The Lost Personal Stories: Hungarians in Spanish Golden Age Theatre (Interpretation and Proximity of Distances)

Abstract

Despite of the geographical distances between the two kingdoms, both Hungary and the hungarians seem to be topics widely spreaded in the Spanish literature of the Golden Age. The study tracks the intercultural reasons which might have caused this vast representation of the Hungarians among the literature topics of those centuries. Besides the more or less evidents paralelisms –like the fact of being ruled by the same dynasty, the big challenge represented by the Ottoman expansion both for the Catholic Monarchy and Kingdom of Hungary or being part of the same «Universitas Christiana»— the study shows the very thin nets of the less known personal histories of the thousands of Spaniards fighting against the Ottomans in Hungary. They were there taking part in diplomatic missions or being members of the imperial Court as well as of the Eastern Habsburgs.The presentation of personal histories demonstrates the magnitude of the attention of the Spanish public towards the happenings in Hungary and it shows the fundamental roots both of this specific interest in Hungarian topics and the perception and interpretation the genius of the Spanish Golden Age literature have of it.

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