Golden Age drama in contemporary Spain : the comedia on page, stage and screen /

This book projects an honest, panoramic critical view of Golden Age theater performance in Spain between 1939 and 2009. Wheeler (Univ. of Leeds, UK) describes in detail how numerous Spanish critics, authors, and directors have come and gone from the scene, leaving behind a minimal, if any, contribution aimed at establishing a Golden Age performance tradition as found with Shakespeare in England. The author charges that the impulse behind this neglect lies in the tendency to start every project as if nothing had been done before for reasons unrelated to artistic creativity. The prevailing practice is to reject the past and start anew, but, as he demonstrates, in the end nothing gets built that would profit understanding of the possible meanings to be found in each play. Individualism triumphs over aesthetic principles, and Wheeler supplies plenty of proof here, taken from interviews and the press, among other sources. Anyone wanting to know why there are so very few comedias in film and the theater today will find here a detailed explanation based on 117 plays. The bibliography is excellent. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. O. B. Gonzalez Loyola University of Chicago