Independent Scholar
About
Jorge Abril Sánchez completed coursework toward a PhD at the University of Chicago under the direction of Cervantes scholar Frederick A. De Armas. The title of his dissertation is "Goblins, Ghosts, Werewolves and Witches: The Palimpsestic Demonology of Miguel de Cervantes." In this project, he focuses on the subversive power of magic and the dark arts in the works of the alcalaíno novelist in the context of Counterreformation Spain. Over three chapters, he discusses the conflictive use of scenes of necromancy, demonic possessions, idolatry, witchcraft and shape-shifting of humans (into wolves) as tools to criticize imperial enterprises, chivalric pursuits, patronage, public executions, religious persecution and autos de fé in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Abril Sánchez is finishing a PhD at the Universidad de Oviedo (Spain) in English Renaissance literature. The title of the dissertation is "Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Astrologer, in the England of Charles II: Calderonian Stargazers in John Dryden, Elkanah Settle, and Aphra Behn." In this project, Abril Sánchez explores the tremendous influence of the astrological theater of Calderón in the English dramatists of the second half of the seventeenth century. He defends the hypothesis that this group of dramaturges altered and manipulated the Spanish plot in order to challenge the positive astro-political associations made at the Crown in Madrid, and also to debate about the free will of mankind in cosmological and religious terms.
Abril Sánchez is the author of several articles on Cervantes, books of chivalry and war, ekphrastic sexuality and prostitution, and demonolatry and demonology, published in peer-reviewed magazines — such as Celestinesca and Lexis — and in collections of articles edited in prestigious editorials — such as Juan de la Cuesta, Peter Lang, and Brill. Abril Sánchez is also an active reviewer of theatrical performances and he has evaluated modern adaptations of Don Quijote by Assaf Benchetrit, Olga Sánchez and Jérôme Savary. These reviews have been published in Comedia Performance.
Current Work:
Currently, Abril Sánchez is working on a monograph entitled Playing with the Bard: The Sportification of the Shakespearean World in 21st-century Film and Theatrical Adaptations and (Mal)Appropriations; a collection of articles on demonology and demonolatry in the Age of Cervantes; an edition of a novel by the avilesino novelist Rafael Suárez Solís; among many other projects.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Demonolatry; demonology; folklore; heresy; superstitions
