The theatre of emotions: the success of Spanish drama in the Low Countries (1617-1672)

Vergeer, T. (2022)

Doctoral Thesis

The Spanish comedia nueva was one of the most popular theatrical genres in the seventeenth-century Low Countries. The adaptations of these plays were performed in Dutch and Flemish theatres. This study aimed to explain the popularity of this genre. The conclusion is that the emotional effects were responsible for the popularity of these plays that were translated from Spanish. These tragicomedies by Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio and Pedro Calderón de la Barca offered a drastic alternative for the emotional prescriptions found in the oeuvre of Jacob Cats, Joost van den Vondel, and Pieter Cornelisz Hooft. This way, comedia nueva offered Dutch and Flemish spectators a refuge from emotional and social expectations.

• Comedia nueva
• Lope de Vega
• Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• Joost van den Vondel
• Amsterdam Public Theatre (Amsterdamse Schouwburg)
• Seventeenth Century
• Low Countries / Dutch Republic / Habsburg Netherlands
• Performance Studies
• Cultural Transfer
• History of Emotions

• All authors: Vergeer, T.
• Supervisor: Anrooij, W. van
• Co-supervisor: Marion, O. van
• Committee: Bussels, S.P.M.; Koppenol, J.M.; Lammes, S.; Meeus, H.; Rodríguez Pérez, Y.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2022-04-06
• Sponsorship: Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO)