Dr Jules Whicker BA, MA (Oxon), DPhil

Department of Modern Languages
Senior Teaching Fellow in Hispanic Studies

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 6033
Email: j.whicker@bham.ac.uk

Address: Ashley Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I am an enthusiastic teacher and student of Hispanic Literature and Culture and especially that of the Spanish Golden Age, an era that originated many of the most compelling, sophisticated and influential works in Hispanic literature and art. I also have a long-standing interest in translation, having translated (independently and in collaboration) several golden-age comedias, a quantity of previously unpublished Latin American Baroque lyrics (transcribed from manuscript), and a novel, La sonrisa etrusca, by the veteran Spanish novelist José Luis Sampedro (1917-).

Qualifications

BA Hons. In English and Spanish (Christ Church, Oxford)
MA (Oxon.)
DPhil in Modern and Medieval Languages - Spanish (Christ Church, Oxford)

Biography

Dr Jules Whicker was an undergraduate at Christ Church Oxford, where he read for a BA in English and Spanish, and completed his doctorate at the same college. He has taught full-time in the Department since 1996, and was the Sir Henry Thomas Junior Research Fellow for two years prior to this.

Teaching

In 2012-13 Dr Whicker's teaching has included: the origins of the novel in Spain to 1615 (Don Quijote II), the origins and development of the theatre from the Auto de los Reyes Magos to Calderón’s La vida es sueño, the debates regarding the literary and moral controversy provoked by the comedia nueva, other aspects of the Spanish theatre and the works of Cervantes, and classes on Baroque painting. He also convenes the Year 1 core module on Hispanic Literature and teaches the "Selected Texts" literary strand for beginners. Within the European Studies programme, he convenes the "European Novel" module and is responsible for the Spanish section of the "Landmarks in European Literature" module. He also teaches translation, convening the Erasmus Translation and Socrates Translation Project modules in Hispanic Studies, and teaching the Spanish hours for the Year 4 Translation Theory and Practice module in European Studies.

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Whicker is not currently supervising any postgraduate students but welcomes enquiries from anyone considering embarking upon a research degree focussed on any aspect of Hispanic Golden-Age literature or culture.

Find out more - our PhD Hispanic Studies page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

Dr. Whicker's research interests lie principally in the field of the Golden Age Comedia and have included a detailed study of the work of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón (1580-1639), as well as writing and teaching on the development of the drama in early-modern Spain and the moral controversy concerning the moral status of theatre in the Golden Age. Other interests include the intellectual history and wider cultural background to Golden-Age literature, early-modern Spanish, English and French drama in performance, and Early music in Spain and Latin America.

He is currently working on a number of aspects of golden-age literature, including the nature of tragicomedy in Lope de Vega and Shakespeare and concepts of military virtue and their representation in golden-age Hispanic culture.

Other activities

Dr Whicker's administrative duties include those of Programme Lead, Director of Education and Admissions Officer for Hispanic Studies, College Joint Honours Liaison Contact, and Personal Tutor.

Publications

Books

The Plays of Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Serie A: Monografías, 200 (Tamesis: Woodbridge, 2003), 212 pp.

Journal articles

‘Devilish Artifice: Changing Attitudes to Firearms in the Spanish Golden Age’, in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (Liverpool), LXXVII:4 (2000), 527-50.

Articles in books

‘Seguid la guerra y renovad los daños.’: Implicit Pacifism in Cervantes' La Numancia’, in Rhetoric and Reality in Early Modern Spain, edited by Richard Pym (Woodbridge: Tamesis, 2006), pp.131-44.
‘A Political Enigma: Juan Ruiz de Alarcón's El dueño de las estrellas and its Relation to Reformist Politics under the Olivares Régime’, in Culture and Society in Habsburg Spain: Studies presented to R.W. Truman by his pupils and colleagues on the occasion of his retirement, edited by Nigel Griffin, Clive Griffin, Eric Southworth and Colin Thompson (London: Tamesis, 2001), pp.121-13

Conference publications

‘El laberinto de Creta, tragicomedia ejemplar y vindicación del «arte nuevo» lopesco’, in Cuatrocientos años del Arte nuevo de hacer comedias de Lope de Vega. Actas selectas del XIV Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Teatro Español y Novohispano de los Siglos de Oro, Olmedo, 20 al 23 de julio de 2009, edited by Germán Vega García-Luengos and Héctor Urzáiz Tortajada, Literatura: Olmedo Clásico, 4 (Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, Secretariado de Publicaciones e Intercambio Editorial, 2010), pp. 1095-1102.
‘La virtud militar y el diseño moral de La monja alférez de Pérez de Montalbán’, in Memoria de la palabra. Actas del VI Congreso de la Asociación Internacional Siglo de Oro. Burgos - La Rioja, 15-19 Julio 2002, edited by María Luisa Lobato and Francisco Domínguez Matito, 2 vols. (Madrid - Frankfurt: Vervuert, 2004), II, 1851-60.
‘La caballería bajo fuego: La representación de la virtud militar española en El asalto de Mastrique de Lope y El sitio de Breda de Calderón’, in Calderón 2000, Homenaje a Kurt Reichenberger en su 80 cumpleaños, Actas del congreso Internacional, IV Centenario del nacimiento de Calderón, Universidad de Navarra, spetiembre, 2000, Estudios de Literatura 75/76 (Kassel: Reichenberger, 2002), pp.411-23
‘Un cambio de perspectiva en los dos Pintores de su deshonra de Calderón: el uso de las pistolas en la catástrofe de la comedia y del auto sacramental’, in Calderón: Innovación y legado, Actas selectas del IX congreso de la AITENSO, en colaboración con el Grupo de Investigación Siglo de Oro de al Universidad de Navarra (Pamplona, 27 al 29 de Marzo, 2000), editado por Ignacio Arellano y Germán Vega García-Luengos (New York: Peter Lang, 2001), pp.401-10.
‘Otro espejo de las costumbres: una interpretación metateatral de una carta extraviada en El desdichado en fingir de Ruiz de Alarcón’, in El escritor y la escena VIII. Estudios sobre teatro español y novohispano de los Siglos de Oro. El espectador y el crítico: problemas de recepción, edited by Ysla Campbell (Ciudad Juárez: Universidad Autonóma de Ciudad Juárez, 2000), pp.211-19.
‘Valor, industria y la ética lipsiana en La manganilla de Melilla de Ruiz de Alarcón’, in El escritor y la escena VII: estudios sobre teatro español y novohispano de los Siglos de Oro, edited by Ysla Campbell (Ciudad Juárez: Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, 1999), pp.189-98.
‘La austeridad musical en las comedias de Juan Ruiz de Alarcón’, in El escritor y la escena VI. Estudios sobre teatro español y novohispano de los Siglos de Oro, edited by Ysla Campbell (Ciudad Juárez: Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, 1998), pp.247-56.
‘Los magos neoestoicos de La cueva de Salamanca y La prueba de las promesas de Ruiz de Alarcón’, in El escritor y la escena V. Estudios sobre teatro español y novohispano de los Siglos de Oro. Homenaje a Marc Vitse, edited by Ysla Campbell (Ciudad Juárez: Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez, 1997), pp.211-19.
‘La ausencia del Nuevo Mundo en El semejante a sí mismo de Juan Ruiz de Alarcón’, in Actas del Primer Congreso Hispano-Americano, Tomo III, Historia, In memoriam Derek Lomax, edited by Richard Hitchcock & Ralph Penny (Madrid: Castalia & Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland, 1994), pp.127-39.

Editorial work

Actas del XII Congreso de la Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas. Estudios Áureos I y II, edited by Jules Whicker (Birmingham: Department of Hispanic Studies, The University of Birmingham,1998), vols. II and III.

Other media

Preparation of texts, translations and sleeve notes for:
Ex Cathedra Choir & BaroqueEnsemble, Jeffrey Skidmore, New World Smphonies: Baroque Music from Latin America (Hyperion CDA67380, 2002)
Ex Cathedra Choir & Baroque Ensemble, Jeffrey Skidmore, Moon, Sun And All Things: Baroque Music from Latin America 2 (Hyperion CDA67524,2005)
Ex Cathedra Choir & Baroque Ensemble, Jeffrey Skidmore, Fire Burning In Snow: Baroque Music from Latin America 3 (Hyperion CDA67600, 2008)
Collaboration with Sarah Wood on the translation and adaptation of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s epic drama La hija del aire / The Daughter of the Air (Royal Shakespeare Company / BBC Radio 3, 2004)