Sederi Yearbook 21

 

Elena Bandín Fuertes, “Performing Shakespeare in a Conflicting Cultural Context: Othello in Francoist Spain.” SEDERI 21 (2011): 119-132.

 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34136/sederi.2011.6                                                      Download PDF

 

Abstract

The present article reviews the stage history of Othello in Spain and, in particular, it focuses on two performances of the play staged at the Español theatre during Franco’s dictatorship, in 1944 and 1971 respectively. Othello was one of the Shakespearean plays programmed by the regime to give cultural prestige to the “national” theatre. By comparing both productions, this paper explores how the performance of Othello evolved during the dictatorship. Furthermore, it shows how the repressive force of state censorship was exerted to promote certain theatrical conventions and to prevent theatre directors and translators from offering new readings and updatings of the plays, in the case of Othello, for almost thirty years.

Keywords: Othello; Franco’s dictatorship; national theatre; censorship; translation.

 

 

References

Biescas, José Antonio and Tuñón de Lara, Manuel 1980. Historia de España. Tomo X. España bajo la dictadura franquista (1939-1975). Barcelona: Labor.

Bandín Fuertes, Elena 2007. Traducción, recepción y censura de teatro clásico inglés. Estudio descriptivo-comparativo del Corpus TRACEtci (1939-1985). León: Universidad de León. (Unpublished PhD).

Bandín Fuertes, Elena 2008. “Translating at the Service of the Francoist Ideology: Shakespearean Theatre for the Spanish National Theatre. A Study of Paratexts.” Eds. Micaela Muñoz-Calvo, Carmen Bueso-Gómez and Mª Ángeles Ruiz-Moneva. New Trends in Translation and Cultural Identity. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press. 117-128.

Calvo, Clara 2006a. “De-foreignising Shakespeare: Otelo in Romantic Spain.” Ed. José Manuel González Fernández de Sevilla. Spanish Studies in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries. Newark, DE: Delaware University Press. 117-129.

Calvo, Clara 2006b. “Tragedia para reír: Grimaldi, Shakespeare y El Caliche o la parodia de Otelo.” Eds. Francisco Lafarga and Luis Pegenaute. Traducción y Traductores: Del Romanticismo al Realismo. Berna: Peter Lang. 75-87.

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González Ruiz, Nicolás 1948. “Las adaptaciones de clásicos a la escena actual.” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 25/100: 206-213.

González Ruiz, Nicolás 1987. “Una gran tarea de dignificación del teatro.” Ed. Manuel L. Abellán. Censura y literaturas peninsulares. Diálogos Hispánicos de Ámsterdam, vol. 5. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 173-175.

Gregor, Keith 2002. “From Tragedy to Sainete: Othello on the Early Nineteenth-Century Spanish Stage.” Shakespeare Yearbook 13: 322-341.

Gregor, Keith 2007. “Shakespeare at the Español: Franco and the Construction of a National Culture.” Multicultural Shakespeare 4: 29-36.

Gregor, Keith 2010. Shakespeare in the Spanish Theatre. 1772 to the Present. London: Continuum.

Gregor, Keith and Bandín, Elena (forthc.). “The role of the censor in the reception of Shakespearean drama in Francoist Spain: the strange case of The Taming of the Shrew.” Eds. Alberto Lázaro and Catherine O’Leary. Censorship Across Borders: The Censorship of English Literature in Twentieth-century Europe. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Serrano Ripoll, Ángeles 1988. Las traducciones de Shakespeare en España: el ejemplo de Othello. Valencia: Arcos.

Par, Anfós 1936-1940. Representaciones shakespearianas en España. 2 vols. Madrid: Librería General de Victoriano Suárez; Barcelona: Biblioteca Balmes.

Peláez, Andrés ed. 1993-1995. Historia de los teatros nacionales. Madrid: Instituto Nacional de las Artes Escénicas y la Música.

Tusell, Javier 1998. Historia de España en el siglo XX. III. La dictadura de Franco. Madrid: Taurus.

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Theatre reviews

de la Cueva, Jorge 1944. “Lectura en el Español. Una adaptación de «Otelo», de Shakespeare, por Nicolás González Ruiz.” 4 November 1944: n.p.

de O. 1944. “Español. Estreno de «Otelo». Versión de Nicolás González Ruiz.” 1971: n.p.

Díez Crespo, Manuel 1971. “Un gran «Otelo», en el Español.” El Alcázar 1 November 1971: 12.

García Espina, G. 1944. “Otelo, de William Shakespeare, en nueva versión de Nicolás González Ruiz.” Informaciones 18 December 1944: n.p.

Gómez Picazo, E. 1971. “«Otelo» de Shakespeare en rara versión.” 1971: n.p.

M., J. 1969. “Un «Otelo» inconcluso.” Primer Acto 108: 7.

Valencia, Antonio 1971. “«Otelo», en el Español.” 1971: n.p.