Lope de Vega on Spanish Screens, 19352020: The Shadow of the Phoenix

This book provides an in-depth examination and analysis of the film and television adaptations of Lope de Vegas theatrical dramas that have appeared on Spanish screens since the mid-twentieth century. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Allen draws on critical media literacy studies, film and adaptation studies, literary theory, cultural studies, and cultural historiography in his analysis. Allen argues that, given the problematic reception of Lopes works in Francoist Spain, the canonical author never held a privileged position in the dictatorial propaganda machine. In fact, adaptations of Lopes theater productions were subject to the same rigorous scrutiny, if not more, than any other screenplays that landed under censorships microscope. Allen analyzes adaptations produced during and after the nearly forty-year dictatorship and questions whether the adaptors of the democratic era created films and television shows that can sufficiently demonstrate how the spirit of Lopes life and works can resonate with modern audiences. Scholars of film and television studies, adaptation studies, and history will find this book particularly useful.