, and representations of women. Section III highlights performance issues such as music in modern performances of classical theater and the construction of stage character. Written by a highly respected group of British and American scholars and theater practitioners, this book challenges the traditional divide between the academy and stage practitioners and between one theatrical culture and another.

Details

University Press Copublishing Division / Bucknell University Press

Pages: 308 • Trim: 6½ x 9½

978-1-61148-517-2 • Hardback • October 2013 • $128.00 • (£98.00)

978-1-61148-518-9 • eBook • October 2013 • $121.50 • (£94.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Shakespeare, Literary Criticism / Comparative Literature, Literary Criticism / Drama, Literary Criticism / European / Spanish & Portuguese, Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Performing Arts / Theater / History & Criticism

Author

Bárbara Mujica is Professor of Spanish and Associated Faculty of Performing Arts at Georgetown University, where she directs El Retablo, a Spanish theater group.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Shattering Boundaries: Susan Fischer’s Approach to Theater Studies
Bárbara Mujica

Part I: Translation

Chapter 1
Performing Translation: The [Dangerous] Mobilities of Cultural Identity
Katherine Faull

Chapter 2
“Eking Out” Performance with the Mind
David Johnston

Chapter 3
The Translation of La vida es sueno for a Twenty-First Century Anglophone Audience
Jonathan Thacker

Chapter 4
Translating Hamlet for the Spanish Actor
Denis Rafter

Part II: Interpretation

Chapter 5
The High Anxiety of Influence: Caro, Zayas, Sor Juana, and the New Arts
Edward H. Friedman

Chapter 6
Versions of the Battle of Cadiz, 1625
William R. Blue

Chapter 7
Polyphony and Calderón de la Barca’s La dama duende
Charles Victor Ganelin

Chapter 8
The Portrait of a Pious Widow: Francisco de Ribalta and Lope de Vega’s La viuda valenciana
Frederick A. de Armas

Chapter 9
Women Tame and Untamed: Two Dutiful Daughters in the Romance de la doncella guerrera and Luis Vélez de Guevara’s La serrana de la Vera
Emilie L. Bergmann

Chapter 10
Cultural Capital and Comedy: Talking Heads in Guillén de Castro’s Las mocedades del Cid
Mary Malcolm Gaylord

Chapter 11
Shakespeare's Imagination
Michael Payne

Part III: Performance

Chapter 12
Constructing Stage Character: The Duke of Ferrara in Lope de Vega’s El castigo sin venganza
Isaac Benabu

Chapter 13
Facing the Music: Introducing Song into the Comedia
Bárbara Mujica

Chapter 14
The Autonomy of Henry IV, Part Two
James C. Bulman

Chapter 15
Staging Options in the Early Texts of Hamlet
David Bevington

Works Cited
Selected Publications of Susan L. Fischer
Contributors

Reviews

This volume of insightful and intelligent essays should be on the reading list of any scholar of early modern European theater.
— Renaissance Quarterly

The articles published here are solid contributions to questions of translation, interpretation and staging of altomoderno Spanish and English theater, and therefore will be of great interest to researchers.
— Anuario Lope de Vega. Texto, literatura, cultura