Cervantes And Shakespeare

How should we read a text that does not exist, or present a playthe manuscript of which is lost and the identity of whose authorcannot be established for certain? Such is the enigma posed by Cardenio – a playperformed in England for the first time in 1612 or 1613 andattributed forty years later to Shakespeare (and Fletcher). Itsplot is that of a ‘novella’ inserted into Don Quixote,a work that circulated throughout the major countries of Europe,where it was translated and adapted for the theatre. In England,Cervantes’ novel was known and cited even before it wastranslated in 1612 and had inspired Cardenio. But there is more at stake in this enigma. This was a time when,thanks mainly to the invention of the printing press, there was aproliferation of discourses. There was often a reaction when it wasfeared that this proliferation would become excessive, and manywritings were weeded out. Not all were destined to survive, inparticular plays for the theatre, which, in many cases, were neverpublished. This genre, situated at the bottom of the literaryhierarchy, was well suited to the existence of ephemeral works.However, if an author became famous, the desire for an archive ofhis works prompted the invention of textual relics, the restorationof remainders ruined by the passing of time or, in order to fill inthe gaps, in some cases, even the fabrication of forgeries. Suchwas the fate of Cardenio in the eighteenth century. Retracing the history of this play therefore leads one to wonderabout the status, in the past, of works today judged to becanonical. In this book the reader will rediscover the malleabilityof texts, transformed as they were by translations and adaptations,their migrations from one genre to another, and their changingmeanings constructed by their various publics. Thanks to RogerChartier’s forensic skills, fresh light is cast upon themystery of a play lacking a text but not an author.

Twelve contemporary stories inspired by Shakespeare and Cervantes, to mark the 400th anniversaries of their deaths. Introduced by Salman Rushdie.

Blood. Invention. Language. Resistance. World. Five ordinary words that do a great deal of conceptual work in everyday life and literature. In this original experiment in critical semantics, Roland Greene considers how these words changed over the course of the sixteenth century and what their changes indicate about broader forces in science, politics, and other disciplines. Rather than analyzing works, careers, or histories, Greene discusses a broad swath of Renaissance and transatlantic literature—including Shakespeare, Cervantes, Camões, and Milton—in terms of the development of these five words. Aiming to shift the conversation around Renaissance literature from current approaches to riskier enterprises, Greene also proposes new methods that take advantage of digital resources like full-text databases, but still depend on the interpreter to fashion ideas out of ordinary language. Five Words is an innovative and accessible book that points the field of literary studies in an exciting new direction.

"Building on her earlier work, 'Law and literature,' María José Falcón y Tella's new study takes a look at the law in the works of Cervantes and Shakespeare. In doing so, she examines subjects as wide ranging as: individual rights and freedoms, government and the administration of justice, criminal law, civil law, labor law, commercial law, and the treatment of mental illness, among others"--

This comic romp through the lives of literary masters William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes charts their influence on the modern world. It contrasts the fortunes of two contemporaries whose native countries – England and Spain – went from alliance to enmity in a short space of time. 2016 marked the 400th anniversary of the deaths of two of the world’s most famous authors, William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes. Pioneering writer and director, Asa Palomera (“a powerhouse on Melbourne’s independent theatre scene”): “I’ve tried to bring forth the sheer humanity of theirs, to present them as it were in their under wears, to show that the emotions we feel from their work are as human as the emotions they, in turn, experienced when they were alive.” Productions of The Curious Lives of Shakespeare & Cervantes: Adam House Theatre (Edinburgh, 2010), Bloomsbury Theatre (London, 2010), Thai premiere (Bangkok Theatre Festival, 2014). Staged reading at Tara Theatre (London, November 2016). “this well-charted account of key events in each of their lives moves at a relentless pace ... dynamic narration...the audience never loses touch.” --Scotsman “The private lives of creative geniuses have long fascinated literary groupies in search of clues about where inspiration comes from... Asa Gim Palomera’s restless piece of imagined history [treats] the two writers as equals with an awful lot in common, despite the age gap that nevertheless saw both men shuffle off this mortal coil within 11 days of each other.” --Herald