When
Where
The Early Books Lecture Series was established at the University of Arizona by Dr. Albrecht Classen, University Distinguished Professor of German Studies, in partnership with University Libraries Special Collections. For 20 years, University of Arizona scholars and Special Collections have invited the community to explore rare books, held by Special Collections, that provide primary resource materials for research, and are open for students, faculty, staff, and visitors to access.
The lectures are free, open to the public, and held in the Special Collections Reading Room and online via Zoom, 6pm to 8pm. A reception will follow the presentation.
Faith S. Harden, Director of Graduate Studies, Associate Professor, College of Humanities
Presentation: Celestina & The Bawd of Madrid: Censorship, Translation & Adaptation of an Early Modern Spanish Bestseller
This talk will highlight two books held in Special Collections: a 1599 edition of the bestselling, and controversial Spanish novel-in-dialogue: Celestina or La tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (carefully censored by hand by an early reader) and a 1707 English translation and adaptation, titled The Bawd of Madrid and published as part of the picaresque collection The Spanish Libertines.
Faith S. Harden earned her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 2012 and arrived at the University of Arizona shortly afterwards, after teaching at the University of St. Thomas and the University of Southern California. She specializes in the literary and textual cultures of the 16th- and 17th-century Spanish-speaking world. Her first book Arms and Letters: Military Life Writing in Early Modern Spain (University of Toronto Press, 2020) explored the multi-faceted rhetoric of honor in the autobiographical writing of Spanish soldiers. She is currently at work on an English translation of the pseudo-autobiographical picaresque novel Estebanillo González, hombre de buen humor (1646).
Additional lectures
Early Books Lecture Series XX: Fabian Alfie (hybrid), April 8
Early Books Lecture Series XX: Albrecht Classen (hybrid), April 22