Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, a seventeenth-century writer and native of New Spain, so excelled at the craft of writing "comedias" that he is recognized as one of the great writers of early modern Spain. In his personal life Ruiz de Alarcón struggled with a significant bodily impairment, a large hump on both his back and front, which made him…

"La gran Cenobia" deals with the war between Queen Zenobia of Palmyra and the Emperor Aurelian. Calderon de la Barca draws most of his information from historical sources; the dramatist, however, changes history and adapts it to his own dramatic purpose. The theme of Fortune gives unity to the play. Aureliano is portrayed as a tyrant who, to prove…

This essay seeks to provide parallel and interchangeable approaches to teaching Ramon del Valle-Inclan's challenging play "Luces de bohemia". A greater understanding of the cultural and mental frameworks of the early twentieth-century Spanish spectator will permit students to penetrate the dense intertextuality that characterizes Valle's…

"Amor de Don Perlimplin con Belisa en su jardin" is one of Federico Garcia Lorca's shortest plays as well as one of his deepest. Its theme is love, particularly the interaction between spiritual longing and carnal desire, body and soul, humanity and divinity. These are aspects found in Roman Catholic Eucharistic theology which the…

Martin Gaite's only Franco-era play contests some fundamental Catholic and Francoist prescriptions for the female. The fact that it was not published or performed for nearly forty years is likely due at least in part to patriarchal censorship. The work dramatizes the personal development of two half-sisters who defy various gender norms and…

The activities involved in a student production of modern Spanish drama in a University of Toronto course and the links with language learning that make the course a partial language immersion are described. Problems in evaluating the course and student performance are discussed. (MSE)