A Stubborn Ghost

Acknowledgments

A volume of this nature is always a collaborative endeavor and, in this case, an expression of love and recognition for a respected colleague and dear friend, Henry W. Sullivan. The project was set in motion in September 2019 with plenty of time to reach our intended deadline before Sullivan’s 80th birthday. Little did we know then that a pandemic was going to put everything on hold for over a year. And yet, our work resumed as soon as it was feasible, and it reached its conclusion almost as planned. Not an easy task, surely, but made possible with the support of many who, directly or indirectly, donated their time and efforts to bring this book to life.

First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to all the contributors who joined me in this adventure with enthusiasm and generosity. Their prompt responses every time we communicated, as well as their patience and understanding are truly appreciated. Also appreciated is the interest and support from the many colleagues who wished to appear in the Tabula Gratulatoria. It was a pleasure and an honor to work with them to reach our common goal of honoring Henry.

A special note is in order here to recognize Ann L. Mackenzie, Ivy McClelland Research Professor Emeritus, University of Glasgow & Editor-in-Chief, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, and Ceri Byrne, Principal Research Fellow, Queen’s University Belfast & Principal Senior Associate Editor, Bulletin of Spanish Studies. I am indebted to them for their painstaking reading of the article by the late Don W. Cruickshank (included in the collection) and their invaluable editorial suggestions.

Finally, I extend my gratitude to A. Robert Lauer, General Editor of Ibérica, the series that houses this volume, and to Anthony Mason, Commissioning Editor at Peter Lang. Their experienced guidance was fundamental in the completion of this endeavor. Closer to home, sincere thanks are due to Xiomara Ríos Paucar, Spanish Graduate Research Assistant at Montclair State University, for her close proofreading of the manuscript in a timely manner, and to Michael Berra for his companionship all these years.

Introduction

It is my pleasure and privilege to serve as editor of this tribute to Henry W. Sullivan in celebration of his 80th birthday. The volume encompasses a wide spectrum of Hispanic literary scholarship. Such an ample scope is appropriate to honor a scholar whose contributions have been prolific, not only as a Golden Age Hispanist but also as a devoted Lacanian scholar, literary critic, translator, poet, novelist, playwright, and composer. The title of the collection comes directly from Sullivan’s recent study on tragedy and drama in the Golden Age of Spain. Even though the “ghost” he attempts to lay there is the critical controversy around defining and classifying tragedy among Classical Spanish comedias, the label extends and applies to Sullivan’s lifelong commitment to the relevance of Spanish drama of the Golden Age within the universal canon, especially from an English-language perspective. Moreover, his arguments are easily applicable in defense of the Humanities and the significance of Literature amid the unwelcome structural changes in Academia.

Educated at the Queen’s College, Oxford and Harvard University, his academic journey spans over 50 years. Since his first book appeared in 1976, a study on Juan del Encina, Henry W. Sullivan sealed his authority in the field with two major contributions: the theologically oriented Tirso de Molina & the Drama of the Counter Reformation (1976) and Calderón in the German Lands and the Low Countries: His Reception and Influence, 1654–1980 (1983), tracing the great dramatist’s stunning posthumous fortunes in a foreign land. Both books are indispensable readings for specialists of the Spanish Golden Age, the latter recently translated into German by Anke Albrecht and republished in 2017. Later in his career, Henry’s scholarship incorporated Lacanian psychoanalytic theory as a fruitful resource for literary criticism. From that period, he produced Grotesque Purgatory: A Study of Cervantes’s Don Quixote, Part II (1996), a groundbreaking analysis of Don Quixote’s descent into the Cave of Montesinos as a metaphor for the talking cure. In the realm of pop culture and faithful to his admiration for the immortal group from Liverpool, he released The Beatles with Lacan: Rock ‘n’ Roll as Requiem for the Modern Age (1995), an immediate editorial success. A second edition of the book with a new Preface was published in 2013. Also published early in 2013, the Spanish translation became a best-seller in Argentina with two new sold-out impressions in August 2013 and February 2014.

In terms of grants, Henry is a former Guggenheim Fellow (1985), Alexander von Humboldt Fellow (1978–80), twice NEH Fellow (Junior 1976; Senior 1999), a former Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall College, Cambridge (1995–96), and alternate for the ACLS Senior Fellowship (2003). His work capacity and productivity are admirable. In 2018 came Tragic Drama in the Golden Age of Spain. Seven Essays on the Definition of a Genre, “a splendid study in seven interwoven essays that cover a lot of ground in great depth” in the words of Jane W. Albrecht: arguably an epoch-making publication that brings new light to the study of Spanish tragedy.

Henry still has in mind a micro-history of cultural relations between Spain and the Kingdom of Bohemia from the Late Middle Ages to the end of the Thirty Years’ War and the death of Charles II, entitled Bohemia Hispanica: Imperial Spain & the Czech Lands in the Era of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1526–1700. Also in preparation, Tirso de Molina (Fray Gabriel Téllez), 1579–1648: A Life, co-authored with Jane W. Albrecht, documents six hitherto unidentified members of Tellez’s closer family and promises to become the standard biography on the Mercedarian monk.

From Spanish drama to poetry and back, his versatile pen has produced major works, such as his endearing Poems of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer: A Metrical, Linear Translation (2002), The Complete Original Poems of Henry Wells Sullivan, 1960–2020, which he is currently editing, and eight dramas in English & Czech that he has authored between 1963 and 2021.

This Festschrift pays tribute to the extraordinary sweep of his career. The book is divided in three parts. Part I includes Henry W. Sullivan’s curriculum vitae as a testament to his prodigal contributions to the field throughout a career spanning five decades. This Part also includes an interview, a conversation we shared about his life, his profession, and his view of the Humanities. It is a rare opportunity to hear Henry’s voice in a non-academic setting.

Part II contains a collection of nineteen articles by prominent scholars in the field, all of whom shared significant paths along Henry’s lifelong trajectory. Some have been colleagues, co-authors, co-editors, students, mentees. All have been and still are dear friends. After all, Henry’s most remarkable qualities are his generosity, his willingness to collaborate, and his respect for friendship and camaraderie. Of course, the list of scholars honoring him cannot and should not be limited to an arbitrary number. The nineteen pieces constituting Part II stand as a sample of the innumerable roads which intersected in Henry’s professional life. The essays range from traditional inquiries to new explorations and stand as a monolithic recognition of Henry’s varied body of work. In doing so, they serve as “stubborn” testimonies of the significance of Hispanic literary studies and criticism as we transition further into the twenty-first century.

Curriculum Vitae

Henry Wells SULLIVAN