Esther Fernández
Position title: Biruté Ciplijauskaité Postdoctoral Fellow (2023-2025)
Pronouns: She/her
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Independent Scholar

A Drama in Transition: The Democratization of Spanish Classical Theater
Spanish early modern theater constitutes a controversial patrimony innately intertwined with the nation’s cultural history. The genre’s social imprint and malleability made it a battleground rife for the interplay of conflicting political agendas, especially before and after the Spanish Civil War. Although Franco relied on its symbols to reinforce National Catholicism, during the transition to democracy (1975-1982), Golden Age theater experienced a bolstered presence in popular culture, which might seem ideologically contradictory at first glance. This book demonstrates how the post-Franco government used this dramatic legacy to foster social cohesion while avoiding a rupture in Spain’s cultural heritage.
Esther Fernández specializes in Iberian literary, visual, and cultural studies. She is the author of Eros en escena: Erotismo en el teatro del Siglo de Oro (2009) and of multiple articles and essay collections focusing on theater and performance practices analyzed through a transhistorical perspective. Her latest monograph, To Embody the Marvelous: The Making of Illusions in Early Modern Spain (2021) has been awarded the 2023 Nancy Staub Publications Award by UNIMA-USA and the 2023 Vern Williamsen Comedia Book Prize by the Association for Hispanic and Classical Theater.
Publications by Esther Fernández
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Fernández, E. El Alma. Madrid: Inst. Nacional de Artes Escenicas y de Teatro, 2024.
IRH Fellow:
Esther Fernández (Biruté Ciplijauskaité Postdoctoral Fellow, 2023–2025)
Synopsis:
Entender el alma es una tarea imposible y, por ende, escribir un libro sobre ella no puede ser más que un espejismo o una ilusión. Como sujeto sublime, el alma se ha convertido en una obsesión para el entendimiento humano desde tiempos inmemoriales. Pero ¿cómo acercarnos a ella?, ¿desde qué enfoque o perspectiva? y, más aún, ¿cómo llegar a establecer límites en torno a lo que su definición puede llegar a abarcar?