Religion and Literature in the Spanish Renaissance

Dear Colleagues,

our aim is to collect into one Special Issue some of the most compelling recent scholarship on religion and literature in the Spanish Golden Age. In his chapter on Renaissance and Baroque in The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, Jeremy Robbins makes the following comment regarding the relationship between religion and literature in Spain during this time period:

Spanish ascetic and religious writing certainly affected Spaniards’ perception of reality and led to the complex fusion of the spiritual and the material and the dual focus of seeing matters from both a human and an eternal perspective which are so characteristic of Golden Age literature. This raises the complex question of the relationship between Catholicism and Spanish literature. The latter has frequently been read as profoundly orthodox in its ideas and mentality, an extension of the religious zeal and unquestioning religious commitment taken to be a national characteristic of the period. It would be more accurate to stress less the uniquely Catholic nature of Spanish literature per se than the centrality of religion to any early modern mentality.[1]

Robbins is right, of course, but in this Special Issue we hope to show that religion in general—not just Catholicism—is uniquely central to the literature of early modern Spain. We are pleased to invite you to participate in this endeavor.

From mysticism to Erasmianism, to Christian humanist syntheses of Catholicism with neo-Stoicism, an acute religious sensibility permeates much of Spain’s Golden Age literature. Cross-fertilizations between religion and literature in this period are not limited to Christianity, but instead encompass also the other two great religions prevalent in Spain during eight centuries of fraught medieval convivencia: Judaism and Islam. This Special Issue will examine representative cases of religious authors who produced some of Spain’s most memorable literature (such as Fray Luis de León, Calderón de la Barca and Saint John of the Cross), while also touching upon so-called “secular” figures such as Cervantes, Quevedo and the anonymous author of the Lazarillo who wrote incessantly—even obsessively—about religious themes. Potential essays in this Special Issue may include not only studies of explicitly religious genres such as the comedias de santos and the autos sacramentales but also investigations of such topics as the following: the presence of the religious discourse of casuistry even in ‘secular’ theater, anti-clerical satire in the picaresque such as the Lazarillo, Jesuit meditation techniques in texts such as Quevedo’s Lágrimas de Jeremías castellanas, exorcism in the novel, witchcraft in literature such as La Celestina or Cervantes’ El coloquio de los perros, lycanthropy in Cervantes’ Persiles, hell in texts such as Quevedo’s Sueño del infierno, NeoPlatonist magic in the Don Quijote episode of la cabeza encantada, and Erasmian Christian humanism in Cervantes’ novelas ejemplares.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Casuistry in ‘secular’ theater
• Anti-clerical satire, e.g., Lazarillo
• Jesuit meditation techniques in Quevedo’s Lágrimas de Jeremías castellanas
• Exorcism in the novel (DQ)
• Comedias de santos
• Autos sacramentales
• Witchcraft in literature, e.g., Celestina or Cañizares in El coloquio de los perros
• Lycanthropy in Persiles
• Hell in literature, e.g., Quevedo, Sueño del infierno
• NeoPlatonist magic and the cabeza encantada
• Erasmian Christian humanism in Cervantes’ novelas ejemplares

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor, or to the Assistant Editor of Religions. Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

[1] Jeremy Robbins, ‘Renaissance and Baroque: continuity and transformation in early modern Spain’, in David T. Gies, ed., The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 135-48, at 140.

References

Kallendorf, Hilaire, Ambiguous Antidotes: Virtue as Vaccine for Vice in Early Modern Spain

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017).

Kallendorf, Hilaire, ed., A Companion to Early Modern Hispanic Theater (Leiden: Brill, 2014).

Kallendorf, Hilaire, Conscience on Stage: The Comedia as Casuistry in Early Modern Spain (Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, 2007).

Kallendorf, Hilaire, Exorcism and Its Texts: Subjectivity in Early Modern Literature of England and Spain

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003).

Kallendorf, Hilaire, ed., A New Companion to Hispanic Mysticism (Leiden: Brill, 2010).

Kallendorf, Hilaire, “‘¿Qué he de hacer?’: The Comedia as Casuistry,” Romanic Review 95, no. 3 (2004): 327-

59.

Kallendorf, Hilaire, La retórica del exorcismo. Ensayos sobre religión y literatura, trans. Mauricio Childress-

Usher, Biblioteca Áurea Hispánica 109 (Madrid / Frankfurt: Iberoamericana / Vervuert, 2016).

Kallendorf, Hilaire, Sins of the Fathers: Moral Economies in Early Modern Spain (Toronto: University of

Toronto Press, 2013).

Menéndez Peláez, J., Los jesuitas y el teatro en el Siglo de Oro (Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo,

1995).

Taylor, Barry and Alejandro Coroleu, eds., Humanism and Christian Letters in Early Modern

Iberia (1480-1630) (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars, 2010).

Dr. Hilaire Kallendorf
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Catholicism
• Judaism
• Islam
• mysticism
• Erasmianism
• neo-Stoicism