Overview

Hegstrom and Larson have created an annotated new edition and first-ever translation of Angela de Azevedo's vibrant comedy, El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead, to promote the recuperation of early modern plays authored by women. The book contains a comprehensive introduction that describes Spanish theatre in its Golden Age; what is known of the author's life and times; contemporary performances of the text; and an extensive analysis of the comedy. The play, originally written in Spanish, is set in Lisbon, although the main plot involves a murder that supposedly took place after a fleet of Portuguese nobles arrived in Nice. The murder mystery affects the rest of the comedy: the male lead is actually only presumed dead, and his return to Lisbon upsets the plans for revenge and the marriages of numerous other couples. Like much early modern theatre, this play contains typical themes of love and betrayal and plot elements such as swordfights and cross-dressing characters, although here, both women and men cross-dress. Azevedo engages with the literary, theatrical, and social conventions that influenced many of the dramatic texts of her time, and she employs witty dialogue to elaborate her self-conscious game-playing with the very nature of the theatre.

Full Product Details

9781786940711

Table of Contents

Reviews

... a valuable source in performance studies, essential handbook for theater lovers, and vital for further deepening the field of performance studies by providing the Anglophone readers with essential tools to begin discovering the Golden Age of Spanish drama. Tatevik Gyulamiryan, Hispania 'This side-by-side Spanish-English edition of the play will allow scholars, students, and actors to approach Azevedo's work afresh. For many, it will be the first opportunity to read this relatively unknown author's work. This accessible, accomplished edition of El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead should help Azevedo's play become better known both on page and on stage. Hegstrom and Larson are to be congratulated for making this significant contribution both to the scholarship on early modern women and to the corpus of highly skilled translations of early modern women's work.' Lisa Vollendorf, Bulletin of the Comediantes

... a valuable source in performance studies, essential handbook for theater lovers, and vital for further deepening the field of performance studies by providing the Anglophone readers with essential tools to begin discovering the Golden Age of Spanish drama. Tatevik Gyulamiryan, Hispania

... a valuable source in performance studies, essential handbook for theater lovers, and vital for further deepening the field of performance studies by providing the Anglophone readers with essential tools to begin discovering the Golden Age of Spanish drama. Tatevik Gyulamiryan, Hispania 'This side-by-side Spanish-English edition of the play will allow scholars, students, and actors to approach Azevedo's work afresh. For many, it will be the first opportunity to read this relatively unknown author's work. This accessible, accomplished edition of El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead should help Azevedo's play become better known both on page and on stage. Hegstrom and Larson are to be congratulated for making this significant contribution both to the scholarship on early modern women and to the corpus of highly skilled translations of early modern women's work.' Lisa Vollendorf, Bulletin of the Comediantes 'There is a very small subset of translators who are able to produce compelling verse translations of comedias and an even smaller one whose verse translations are manageable for university theater students. This edition offers a highly readable - and I believe stage-worthy - prose translation that transmits the content accurately and also captures much of the early modern delight with dazzling verbal gymnastics.' Barbara Simerka, Queens College, City University of New York, Early Modern Women Journal 'Hegstrom and Larson have done a superb job bringing Azevedo's play to life, and scholars, students, directors, actors and lovers of Golden Age comedia can now enjoy a play and playwright, neither of which will ever again fall into oblivion.' Nieves Romero-Diaz, Mount Holyoke College, Seventeenth-Century News

Author Information

Valerie Hegstrom is Associate Professor in Spanish & Comparative Literature and Coordinator of Women's Studies at Brigham Young University, U.S. Catherine Larson is Professor Emerita in Spanish at Indiana University, U.S.

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