Our project

Proyectos de investigación del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia
(2019-2021) PGC2018-094427-B-I00
(2015-2018) FFI2014-53587-P
(2012-2014) FFI-2011-24160
(2009-2011) FFI-2008-01969/FILO
(2006-2008) HUM-2005-02556/FILO
(2003-2005) BFF-2002-02019
(2000-2002) PB98-0398

Antecedents

As in the other countries of Europe, Shakespeare’s work has a noticeable presence in contemporary Spain. Suffice it say that, by the end of the 20th century, more Shakespeare was being staged in our theatres than Lope de Vega, Tirso and Calderón put together. However, this is not a recent phenomenon: interest in the English playwright began to emerge in Spain in the 18th century, and since then has continued to be in evidence through countless translations, critical appreciations and theatrical productions of his work. In 1882 and 1883 Daniel López, an English language teacher, gathered in two articles considerable information on Spanish translations and performances of Shakespearean adaptations from 1772 to 1838, paying attention to the taste of the audiences of that period. His contribution, entitled "Shakespeare en España" [“Shakespeare in Spain”], was the first to be written on the subject (see the Digital Library, “Criticism”).

The tercentenary of the deaths of Shakespeare and Cervantes in 1916 offered a new opportunity to publish on Shakepeare’s work in Spain and in Spanish literature. In parallel to the interest that England showed in Cervantes, the Spanish Royal Academy offered a prize to the best monograph on “Shakespeare en España: Traducciones, imitaciones e influencia de las obras de Shakespeare en la literatura española” [“Shakespeare in Spain: Translations, imitations and influence of Shakespeare’s works on Spanish literature”]. This offer was taken up by Eduardo Juliá, whose work was printed in 1918. Two years later another book was published with exactly the same title, the author being Ricardo Ruppert y Ujaravi.

Without the initiative of the Royal Academy not only would there have been no research work like Juliá’s and Ruppert’s, but no encouragement, either, for the more comprehensive work of Alfons Par, a devotee of Wagner and Shakespeare, whom we may consider to be the first Spanish Shakespearian proper. Suffice it to mention hisShakespeare en la literatura española[Shakespeare in Spanish literature] (1935) andRepresentaciones shakespearianas en España[Shakespearian performances in Spain] (1936-1940). Leaving aside his inaccuracies and shortcomings, it is undeniable that, without the basis of Par’s pioneering efforts, many of us would not have been able to carry out our work as we have or would have taken much longer to do so.

Subsidised Projects

Considering that, since Par’s work, there has been none other of a similar scope, it seemed fitting to take up the task, bringing it up to date, broadening it and revising the existing material. There were indications that we could still find new, unpublished texts and documents, we were aware of the need to continue studying and interpreting the information we had already or were capable of finding, and we believed it necessary to publish and divulge the results in order to encourage further research. This being a wide-ranging project, we needed to draw up some general objectives regarding critical texts on Shakespeare, translations or adaptations, and theatrical productions. Therefore, we set ourselves the following goals: (1) to search for and find documents; (2) to collect, update and widen the existing material, looking especially at its European connections; (4) to publish possible findings and studies.

At present, we are immersed in Project FFI-2011-24160 (2012-2014), the continuation of the four previous projects, PB98-0398 (1999-2002), BFF-2002-02019 (2002-2005), HUM-2005-02556/FILO (2006-2009), FFI-2008-01969/FILO (2009-2011) y FFI2014-53587-P [2015-2018]

The European Dimension

The interest in “Shakespeare in Spain” parallels the interest shown, more or less sporadically, in the reception of the playwright’s work in the different European countries. However, since 1990 certain academic initiatives have put national concerns on a European plane, giving them a scope and a projection which are quite unprecedented. As explained in European Shakespeare: A Brief History, in 1990 the Antwerp conference European Shakespeares. Translating Shakespeare in the Romantic Age gave rise to a European-scale study of how Shakespeare was perceived, received and translated in Europe during the Romantic period. Three years later, the Sofia conference Shakespeare in the New Europe examined the presence of Shakespeare in Europe from the Cold War to the new political realities which followed the fall of the Berlin Wall. The next conference, 400 Years of Shakespeare in Europe, held in Murcia in 1999, brought together in a single forum the different aspects of the Shakespeare in Europe theme which had come to light till then. This was followed, and along much the same lines, by the conferences in Basilea, Utrecht, Cracovia, Iaşi, and Pisa (Se abre en pestaña nueva), Weimar, Montpellier, Worcester, Gdansk (Se abre en pestaña nueva), Rome and the next will be in Athens in 2021.