Foreign Language Study

Surviving theatrical contracts throw light on the remarkable degree of theatrical activity throughout 17c Spain.

In 1639 the Madrid notary Juan García de Albertos was appointed Escribano de la Comisión de las comedias - official theatre notary. His annual registers of contracts (protocolos) contain more than two thousand items related to actors and theatrical activity from 1634 to 1660. This exceptionally rich collection of documents offers a fascinating overview of theatrical life, in all its diversity, in Madrid and the surrounding area during the age of Calderón. Especially plentiful are the contracts for performances at festivities in towns and villages, both by professional companies and by local amateurs assisted by individual actresses and musicians hired in Madrid. This extraordinary degree of theatrical activity in even the smallest communities, almost entirely neglected hitherto, forces us to revise and expand our conventional picture of the Spanish Golden Age theatre. The collection also reveals in abundant detail the composition and working practices of acting companies, especially in the numerous asientos (actors' employment contracts), as well as transport conditions, costume hire, staging practices and repertory. The actors' convoluted and often precarious finances are an ever-present theme. The documents are accompanied by appendices and maps, and the extensive introduction provides an exhaustive survey of what can be learned from this remarkable source.
CHARLES DAVIS was formerly Lecturer in Spanish at Queen Mary, University of London, and is currently a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at the University of Valencia. The late J. E. VAREYwas Professor of Spanish at the University of London and Principal of Westfield College.
For description in Spanish see Volume II.
Actividad Teatral en la Región de Madrid is published in TWO VOLUMES (I: ISBN 1855660628, II ISBN 1855660792) WHICH MUST BE PURCHASED AS A SET.

A detailed study of the private boxes of Madrid's first permanent playhouse

The Corral de la Cruz (1579-1736) is the less well known of Madrid's Golden Age playhouses. This latest volume in Tamesis's Fuentes series is a detailed study of one of its most distinctive features: the boxes, or aposentos, fromwhich the privileged and powerful, including Philip IV, witnessed the premieres of so many plays by Lope de Vega, Calderón and others. These boxes were rooms overlooking the yard, but were situated in private houses outside the walls of the playhouse, with independent access. Their structure and history are traced here through a substantial corpus of new documents containing information on the location, structure, dimensions, owners, lessees and users of the boxes and the houses, as well as the vexed question of payment for viewing rights. This provides an indispensable basis for the reconstruction of the first permanent theatre in the Spanish capital, in both its architectural andsocioeconomic aspects.

CHARLES DAVIS is a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at the University of Valencia and Honorary Research Fellow of Queen Mary, University of London.

El Corral de la Cruz (1579-1736) es elmenos conocido de los dos corrales de comedias madrileños. Este último tomo de las Fuentes de Tamesis es un estudio pormenorizado de uno de sus elementos más característicos: los aposentos, o palcos, desde donde los espectadoresmás privilegiados, entre ellos el propio Felipe IV, presenciaban los estrenos de tantas obras de Lope de Vega, Calderón y otros. Eran habitaciones que daban al patio, pero estaban situadas en casas particulares fuera de las medianerías del teatro, con entradas independientes. Se traza aquí su historia y estructura a través de un nutrido corpus documental que ofrece nuevos datos sobre la ubicación, estructura, medidas, propietarios, inquilinos y usuarios delos aposentos y las casas.

The prominent scholar-contributors to this volume share their experiences developing the field of US German Studies and their thoughts on literature and interdisciplinarity, pluralism and diversity, and transatlantic dialogue.



The decisive contribution of the exile generation of the 1930s and '40s to German Studies in the United States is well known. The present volume carries the story forward to the next generation(s), giving voice to scholars from the US and overseas, many of them mentored by the exile generation. The exiles knew vividly the value of the Humanities; the following generations, though spared the experience of historical catastrophe, have found formidable challenges in building and maintaining the field in a time increasingly dismissive of that value. The scholar-contributors to this volume, prominent members of the profession, share their experiences of finding their way in the field and helping to develop it to its present state as well as their thoughts on its present challenges, including the question of the role of literature and of interdisciplinarity, pluralism, and diversity. Of particular interest is therole of transatlantic dialogue.

Contributors: Leslie A. Adelson, Hans Adler, Russell A. Berman, Jane K. Brown, Walter Hinderer, Robert C. Holub, Leroy Hopkins, Andreas Huyssen, Claire Kramsch, Wilhelm Krull, Paul Michael Lützeler, Mark W. Roche, Judith Ryan, Azade Seyhan, Lynne Tatlock, Liliane Weissberg.

Paul Michael Lützeler is Rosa May Distinguished University Professor in the Humanities at Washington University, St. Louis. PeterHöyng is Associate Professor of German at Emory University.

Weighs the value of Germanophone culture, and its study, in an age of globalization, transnationalism, and academic change.



The study of German-language culture has been rapidly diversifying to express the vibrant multiplicity of what it is now possible to research, and teach, under the rubric of "German Studies." Responding to these developments, German in the World explores what happens when the geographic, linguistic, and temporal boundaries that have traditionally been used to define German-language culture are questioned, and are placed alongside more global perspectives. Chapters consider the transformation of the German-language cultural canon through its engagement with the world, trace the value of German Studies as an interdisciplinary subject practiced across different global locations, and investigate the impact of both on the work of organizations and practitioners entirely beyond the academy. In questioning where German-language culture can be found across these different "worlds," German in the World thus uncovers the continued value of German Studies as a field of critical cultural discourse within a globalized public sphere, placing that culture at the heart of debates on Transnational and World Literature. Ultimately, the contributions to this innovative volume demonstrate how attempts to locate German Studies in its wider geographic and social contexts result not in a discipline undone, but in a discipline reinvigorated and transformed.

An exciting reassessment of the works of Chrétien, making use of modern critical theory to test orthodox opinion.

This co-written, multi-stranded book challenges assumptions about Chrétien as the author of a canon of works. In a series of lively exchanges, its five authors reassess the relationship between lyric and romance, between individuality and social conditions, and between psychology and medieval philosophy. The idea of "logical time" is used to open up such topics as adventure, memory, imagination, and textual variation. Recent research on Troyes and on the political agency of women leads to the reappraisal of subjectivity and gender. Throughout, the medieval texts associated with the name of Chrétien are highlighted as sites where thought emerges; the implications of this thought arehistoricized and further conceptualized with the help of recent theoretical works, including those of Lacan.

ZRINKA STAHULJAK, VIRGINIE GREENE, SARAH KAY, SHARON KINOSHITA and PEGGY McCRACKEN are professors at the University of California, Los Angeles, Harvard, New York University, the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Michigan respectively.