The success of Man of La Mancha has cut us off from an approach to Don Quixote as a satirical and experimental work, prevalent among writers and filmmakers in the U.S. during the Cold War. Unlike the famous musical, whose theme song is recognized everywhere, American interest in Cervantes’s novel after World War II is very little known. My current project is a reconstruction of what I term the “activist Quixotism” thriving in the period. This talk focuses mainly on the year 1965, a year in which many Quixote-related projects were coming to fruition, and whose true significance as a turning-point in the history of the reception of Cervantes on our shores has never been adequately explained.

Dr. Childers’ talk is part of the X Florida Cervantes Symposium, which will be held in the Modern Languages and Literatures Conference Room, March 18-19, 2016. Organized by Anne J. Cruz, the symposium, which is held annually in Florida, this year commemorates the 400th anniversary of Cervantes’s death. It will include talks by Cervantes scholars and MLL graduate students on Cervantes and his world.

If you are planning to attend, please go to the conference website to register

CO-SPONSORED BY
Department of Modern Languages & Literatures
Deparment of Modern Languages and Literatures Joseph Carter Memorial Fund
Cervantes Society of America