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The first comprehensive study of Calderón in English
Pedro Calderón 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, Calderón 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, Calderón'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 Calderón 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 sueño, his most famous work, which appears on many a university syllabus, and to his infamous wife-murder plays.
Pedro Calderón 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, Calderón 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, Calderón'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 Calderón 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 sueño, his most famous work, which appears on many a university syllabus, and to his infamous wife-murder plays.
Price: $45.95
Pages: 414
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: Tamesis Books
Publication Date:
07 July 2026
Trim Size: 9.21 X 6.14 in
ISBN: 9781855664463
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Spanish & Portuguese, Literature: history and criticism, LITERARY CRITICISM / Renaissance, Literary studies: c 1400 to c 1600
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?
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
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.
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?
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
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.
List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Foreword / Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction, Roy Norton and Jonathan Thacker
1 Biography and Context, Don Cruickshank
2 The Calderonian World, Jeremy Robbins
3 The Playwright's Craft: Calderón and the Great Theatrical World of Early-Modern Spain, Alejandro García-Reidy
4 La vida es sueño, Jeremy Lawrance
5 The Honour Plays of Calderón, Colin Thompson
6 Calderón, the Comedian, Jonathan Thacker
7 Mythological Court Spectacle Plays, Margaret R. Greer
8 Religious comedias, Isabel Hernando Morata
9 Calderón's 'Sacramental, Allegorical and Historical' autos, Ignacio Arellano
10 Calderón's graciosos, Roy Norton
11 Calderón and Visual Art, Oliver Noble Wood
12 The Staging of Calderón's Theatre, Santiago Fernández Mosquera
13 Calderón's European Reception from Romanticism to the Twentieth Century, Ritchie Robertson
14 The Reception of Calderón in the Hispanic World, Duncan Wheeler
Appendices
I. Key Digital and Print Sources and Works by Calderón Mentioned
II. Versification in Calderón
Consolidated Bibliography
Index
List of Contributors
Foreword / Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction, Roy Norton and Jonathan Thacker
1 Biography and Context, Don Cruickshank
2 The Calderonian World, Jeremy Robbins
3 The Playwright's Craft: Calderón and the Great Theatrical World of Early-Modern Spain, Alejandro García-Reidy
4 La vida es sueño, Jeremy Lawrance
5 The Honour Plays of Calderón, Colin Thompson
6 Calderón, the Comedian, Jonathan Thacker
7 Mythological Court Spectacle Plays, Margaret R. Greer
8 Religious comedias, Isabel Hernando Morata
9 Calderón's 'Sacramental, Allegorical and Historical' autos, Ignacio Arellano
10 Calderón's graciosos, Roy Norton
11 Calderón and Visual Art, Oliver Noble Wood
12 The Staging of Calderón's Theatre, Santiago Fernández Mosquera
13 Calderón's European Reception from Romanticism to the Twentieth Century, Ritchie Robertson
14 The Reception of Calderón in the Hispanic World, Duncan Wheeler
Appendices
I. Key Digital and Print Sources and Works by Calderón Mentioned
II. Versification in Calderón
Consolidated Bibliography
Index