A Game at Chess: diplomatic relationship between England and Spain in the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries during the Jacobean period (1603-1625).

• Grant number: 17/07455-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: July 01, 2017
• End date: April 24, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Iris Kantor
• Grantee: Ricardo Cardoso
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 19/01297-3 - The king's men's Spain: the depiction of Spain by the king's men during the reign of James Stuart I (1603-1625), BE.EP.DR

Abstract

This PhD research plan examines the dramatic representation of the diplomatic relationship between England and Spain through the Jacobean period (1603-1625), by focussing on a selection of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The Anglo-Spanish War affected the English kingdom from 1585 to 1604. As peace was only established in the early years of James' reign in 1604, the new attitude to an old enemy displeased several parts of society. Subsequent events contributed to new anxieties among the monarchies as between James and his people, especially after the Gunpowder Plot (1605) and the plans for a dynastic union known as Spanish Match. According to Reinhart Koselleck, who suggests that the end of sixteenth-century religious conflicts in Europe propitiated the transition from an apocalyptic perception of the future to that of prognoses based on the projection of time for each reign, our hypothesis argues that the shift from Elizabeth to James culminated in a new mentality of English subjects. As the religious war against Spain ended and the rulers changed, unprecedented new political calculations emerged. Recurring to a contextual reading of the plays, we verify how the dramatists acted and depicted the conflict between these two monarchies, referring both to war and after war moments; how the controversies around these new policies were portrayed in the plots and in the structure of these texts, especially those staged by Shakespeare's King's Men. (AU)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

CARDOSO, Ricardo. A game at chess – Anglo-Spanish relations in the works of Shakespeare and contemporary playwrights. 2023. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.