Cervantes and the Armada
Tuesday, 26 March 2019, 4 – 5:45pm
A lecture by Dr Stephen Boyd (UCC) as part of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies Research Seminar Series.
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) served as a soldier in the Spanish army from 1569 to 1575. Famously, he took part in, and was seriously wounded at, the naval Battle of Lepanto (7 October 1571). His experience of warfare at sea is reflected in many of his literary works. Starting with a brief consideration of some passages from Don Quixote and the Exemplary Novels that evoke the kinds of experience that would have been familiar to the soldiers and sailors of the Armada of 1588, this paper will focus on two aspects of Cervantes’s (non–combatant) involvement in that campaign: as a commissioner of supplies for the ships, and, as a writer, in the form of two Odes, one written before the outcome was known, and the other afterwards.
Campus Location: Trinity Long Room Hub Arts and Humanities Research Institute
Accessibility: Yes
Room: Neill Lecture Theatre
Event Category: Alumni, Arts and Culture, Lectures and Seminars, Public
Type of Event: One-time event
Audience: Undergrad, Postgrad, Alumni, Faculty & Staff, Public
Cost: Free
