A Companion to Calderón de la Barca

The first comprehensive study of Calderon in EnglishPedro Calderon de la Barca (1600-1681) is one of the most important dramatists - many would say the single most important dramatist - of the Spanish Golden Age. Spain's dominant and most prestigious playwright for much of the seventeenth century, his work is still regularly staged and translated, influential in more recent times on writers as diverse as Schiller, Shelley and Lorca. The author of around 120 plays (not counting his numerous Corpus Christi autos) in a variety of styles, Calderon is most famous for his stirring dramas, characterized by rhetorically powerful poetry, dramatic structures carefully calibrated to produce poignant echoes, and the fizzing intellectual energy they apply to the age's ontological, eschatological and political preoccupations. His plays succeed in combining these perennial concerns with compelling plots subtle enough to defy definitive interpretation. As this volume seeks to show, however, Calderon's comedies deserve equal recognition. Too long stereotyped as a dour, cerebral conservative, this playwright's comic works are as amusing as they are clever.This Companion is the first comprehensive study of Calderon in English. It provides a rigorous but readable introduction to the man, his work and its legacy. Its chapters - written by leading international comedia specialists - provide an overview of his life, explain his intellectual, social, moral, and literary contexts, and examine his stagecraft, his corpus, and his reception both within and without the Hispanic world up to the twenty-first century. Specific chapters are devoted to La vida es sueno, his most famous work, which appears on many a university syllabus, and to his infamous wife-murder plays.

The genius of Pedro Calderón de la Barca deserved this magnificent Companion dedicated to him. Roy Norton and Jonathan Thacker, opening it with an excellent 'Introduction', which answers in an argued and convincing way the question: 'what is it about his drama that makes him special?El genio de Pedro Calderón de la Barca se merecía este magnífico Companion que le dedican Roy Norton y Jonathan Thacker, inaugurándolo con una excelente 'Introduction', que contesta de forma argumentada y convincente a la pregunta: 'what is it about his drama that makes him special? BULLETIN OF SPANISH STUDIES VOLUME CI
Companion to Calderón de la Barca is the first "general guide to the interested reader" [...] not only students and scholars of early modern Spanish literature and early modernists in other fields but also comparatists and people interested in theory history and theatre more broadly. Companion to Calderón de la Barca is a splendid contribution not just to one but to several fields, one that sets high academic standards for future handbooks, and one that will undoubtedly serve as a vade mecum for the next generation of Calderonistas. -- Sofie Kluge Bulletin of the Comediantes
The unique selling point of this collection is that it offers the first comprehensive overview of Calderón de la Barca in English. It is designed for the general reader, and explores the dramatist from multiple perspectives. MODERN LANGUAGE REVIEW

ROY NORTON is Senior Research Fellow in Spanish at Pembroke College, Oxford, and Lecturer in Spanish at Christ Church, New College, and St Hilda's College. JONATHAN THACKER is King Alfonso XIII Professor of Spanish Studies at the University of Oxford and Professorial Fellow at Exeter College, Oxford. MARGARET R. GREER is Emeritus Professor of Romance Studies at Duke University.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.