"Readers will find Hercules and the King of Portugal a valuable addition to the growing number of studies that explore how Golden Age dramatists sought to contribute to the cultural and social debates of their day, especially regarding issues of gender and sexuality."—David J. Amelang, Sixteenth Century Journal
"This is an eloquently written and persuasively argued groundbreaking study. Fox’s writing is erudite, yet easily approachable, engaging, and superbly readable. Those interested in early modern Spanish theater generally and in Calderón de la Barca particularly will find the work of this established scholar extremely valuable. Fox’s book accomplishes a great deal, going beyond a literary study to document the sociohistorical circumstances and contexts in which both Hercules and King Sebastian were made and unmade into early modern cultural icons of masculinity and nation. Her book will have a wide appeal among scholars and students who are interested in questions of masculinity from a historical, social, and cultural perspective."—José R. Cartagena-Calderón, Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies
“Erudite and thought-provoking, Hercules and the King of Portugal casts new light on the performance of masculinity in two of Iberia’s foundational icons. This is a pivotal study not only on the cultural renderings of the hombre esquivo but also on early modern conceptions of family, lineage, and nationhood.”—Enrique García Santo-Tomás, Frank P. Casa Collegiate Professor of Spanish, University of Michigan
“A compelling study of the crisis of masculinity shaping seventeenth-century Spanish and Portuguese nationhood. Fox brilliantly analyzes theatrical representations of Hercules and King Sebastian that dramatize damage done by an excess or lack of sexual desire to marriage alliances that secure the pure blood fundamental to honor.”—Barbara F. Weissberger, author of Isabel Rules: Constructing Queenship, Wielding Power
“Dian Fox’s perceptive analysis of the complex cultural appropriation of both flawed masculine figures for political, nationalist, and imperial ends astutely uncovers anxieties in ideological conceptions of manhood and nationhood in Habsburg Spain. Fox’s writing is erudite yet easily approachable, engaging, and superbly readable. Her book will have a wide appeal among scholars and students who are interested in questions of masculinity from a historical, social, and cultural perspective.”—José R. Cartagena-Calderón, associate professor of Romance languages and literatures at Pomona College and author of Masculinidades en obras
