Ryan Prendergast’s research focuses on the representation of identity and difference (religious, cultural, political) in 16th and 17th -century Spain and Spanish America. His current project analyzes early modern Spanish theater’s entremés as a marginal space used to critique Catholic Spain’s religious and cultural norms. He is also exploring Alonso de Castillo Solózano’s literary representation of class and gender.  

• Reading, Writing, and Errant Subjects in Inquisitorial Spain. Ashgate (April 2011)
• “The Body Politic and its Parts in El médico de su honra” Bulletin of the Comediantes 62.1 (Fall 2010)
• “Fear and Control in El celoso extremeño.” Hispanic Journal 32.1 (Fall 2009)
• “Inquisitorial Theatrics and the Control of Errant Subjects in Don Quixote.” Modern Language Studies 38.1 (Summer 2008)
• “Constructing an Icon: The Subjectivity and Self-Referentiality of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.” JEMCS: Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies. 7.2 (Fall/Winter 2007)

Literature and cultural history of 16th- and 17th-century Spain, with special interest in Don Quijote, early modern theater, Inquisition studies, and transatlantic approaches to early modern literature.

• Colonial Latin American Literature
• Don Quixote: The Book, The Myth, The Image
• Stages of Resistance: Representing Identity, Power and Gender in Spanish Theater
• Early Hispanic Texts
• Reading Fables, Telling Tales in Medieval and Early Modern Spain