Delgado, Maria M. and Gies, David T. (2012) Introduction (To A History of Theatre in Spain). In: A History of Theatre in Spain. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 1-17. ISBN 9780521117692

Abstract

An Introduction to 'A History of Theatre in Spain'.

What is Spain? In any 'history of', this becomes the key question, the one that informs the entire work and inevitably shapes the readers' response to it. As the political and cultural boundaries of the Iberian Peninsula slowly formed themselves from the eighth century onward - boundaries which became relatively stable by the early sixteenth century as the nation-building agenda of the Catholic monarchs bore fruit - the global imaginary began to equate 'Spain' with Castile, the central plateau of the Peninsula that laid claim to being the seat of government (Philip II made Madrid the administrative capital in 1561) and, consequently, the very heart and soul of the country.