The Theatre in Nineteenth-century Spain

by David Thatcher Gies

• ISBN13: 9780521020237
• ISBN10: 0521020239
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-12-05
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is the first comprehensive study of the theatre of nineteenth-century Spain, a most important genre which produced more than 10,000 plays during the course of the century. David Gies assesses this mass of material - much of it hitherto unknown - as text, spectacle, and social phenomenon. His book sheds light on political drama during Napoleonic times, the theatre of dictatorship (1820s), Romanticism, women dramatists, socialist drama, neo-Romantic drama, the relationship between parody and the dominant literary currents of the day, and the challenging work of Galdós. A chapter on the battle to create a National Theatre reveals the deep conflicts generated by the various interested factions in the middle of the century. This readable account will at last allow students and scholars properly to re-evaluate the canon of texts.

Table of Contents

Preface	xiii
Introduction: literary history and canon formation	1	(5)
Spanish theatre in the nineteenth century. (An overview)	6	(34)
Theatre and dictatorship: from Napoleon to Fernando VII	40	(56)
Romanticism and beyond (1834--1849)	96	(79)
The theatre at mid-century	175	(16)
``This woman is quite a man!'': women and the theatre (1838--1900)	191	(40)
High comedy, and low	231	(61)
Conflicting visions: neo-Romanticism, ridicule, and realism	292	(57)
Conclusion	349	(4)
Bibliography	353	(18)
Index of names	371	(13)
Index of plays	384