Belén Atienza, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Spanish
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
Clark University
Worcester, MA 01610-1477

Phone:(508) 793-7256
Email: batienza@clarku.edu

Dr. Atienza received a B.A. from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1993 and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1995 and 2000, respectively. She has been at Clark since 2003.

Current Research and Teaching

Dr. Atienza is currently writing a book about the history of madness in Early Modern Spain and the depiction of insanity in Lope de Vega’s theater. Her research interests include the relationship between social history and literature in the Spain of the Conquistadores. In particular she is interested in the literary representations of marginal groups – the poor, the ill, the outcast – as well as the conditions in which they lived. Other research interests include gender and women’s studies, history of theater, pedagogy, and cinema. She will be teaching courses in Spanish language as well as advanced undergraduate courses on Early Modern Spanish literature and history. These courses include the history of madness and the carnivalesque, the Spanish inquisition, the history of gender in the Hispanic World – Spain, Mexico, and the Caribbean.

Selected Publications

"El sueño profético de Lope de Vega: de Felipe II, Felipe III, Rodrigo, y el perro alano: en Sharon Voros and Alain Saint-Saens, ed. Dreams in Early Modern Spain, University Press of the South, currently in press.

"No en todos los epitafios ha de entrar el caminante: ceguera , muerte, y máscaras en La Dorotea" in M. Guell, ed. La Dorotea de Lope de Vega (Paris:Ellipses, 2001): 111-123.

"La [re]conquista de un valido: Lope, Sandoval, el Duque de lerma, y los godos," Anuario Lope de Vega 6 (2000): 37-48.

Translation of La guitarra de Dios: género, poder y autoridad en el mu do visionario de la madre Juana de la Cruz (1481-1534) by R. Surtz (Madrid: Anaya & Mario Muchnik, 1997)