text: Peninsular Literature - A Companion to the Hispanic Studies Preliminary Exams Reading List - LibGuides at Brown University
  Historia de la literatura española. Ed. José Carlos Mainer and Gonzalo Pontón. Crítica, 2010-2013.
  Las épocas de la literatura española. Felipe Martínez Pedraza and Milagros Rodríguez Cáceres. Ariel, 2012.
  Spanish Literature: A Very Short Introduction. Jo Labanyi. Oxford UP, 2010.
  The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature. Ed. David T. Gies. Cambridge UP, 2004.
  The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Novel from 1600 to the Present. Ed. Harriet Turner and Adelaida López. Cambridge UP, 2003.
  Historia y crítica de la literatura española. Ed. Francisco Rico. Crítica, 1980-2000.
  Beresford, Andrew. "The Poetry of Medieval Spain." The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, edited by David T. Gies. Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 75-94.
  A contextualized account of the developments of poetry: heroic epic, mester de clerecía, mester de juglaría, exemplum collections, Libro de Buen Amor, Santob de Carrión, ballads, Jorge Manrique, cancioneros.
  Burke, James. "Medieval Spanish Prose." The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, edited by David T. Gies. Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 95-114.
  A survey of Medieval Prose, organized conceptually around the ideas of assimilation, syncretism, translation, scholasticism: Alphonsine opus, The Golden Legend, Libro del caballero Zifar, Don Juan Manuel, chronicles, prose romance/novels of chivalry, Amadís de Gaula, sentimental novels, Diego de San Pedro, Juan de Flores, La Celestina.
  Dagenais, John. "Medieval Spanish Literature in the Twenty-First Century." The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, edited by David T. Gies. Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 37-57.
  Compelling essay on the limitations of the term 'Spanish' when used to discuss Medieval Spanish Literature. An invitation to broaden the scope of the field beyond nationalistic agendas. Focused on the relationships between languages and territories.
  Menocal, María Rosa. "Beginnings." The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, edited by David T. Gies. Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 58-74.
  A sharp critique of the idea of medieval literature as the 'beginnings' of the contemporary Spanish tradition. Against historicizing backwards "as if the past had serving the present as its principal function."
  Stern, Charlotte. "The Medieval Theatre: Between scriptura and theatrica." The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature edited by David T. Gies. Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 115-134.
  In the words of Stern,"the elite nature of scriptura also means that many popular forms of theatrica have often gone unrecorded or appear in negative appraisals." An account of theatrical texts and possible staging context, including liturgical dramas, minstrels, Latin comedies, the Danza General de la Muerte, pageant wagons, dialogues, the role of women, the emergence of drama as literature with Gil Vicente, and, above all, La Celestina ("theater of the mind" according to D.G. Pattison).
  Elliott, J.H. Imperial Spain. Mentor, 1963.
  A comprehensive and accessible account of the history of Spain from 1469 to 1716.
  Gaylord, Mary M. "The Making of Baroque Poetry." The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, edited by David T. Gies. 222-37.
  Explores Baroque poetry as the climax of previous poetic attempts (tension between imitation and newness; conceptismo; poetry and knowledge; artificio, desengaño, ingenio). An account of the fortune of Renaissance verses and themes in the 17th century. Variety of voices. Lope, Quevedo, Góngora.
  Gerli, Michael, The Antecedents of the Novel in Early Modern Spain. The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, edited by David T. Gies. Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 178-200.
  A didactic account of the prose of the 16th century that explores some major genres of the period (chivalric, pastoral, Moorish, Byzantine, and picaresque romances), and their influence on El Quijote. Provides brief summaries of main works.
  González Echevarría, Roberto. Cervantes' Don Quixote: A Casebook. Oxford, 2005.
  Collection of traditional and contemporary essays on Don Quixote. Featuring Ramón Menéndez Pidal, Erich Auerbach, Georgina Dopico-Black, Leo Spitzer, Roberto González Echevarría, George Haley, Bruce W. Wardropper, E.C. Riley, and Manuel Durán.
  Greer, Margaret. R. "The Development of National Theatre". The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, edited by David T. Gies. Cambridge UP, 2004, pp. 238-50.
  A brief history and sociology of the 'comedia nueva' before and after it was popularized and refined by Lope de Vega. Includes a list of authors, a description of the typical 'corral de comedias,' and an account of the different social settings in which plays were staged.
  McKendrick, Melveena. Theatre in Spain, 1490-1700. Cambridge UP, 1989.
  A comprehensive study of theater in all its dimensions: staging, audiences, texts, morality, spaces, national e international context, etc. Extensive chapters on Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Calderon de la Barca.
  Navarrete, Ignacio. Orphans of Petrarch: Poetry and Theory in the Spanish Renaissance. University of California Press, 1994.
  A study of the reception of Petrarch and the Poetic Theory of Castiglione in Spanish poetry, first introduced by Boscán y Garcilaso, continued by Herrera, later challenged by the poets of seventeenth century Spain, mainly Góngora y Quevedo.
  Robbins, Jeremy. "Renaissance and Baroque: Continuity and Transformation in Early Modern Spain." The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, edited by David T. Gies. Cambridge UP, 2004. 137-48.
  A study of the transition from the Renaissance mindset (Erasmianism, Neoplatonism, a break with medieval literature, an assimilation of Italian forms) to the Baroque mentality (Stoicism, skepticism, pessimism, parecer over ser, a national contribution to European literatures).
  Weiss, Julian. "Renaissance Poetry." The Cambridge History of Spanish Literature, edited by David T. Gies. Cambridge UP, 2004. 159-77.
  Discusses the political influences of the Boscán-Castillejo controversy, explores the love poem and the eglogue as an staging area to think about broader topics, analyzes Garcilaso´s poems, acknowledges the coexistence of medieval satire inheritance with petrarchism and neoplatonism, surveys mystic poets (Fray Luis, Santa Teresa, San Juan de la Cruz), new epic (La Araucana), and the role of women during the period.
  Labanyi, Jo. Gender and Modernization in the Spanish Realist Novel. Oxford UP, 2000.
  Relates the late-nineteenth-century Spanish realist novel to contemporary debates in economics, politics, medicine and town planning. It argues that women function in the key texts of Spanish realism as ciphers of contemporary anxieties about modernization. Chapters on Pepita Jiménez, Los pazos de Ulloa and Fortunata y Jacinta.
  Pardo Bazán, Emilia. La cuestión palpitante. Imprenta Central de Madrid, 1883.
  A collection of essays on the ideas of Zola and the idiosyncratic national character of Spanish Realism and Naturalism. With a prologue by Clarín.
  Amell, Samuel. The Contemporary Spanish Novel: An Annotated, Critical Bibliography, 1936-1994. Greenwood Press, 1996.
  Annotated bibliography of books and articles on the post-Civil War Spanish novel.
  Gies, David T. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Modern Spanish Culture. Cambridge UP, 1999.
  Experts analyze the historical and political background of modern Spain (since 1868). Essays on literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, cinema, dance, music, and the modern media. Includes a chronology and further reading lists.
  Labanyi, Jo. Myth and History in the Contemporary Spanish Novel. Cambridge, UP, 1989.
  The literary use of myth in Francoist Spain and its political connotations. Chapters on Si te dicen que caí (Juan Marsé), and Tiempo de silencio (Luis Martín-Santos), and reflections on Cela's La familia de Pascual Duarte.