Faraway Settings

A comparative study of Ming and Iberian theaters has never been attempted. Thus, this book aims to provide the reader with a series of different approaches. First, through a comparison of specific works by Spanish and Chinese playwrights during the Ming and Habsburg periods, we aim to show that at times certain commonalities are in reality spaces fraught with misunderstanding. A melancholic character in Spain would not be the same as a melancholic figure in Chinese theater. A particular plant or flower had completely different symbolic meanings. However, it is curious to note how certain character types in both theaters resemble each other; and how the interaction between actors and audience would show clear parallels. At the same time, this is a book that also finds the thrill of correspondences and affinities as they are recovered through modern staging, climate change, universality of emotions, representations of friendship, folk characters, metaphors and dreams.

Juan Pablo Gil-Osle completed his doctorate at the University of Chicago. Currently he is professor of Spanish Golden Age literature at Arizona State University, Tempe, after having held positions at the University of Michigan and Arkansas State University. His recent books focus on the representations of friendship and networking in early modern culture: Amistades imperfectas: del Humanismo a la Ilustración con Cervantes and Los cigarrales de la privanza y mecenazgo en Tirso de Molina. Gil-Osle's interest in visual and digital portrayals of the Golden Age has resulted in his presidency of the Early Modern Image and Text Society (EMIT Society), and his editorship of the Laberinto Journal. In the School of International Letters and Cultures, he leads the Spanish Initiative in China, which seeks teacher and student exchanges with Spanish departments in China. Frederick A. de Armas is Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago, where he has also served as Chair of the Department and Director of Graduate Studies. He has been President of the Cervantes Society of America and President of AISO. He has been honored with a doctorate honoris causa from the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland) in 2018. His more recent books and collections include Ovid in the Age of Cervantes (2010); Objects of Culture in the Literature of Imperial Spain (2013); El retorno de Astrea: astrología, mito e imperio en Calderón (2016), etc. His book Don Quixote among the Saracens: Clashes of Civilizations and Literary Genres (2011) was recognized with honorable mention for the PROSE Award in Literature 2011. He has also authored two novels set in Cuba in the late 1950's: El abra del Yumurí (2016) and Sinfonía salvaje (2019).