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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsShameless Thread Bragging On My Nephew.
My sister's son is an assistant professor at Syracuse of classic Spanish literature and is also a researcher of early Spanish playwrights. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the works of the 17th century Spanish playwright and poet Félix Arturo Lope de Vega y Carpio.
Lope de Vega was a prolific playwright who is considered to be the Spanish Shakespeare. It is thought that he wrote over 1300 plays of which only 300 have survived.
Last year while doing further research in Barcelona at the Spanish National Library on the author and other playwrights and poets, my nephew discovered a comedic play previously thought to be lost, "Women and Servants", written by Lope de Vega circa 1613-1614.
These two couples, whose love for each other remains secret, find their relationships put to a test with the appearance of two new suitors: Count Próspero himself, who chases after Luciana, and the rich Don Pedro, who courts Violante with the approval of her father.
This initial scene leads to a game of hide-and-seek and confused identities in which Luciana must intervene to stay close to her lover. These entanglements give way to several very comical scenes, and the house in which they occur becomes a place where all actors are at the mercy of the tricks played by the two women and their lovers.
Today, for the first time in over three centuries the play "Women and Servants" was performed before a live audience.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=138248&CultureCode=en
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/28825

riderinthestorm
(23,272 posts)It can take one on a wild intellectual ride. Kudos to your nephew for following his dream and doing something very,very cool in the process!
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)And an even bigger one back home is Spain.
But it made the department head at Syracuse look like a genius for hiring him.
The depth and scope of Alejandro's knowledge of this subject is staggering.
Kaleva
(35,799 posts)You have every right to be proud!
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)After a lecture given by my nephew, the play was performed in Barcelona at the National Library.
His parents were in attendance, they are rightfully happy for their son.
rurallib
(61,752 posts)Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)Afterwards my nephew will drive to Syracuse to prepare for the new school year, and my bil needs to get back to Valencia where he teaches philosophy at the university.
The difference is (as my nephew likes to remind his father) is that my nephew actually has to teach and does research on his own time, and his father leaves teaching to graduate assistants and post-docs while he does research for his next book.
frogmarch
(12,118 posts)Wow!
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)Alejandro had a cup of coffee at Cambridge (yes, *that* Cambridge) but they didn't offer him a teaching position.
Guess who called soon after his discovery last January?
frogmarch
(12,118 posts)Oh, I don't know - Cambridge? :-D
This is thrilling! Congratulations to Alejandro!
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)It's not that big a thing to him, his dad taught there for a bit as a post-doc, but actually got a better deal to teach back home in Valencia.
frogmarch
(12,118 posts)I am happy he has something better - and that he could tell them no thanks.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)
Ikonoklast
(23,973 posts)Which to me, is almost as big a thing as anything he has accomplished academically.
Well...to be 100% truthful, he does carry a dual citizenship with Spain and the U.S., so there is a little bit of a fudge factor in his favor over the rules of baseball.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)