Published August 2019

From Doubt to Unbelief: Forms of Scepticism in the Iberian World
Edited by Mercedes García-Arenal and Stefania Pastore
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 42

  • ‘This outstanding volume brings together thirteen essays on scepticism and religious dissent in late medieval and early modern Spain, Portugal and Italy... The joint enterprise represented by this exceptional volume ‘has led the way to a variety of new panoramas and unexpected itineraries’ (14). Anyone prompted to pursue these further will find here an indispensable resource and an inspiring example.’ — Eamonn Rodgers, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 98.3, 2021, 479-80
  • ‘Scholars of early modern Europe will find much to draw upon in these two volumes [jointly reviewed was Fuchs and García-Arenal, eds, The Quest for Certainty in Early Modern Europe: From Inquisition to Inquiry, 1550–1700]. The strongest chapters focus on religious and theological issues of doubt and uncertainty, but we get many case studies in other areas of knowledge that found ways to navigate the murky waters of the early modern world. Most of the chapters will make fruitful material for graduate seminars and reading groups, but the books’ greatest merit is how well they work together both as individual volumes and as complementary conversations. Editors of collected volumes should take note.’ — Erudition and the Republic of Letters 7, 2022, 355-63 (María M. Portuondo)

Published September 2019

Putting it About: Social Rights and Wrongs in Spain in the Long Nineteenth Century
Alison Sinclair
Selected Essays 3

  • ‘Noteworthy not only for its rich and diverse topics, but also for its clear organization and unity. Its three parts complement each other to form a cohesive, thought- provoking volume. Ultimately, this book offers readers a point of access to the superb scholarship Sinclair is known for in the profession, and it will undoubtedly prove to be an excellent resource for students, scholars and researchers for years to come.’ — Nicolás Fernández-Medina, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 97.9, October 2020, 1553-1554 (full text online)

Spanish Culture from Romanticism to the Present: Structures of Feeling
Jo Labanyi
Selected Essays 11

  • ‘There is much in this book to celebrate—multiple topics, angles, issues and theories addressed in order to focus us on ‘ways of thinking about Spanish culture’, where ‘culture’ means literature, cinema, painting and photography, with (perhaps) history, historical memory, feminism, gender, race, nation formation, modernity and politics added to the mix.... Some of these essays are already classic studies that have influenced the way we think about certain literary periods or texts. Labanyi combines theory with specificity, details from the works studied inserted (or viewed through) various theoretical constructs. She claims to search for ‘moments of contradiction or incoherence’ in literature that often point to ‘something important’ (6), a claim fully realized in this book.’ — David T. Gies, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 98.3, 2021, 485-87
  • ‘The essays in Spanish Culture from Romanticism to the Present are suggestive in their individual approaches; the book as a whole is nevertheless unique as a window into the thought of one of the most influential scholars of Spanish culture in recent decades. Whether or not one always agrees with Labanyi, it is impossible not to be in awe of her mind and method, and how she has carried the profession forward.’ — Wadda C. Rios-Font, Studies in XXth and XXIst Century Literature 46.1, 2022
  • ‘Las páginas que abren el volumen son un brillante ejercicio de egohistoria donde Labanyi reflexiona tam- bién sobre la labor de re-archivo que acomete para este proyecto... Como Labanyi asevera desde las primeras páginas de Spanish Culture from Ro- manticism to the Present, lo que realmente cuenta son los momentos no esperados, de tensión, que el crítico logra desentrañar en el artefacto cultural objeto de estudio, “the contradictions and incoherence that, perhaps even more than areas of consensus, put us in touch with the pulse of the time” (4). Quizá sea este crucial precepto metodológico, aplicado de manera consistente a esta variedad de estudios realizados desde mediados de los noventa, adoptando diversos ángulos críticos y considerando distintos medios, lo que trasluce con mayor fuerza en Spanish Culture from Romanticism to the Present. Structures of Feeling: la tentativa generosa de motivarnos a releer a contracorriente para deshacer, o cuando menos problematizar, asunciones culturales que también atrav’ — Patricia López-Gay, Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies 25, 2021, 310-12
  • ‘A key contribution to Spanish Cultural and Literary Studies. Running through the collection is the author’s attention to ‘structures of feeling’, drawing on Raymond Williams’s notion, as a driver and explanatory resource for the comprehension of a diverse array of cultural production primarily from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.’ — Richard Cleminson, Modern Language Review 118.2, 2023, 269-71 (full text online)

(Un)veiling Bodies: A Trajectory of Chilean Post-Dictatorship Documentary
Elizabeth Ramírez-Soto
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 20

  • ‘Estas reflexiones finales apuntan a que nos en-contramos ante una obra que no solo está llama-da a convertirse en lugar de paso obligado para investigaciones posteriores sobre el documental chileno contemporáneo inserto en el devenir de las políticas del pasado y la memoria, sino que ofrece intersticios para lecturas productivas en otros ámbitos y periodos.’ — María Luisa Ortega, Secuencias 51, 2020, 178-80
  • ‘Impeccably documented and researched... the book works with over 100 films (an impressive corpus) and includes a filmography that will undoubtedly serve as an important resource for students and scholars... The book also rescues for/from the archive a vast group of nearly forgotten directors and films that open the reader’s mind to appreciate the breadth of what Chilean documentary film both has been and is. This is an especially important gesture for international readers... Pushes the conversation on documentary far beyond the stale, though classic debates about objectivity and subjectivity; it shows that documentary film is not only a medium capable of capturing memories but also of actively creating and triggering them through sensory experience.’ — Michael Lazzara, A Contracorriente 18.2, 2021, 271-78
  • ‘Más allá de esto, no cabe duda que (Un)veiling Bodies. A Trajectory of Chilean Post-dictatorship documentary, se trata de un libro importante para futuros estudios sobre cine documental chileno, estableciendo un verdadero “piso” investigativo, que habrá que considerar al momento de acercarse a él.’ — Iván Pinto Veas, Imagofagia 24, 2021, 689-96
  • ‘En la intersección de diversos ámbitos teóricos, la obra de Ramírez-Soto forma parte, al fin, de una tendencia fecunda que busca establecer puentes entre la historia, la ética y los estudios de la imagen. Desmarcándose prudentemente de los trauma studies y prefiriendo situar su reflexión bajo el signo del “giro afectivo”, (Un)veiling Bodies logra dar cuenta exitosamente de un periodo sensible de la producción documental en Chile, otorgando una nueva visibilidad a un corpus a menudo ignorado por los investigadores.’ — Ignacio Albornoz Fariña, Cinémas d'Amérique Latine 28, 2020, 170-71 (full text online)

The Art of Cervantes in Don Quixote: Critical Essays
Edited by Stephen Boyd, Trudi L. Darby and Terence O'Reilly
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 27

  • ‘El libro constituye pues, en mi opinión, un aporte significativo y novedoso del cervantismo británico para el estudio y la reevaluación de la obra maestra cervantina.’ — Ruth Fine, Hispanic Research Journal 21.4, 2020, 463-66 (full text online)
  • ‘A welcome addition to the libraries of Cervantes scholars.’ — John T. Cull, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 98.4, 2021, 667-68

The Marvellous and the Miraculous in María de Zayas
Sander Berg
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 40

Published December 2019

Cortázar and Music
Nicholas Roberts
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 25

  • ‘Alongside literature and politics, music is an inescapable presence in the work of Julio Cortázar. In this thorough and wide-ranging study, Nicholas Roberts provides a detailed analysis of the myriad ways in which music appears in the novels, short stories, and critical work of the Argentine. In the process, he reveals that music was no mere leitmotiv, but rather provided the structural tools for key works.’ — Ben Bollig, Modern Language Review 116.4, October 2021, 671-72 (full text online)
  • ‘Es un libro que invita a sus lectores a reencontrarse con las obras de Cortázar, pero al mismo tiempo nos inspira a perseguir una serie de preguntas más generales sobre la presencia de la música en la literatura moderna.’ — Matt Johnson, Revista Iberoamericana 87.276, July-September 2021, 952-54

Queer Genealogies in Transnational Barcelona: Maria-Mercè Marçal, Cristina Peri Rossi, and Flavia Company
Natasha Tanna
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 37

Published January 2020

Humanizing Childhood in Early Twentieth-Century Spain
Anna Kathryn Kendrick
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 30

  • ‘So liegt ein reich recherchiertes Buch vor, das wie ein Feuerwerk der Informationen, Deutungen und auch Andeutungen erscheint... Die einzelnen Kapitel und Abschnitte zu Lerntheorien, Spielzeug, Theater, Kinderzeichnungen und Intelligenztests können als wichtige Beiträge zu neuen Entwicklungen einer vergleichenden und transnationalen Kindheitsgeschichte gelten und sind als solche zweifellos lesenswert.’ — Martina Winkler, H-Soz-Kult 11 January 2021
  • ‘Humanizing Childhood explores the debates and practices surrounding the emerging discipline of the study of childhood in early twentieth-century Spain. Linked to the transnational education reform movement in Europe and the United States, artists, poets, educators, and philosophers in Spain developed new frameworks to understand the “world of the child” in order to guide children to their full human potential... The book provides a welcome addition to the relatively undeveloped field of the Spanish history of childhood.’ — Pamela Beth Radcliff, Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 15.1, Winter 2021, 165-67 (full text online)
  • ‘A carefully documented celebration of early twentieth-century Spanish humanism and its positive impact on childhood representation and education. Spanish teachers, intellectuals, and artists pressed for a science of childhood which was constructed from advances in science, art, literature, and culture, centred on the dynamic and creative aspects of the holistic child in which mind, body, and spirit were viewed as one.’ — David Foshee, Modern Language Review 116.4, October 2021, 668-69 (full text online)
  • ‘Humanizing Childhood in Early Twentieth-Century Spain is an impressive achievement. It not only constitutes a major contribution to the field of child development and paedological teaching and learning (especially with respect to the New Education movement and its Spanish representatives), but it also opens a window to how the fundamental question of human nature was addressed and problematized throughout Spain during a period of unprecedented social change... An excellent book with broad appeal.’ — Nicolás Fernández-Medina, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 2021 (full text online)
  • ‘Definitivamente, el gran valor de este libro es el esfuerzo intelectual que hace la autora para identificar conexiones significativas dentro del amplio tema de la infancia entre la historia de la ciencia, la historia de la educación, la historia cultural, la historia literaria y la historia de arte, entre otros.’ — Gabriela Ossenbach, Boletín de Historia de la Educación 2021
  • ‘El libro brilla por su extensa curiosidad, las enormes y variadas inquietudes que demuestra y su forma de transformarlas en indicios para el análisis de un tema complejo y significativo ... Se trata, en definitiva, de un libro cuya mirada global a las inquietudes, debates y reflexiones sobre la infancia y la educación debería ser inspiradora dentro de las polémicas y experimentos educativos que dominan el presente. Un libro de primer orden, de arquitectura compleja y sugerente, que demuestra gran erudición y amplitud de miras, una singular capacidad de análisis y formulación de hipótesis, riqueza conceptual, y una densidad no exenta de agilidad narrativa y amenidad. Un libro de los que, lejos del frecuente sabor metálico de las publicaciones urgentes, deja el sabor de la tradición anglosajona de las obras bien reposadas.’ — Álvaro Ribagorda, Historia y Memoria de la Educación 16, 2022, 725-30 (full text online)

Hispanic Baroque Ekphrasis: Góngora, Camargo, Sor Juana
Luis Castellví Laukamp
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 38

  • ‘Con este volumen, Castellví Laukamp presenta una nueva manera de estudiar la poesía del virreinato [...] Hispanic Baroque Ekphrasis: Góngora, Camargo, Sor Juana crea un museo de papel compuesto por poemas y por imágenes de la temprana edad moderna.’ — Conxita Domènech, Revista Iberoamericana 87.274, Spring 2021, 360-62
  • ‘Hispanic Baroque Ekphrasis […] es una obra excelente por el profundo y original estudio que ofrece sobre las posibilidades expresivas de la écfrasis, el sobresaliente conocimiento de la obra de los autores estudiados, la adecuada estructuración, la riqueza de fuentes y la claridad expositiva.’ — Lizbeth Souza-Fuertes, Hispania 104.1, March 2021, 125-126 (full text online)
  • ‘Castellví's book is extensively documented in the critical bibliography and is eruditely positioned between literature and art [...] The documentary and pictorial apparatus supports this work, which undoubtedly aims to position itself as a landmark on the subject.’ — Laura Yadira Munguía Ochoa, Hipogrifo 9.1, 2021, 1369-72 (full text online)
  • ‘The attention to detail and the bibliographical scope of this book is noteworthy. so is the ability to develop cogent arguments that gain momentum towards the final section of each chapter... this is a well-contextualized, generous book that proves how early modern poets in spanish, and the poetics they adhered to, were not hampered by geographical borders and cannot be by academic ones.’ — Antonio J. Arraiza-Rivera, Bulletin of the Comediantes 72.2, 2020, 163-65
  • ‘Hispanic Baroque Ekphrasis de Castellví Laukamp constituye una aportación de primer orden en el ámbito de la poesía barroca hispánica del que podrán disfrutar especialistas y aficionados. Su dimensión transatlántica y su diseño transgenérico [...] permiten al autor ofrecer una mirada fresca y erudita a un tiempo sobre los grandes poemas que analiza.’ — Martín Zulaica López, Rilce 37.2, 2021, 885-91
  • ‘Hispanic Baroque Ekphrasis is an exquisitely written and illustrated book […] Turning to a transatlantic vision of the baroque, this book clearly shows that Gongorism in Viceregal Latin America was an instrument to think and to create with liberty. Written with subtlety and enargeia, this thoughtful volume provides important new insights into Góngora, Camargo and Sor Juana.’ — Frederick de Armas, Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 44.3, 2022, 784-87 (full text online)
  • ‘Hispanic Baroque Ekphrasis constitutes an outstanding contribution to the interpretation of the three poems it studies. Castellví Laukamp’s command of art history, visual studies, early modern poetics, and the classical tradition enable him to craft astute and compelling readings. He is a widely read, learned, and clear writer’ — Felipe Valencia, Colonial Latin American Review 31.3, 463-65 (full text online)
  • ‘A complex but rewarding study, Hispanic Baroque Ekphrasis recognizes Camargo and Sor Juana as both followers of Góngora and poetic innovators in their own right.’ — Elizabeth Blakemore, Forum for Modern Language Studies 58.3, 2022, 406 (full text online)

Published March 2020

La poética de Lorenzo de Zamora: una apología de la literatura secular
Edited by Ascensión Rivas Hernández
Critical Texts 55

  • ‘This edition will doubtless be of use to scholars of humanist and baroque poetic theory and, more generally, to anyone with an interest in the survival and tradition of classical authors in the Spanish language.’ — Jesús-M. Nieto Ibáñez, Modern Language Review 117.3, July 2022, 507-08 (full text online)
  • ‘Este nuevo volumen de la MHRA Critical Texts, el número 55, contribuirá, sin duda, a ampliar el conocimiento de un autor no demasiado atendido y de una obra que llegará a nuevos lectores a partir de esta cuidada edición, del detallado y explicativo estudio introductorio que la antecede y la bibliografía asimismo completa que aporta.’ — Carina Zubillaga, Bulletin of Spanish Studies February 2022 (full text online)

Published September 2020

Contemporary Galician Women Writers
Catherine Barbour
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 39

  • ‘Contemporary Galician Women Writers is an engaging and informative study of Galician literature and identity and, especially, a valuable contribution to the scholarship on Galician narrative fiction by women.’ — Silvia Oliveira, Hispania 105.2, June 2022, 303-04 (full text online)
  • ‘A valuable contribution that presents a thorough picture of the Galician cultural landscape; at the same time, it stresses the need for academia to enquire beyond the national understanding of literary systems.’ — Lucia Cernadas, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 94.2, 2022, 379-80 (full text online)
  • ‘Presents a compelling, well-written textual analysis of six novels that adds substantially to our knowledge about three commercially successful writers who, except for Moure (the Galician-language writer), are yet to receive sustained attention. The book convincingly shows that much is learnt about the literary representation of Galician identities when the works under study are by authors who are located outside Galician national literature. The book will be of interest to scholars working on Hispanic Peninsular, particularly Galician, Literary Studies, but it also has much to offer to other literary scholars, especially those working on women’s writing.’ — María Liñeira, Galicia 21 2023, 124-27

Twentieth-Century Sephardic Authors from the Former Yugoslavia: A Judeo-Spanish Tradition
Željko Jovanović
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 41

  • ‘La investigación que presenta Željko Jovanović en su monografía Twentieth-Century Sephardic Authors from the Former Yugoslavia. A Judeo-Spanish Tradition era, yo creo, necesaria. El autor ofrece, en los tres capítulos que forman la parte palpitante del volumen, una reflexión muy finamente detallada de la evolución de la literatura oral en el ámbito de las comunidades sefardíes de la antigua Yugoslavia... Finalmente, sería injusto terminar esta reseña sin subrayar la riqueza de las notas que acompañan cada capítulo y que no son una simple añadidura, sino que aportan información útil e interesante; además,el gusto de esta monografía está enriquecido por las fotografías esparcidas en el volumen y que restituyen, a través del poderdela imagen, la vivacidad de los protagonistas que Željko Jovanović ha logrado retratar con inteligente maestría.’ — Paola Bellomi, Meldar 2, 2021, 61-64 (full text online)
  • ‘En su exposición, Jovanović aúna siempre el rigor positivista con la sutileza interpretativa: la riqueza de la información, el respeto a los hechos e incluso la atención a los mínimos detalles textuales no excluyen otras formas de análisis que, manejadas con cautela, permiten al autor construir un libro sólido y brillante, que arroja luz sobre muchas cuestiones: la oralidad y su relación con la escritura, la historia de las mujeres y de las minorías y, naturalmente, la pervivencia del legado hispánico más allá de los límites de la Península.’ — Álvaro Alonso, Boletín de literatura oral 11, 2021, 321-23 (full text online)
  • ‘This is a valuable book, well thought out, with an extensive bibliography (including many items in Serbo-Croat), illustrations and useful indices.’ — Bulletin of Spanish Studies February 2022 (full text online)
  • ‘Unburdened by jargon and meticulously researched, Jovanović’s study is a welcome resource for those working on the literary heritage of the Sephardim. The text will also be of interest to those writing on Spanish–Yugoslav relations, cultural history, transnational literary transmission and translation, and linguistic varia- tions of Ladino across the twentieth century.’ — Alma Prelec, Modern Language Review 118.2, 2023, 271-72 (full text online)
  • ‘El libro es una aportación importante al estudio de la cultura de los sefardíes de Serbia y Bosnia, al conocimiento de la cultura sefardí en general y su evolución en época contemporánea y, más ampliamente, a los estudios sobre las relaciones entre cultura popular y creación literaria culta y al análisis de la construcción de relatos sobre la identidad cultural y la memorialización del pasado de una minoría, tomando como base una tradición folklórica en proceso de desaparición.’ — Paloma Díaz-Mas, MEAH 70, 2022, 257-62

Memory and Utopia: The Poetry of José Ángel Valente
Manus O’Dwyer
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 44

  • ‘El título del trabajo de Manus O’Dwyer si breve y conciso da cierto vértigo por la amplitud de los temas críticos seleccionados y porque, como el autor reconoce en una elegante y brillante introducción, la crítica en torno al poeta español es prolija. La facilidad con que O’Dwyer soluciona dichas complicaciones en las primeras páginas para focalizar su labor en la cuestión social y política de la poesía de José Ángel Valente es tan encomiable como lapropia edición del libro... Una cuidada publicación de tremenda utilidad tanto para hispanistas como para comparatistas, que por añadido es disfrutable.’ — Juan Blázquez Cuena, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 98.10, 2021, 1733-34
  • ‘El profesor de la Universidad de Sheffield logra cumpli-damente su propósito: describe los discursos críticos que han relegado e incluso negado esta dimensión y demuestra su relevancia mediante análisis textuales e intertextuales de una multiplicidad de materiales relacionados con la actividad intelectual del poeta (cartas, conferencias, diarios, ensa-yos, poemas, relatos, traducciones, etc.). Este logro es por sí mismo mo-tivo suficiente para recomendar la lectura de Memory and Utopia... Es preciso agradecer a Manus O’Dwyer que su lectura ponga de relieve la fascinante extrañeza que la singular extraterritorialidad cultural rastreable en la obra de José Ángel Valente puede llegar a producir.’ — Daniel Aguirre Oteiza, Prosemas 6, 2021, 232-38
  • ‘Memory and Utopia gravitates around the idea that Valente was not (or not just) a modern mystic who devoted his word to the ineffable, but a poet who found in mystic motifs the way to access his social context, in an attempt to resist the institutionalized, vain discourse of recent extremist political practices... A brave, innovative proposal that is able to look at Valente’s literary production as a whole, and to find in his verse the aim to construct, through “a paradoxical immanence of the transcendent” (115), a utopian space of memory and self-negation in the community.’ — María Vera Reyes, Theory Now 4.2, 2021, 249-53 (full text online)
  • ‘This new vision of the poet is constructed through concise and precise analysis that does not shy away from issues of great philosophical and aesthetic complexity... a ground-breaking and informative book that will change the way readers and scholars appreciate this towering figure of Spanish and Galician verse.’ — Ricardo Fernández Romero, Modern Language Review 118.1, 2023, 147

Published May 2021

Film Festivals: Cinema and Cultural Exchange
Mar Diestro-Dópido
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 18

  • ‘A detailed account of the myriad aspects of film festivals and their cultural import both within and beyond the field of film studies. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of film, film festivals, film cultures, with specific relevance to those working in the fields of Basque, Spanish, Argentine, and British film and these related contexts.’ — Fiona Noble, Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies 7.1, 141-42 (full text online)
  • ‘The key strength of Diestro-Dópido’s book lies in her ability to critically address the intricacies that shape film festivals by focusing on ‘the point of view of the communities that constitute the festival cosmos: organizers, funders, filmmakers, producers, critics, directors, programmers, guests, educational bodies, and more’. This book will be, therefore, an essential text for students and scholars of film festivals, as well as for those involved in running film festivals. It makes a unique contribution to the fields of Spanish screen studies and film festival studies alike due Diestro-Dópido’s original methodological and theoretical approach, close access to the main practitioners in the field and its focus on overlooked film festivals.’ — Jara Fernández Meneses, Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas 19, June 2022, 264-66 (full text online)

Published November 2021

Francisco Nieva: Coronada y el toro
Edited by Komla Aggor
Critical Texts 64

  • ‘La prestigiosa editorial asentada en Cambridge Modern Humanities Research Association acaba de publicar una edición de la obra del genio español Francisco Nieva, «Coronada y el Toro», con una magnífica introducción y estudio del especialista en Nieva Komla Aggor, profesor de la Texas Christian University. «Coronada y el Toro» es una obra maestra.’ — Martín-Miguel Rubio Esteban, ABC 29 September 2020, 14
  • ‘La Modern Humanities Research Association acaba de publicar una excelente edición de la obra de Francisco Nieva, Coronada y el toro, preparada por el investigador experto en la obra de Nieva, Komla Aggor.’ — www.francisconieva.com September 2020

Published December 2021

Horizontalism and Historicity in Argentina: Cultural Dialogues of the Post-Crisis Era
Brigid Lynch
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 46

  • ‘An engaging study that offers an innovative perspective, with lively case studies, on recent Argentine cultural history.’ — Ben Bollig, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 94.2, 2022, 383-84 (full text online)

Reimagining History in Contemporary Spanish Media: Theater, Cinema, Television, Streaming
Paul Julian Smith
Visual Culture 1

Published February 2022

The Poetry-Film Nexus in Latin America: Exploring Intermediality on Page and Screen
Edited by Ben Bollig and David M. J. Wood
Moving Image 11

Diego Rivera and Juan Rulfo: Post-Revolutionary Body Politics 1922-1965
Lucy O’Sullivan
Visual Culture 3

Published March 2022

Queering Lorca’s Duende: Desire, Death, Intermediality
Miguel García
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 49

Visual and Plastic Poetics: From Brazilian Concretism to the Chilean Neo-Avant-Garde
Rachel Elizabeth Robinson
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 53

  • ‘A variegated assortment of attentive readings of individual poems that further enrich the reader’s appreciation of the three poets. Robinson’s book is well-written, and a wonderful addition to the library of any academic interested in contemporary poetry, for Latin-American literary critics, for enthusiasts of the Avant-Garde, but also for anyone who would like to learn about three magnificent Chilean artist-poets that toiled under adverse political conditions to create beauty.’ — Eduardo Ledesma, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 100.4, 2023, 611-13 (full text online)

Ramón María del Valle Inclán, Savage Comedies
Translated and edited by Christopher Colbath and Luis M. González
New Translations 15

  • ‘Gracias a este nuevo volumen que nos ofrece la Modern Humanities Research Association, el público de habla inglesa tendrá la oportunidad de adentrarse en el universo valleinclaniano, disfrutar de la lectura de las Comedias bárbaras, y valorar las importantes contribuciones hechas por Valle-Inclán a la literatura española y al teatro modernista europeo.’ — Mercedes Tasende, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 99, 2022, 915-16
  • ‘Colbath and González explain that in translating the three texts their principal aim was to “be faithful first and foremost to the uncanny and beautiful atmospheres conjured up in the text” (16) and their success in this endeavor is to be applauded. Noting Valle-Inclán’s rich polyphonic style, they point to the texts’ abrupt transitions among discursive registers: colloquialisms shift into courtly language which then shifts into archaic diction. Colbath and González handle these linguistic challenges deftly, producing a translation that is both readable and protective of the linguistic diversity of the original. Difficult for native speakers of Spanish, Valle-Inclán’s language is very challenging for non-native speakers. Colbath and González’s translation opens up the late nineteenth-century world created by Valle-Inclán to both an English-reading general audience and students interested in Valle-Inclán and his particular take on literary modernism.’ — Elizabeth Drumm, Hispania 106.2, June 2023, 343-44 (full text online)

Published September 2022

The Experience of Colour in Lorca's Theatre
Jade Boyd
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 54

  • ‘Boyd is sensitive to what is left out as well as what is explicit. She thus underlines the absence in this tragedy of stage directions regarding lighting. She also reads ‘verbal colour’ into objects, food and animals, so the mention of frogs, chocolate, earth, fire and goldfinches becomes part of an imagined canvas of images, sometimes as potent as what we can see on stage.’ — John London, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 100.6, 2023, 930-32 (full text online)

Published October 2022

Uruguayan Theatre in Translation: Theory and Practice
Sophie Stevens
Transcript 15

  • ‘A welcome and much needed contribution to Uruguayan theatre studies and translation... Stevens’ translations are thoughtfully crafted, beautifully articulated, clear, and amply tested for the stage. They reveal the careful and meticulous work of a researcher who has investigated thoroughly the context, formal aspects of language use, rhetorical devices, and style of the target text in collaboration with playwrights, actors, directors, scholars and students in workshops, rehearsals, table readings and seminars. Virtually unknown to most English audiences, the translated plays included in this book are true gems and will be of great interest to theater scholars, students, and practitioners. Through juxtaposing analysis and translation of theater in one study, Stevens pioneers dialogue between the fields of Uruguayan theater and translation studies in a book that will hold great appeal to theater scholars, translators, students and practitioners.’ — The Mercurian 14 November 2023
  • ‘Overall, this book is exemplary in offering insight into the decisions made by translators alongside directors, playwrights, and actors. The focus on praxis and self-reflection constitutes a novel and creative way of engaging with Uruguayan theatre as both national and transnational. The practical and theoretical considerations proposed by Stevens will be of use to translators, dramatists, and theatre scholars alike.’ — Cara Levey, Modern Language Review 2024, 119.1, 167-69 (full text online)
  • ‘This volume already fills a need because there are never enough translations of plays from Spanish into English for academic and practical purposes such as research, teaching and staging. Beyond fulfilling a basic need, however, Stevens’ book explores a deeper inquiry into the act of translation by linking it to thematic, cultural and dramatic concepts. For Stevens the process of translation practice is not merely technical; rather it is a methodology that informs scholarship on the dramatic text in new ways.’ — Sarah M. Misemer, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 100.5, 2023, 773-75 (full text online)