A Caroline View of Spaniards and Portuguese on the StageThe Dramatic Representation of Iberia in James Shirley (1596-1666)
ISSN: 0211-5913
Year of publication: 2007
Issue: 54
Pages: 37-53
Type: Article
More publications in: Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses
Abstract
This essay endeavours to analyse James Shirley’s depiction of Spanish types in his dramatic works with a view to concentrating on the construction of national identities. Considering first the historical conditioning factors that made possible the Shirleian view, it surveys six of this dramatist’s plays with Iberian settings and types according to the way they have been regulated by genre conventions. Then it briefly examines some of the types appearing in other plays by Shirley. Having done this, one perceives that the Shirleian view prefigures the generally attentive though somehow condescending image which was soon to be the norm during the following centuries.