Research
Rasmus Vangshardt (born 1988) is a Danish scholar of comparative literature. He has published studies on Spanish, German, and English early modern literature.
He is a junior research fellow at Linacre College and a two-year visiting research fellow at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages. His research is currently funded by the Carlsberg Foundation. Research interests include early modern Europe, historical comparativism, and literary theory.
His monograph Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the World Theatre in Early Modern Europe: The Theatrum Mundi of Celebration is out now with De Gruyter and MiP.
He holds a PhD degree from the Centre for Medieval Literature, University of Southern Denmark, and did his first postdoc with the project “HISTORIES. Assessing the Role of Aesthetics in the Historical Paradigm 1550-1650,” also at the University of Southern Denmark. In 2020, he was awarded the Danish Ministry of Higher Education’s Elite Research Grant. He has previously been a visiting scholar at the universities of Munich, Barcelona, York, and Heidelberg.
Further research areas and publications include Danish literature 1850-1950 with publications in Danish on Henrik Pontoppidan, Johannes Weltzer, Tom Kristensen, Harald Kidde, and Martin A. Hansen. His first book, published September 2017, was the monograph Livets febrile hemmeligheder. Et litterært slægtskab mellem Henrik Pontoppidan og Thomas Mann (Hellerup: Spring Publishing). [The Feverish Secrets of Life. A Literary Kinship between Henrik Pontoppidan and Thomas Mann].
Publications in English
Monographs
Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the World Theatre in Early Modern Europe: The Theatrum Mundi of Celebration (Berlin/Kalamazoo: De Gruyter & MiP, 2023).
Collected Editions
Polyfemos. Festschrift in honour of Christian Høgel. Eds. Jonas Christensen, Lærke Andersen, Rasmus Vangshardt (Copenhagen: Atalante, 2024).
Journal Articles
"Ruins of Empire or Tears of Joy? An Intersection of History and the Bible in Lope de Vega’s Religious Comedias," in Journal of the Bible and its Reception, vol 11, no 2 (2024), pp. 227–244. Link.
“Epilogue: Reflections on Historical Comparativism Prompted by the Case of Sophonisba” (with David Zirak-Schmidt, Anastasia Larn, Sofie Kluge), in Nordic Journal of Renaissance Studies, vol. 20 (2023), pp. 211-220.
“Suns and Reversals on Lohenstein's Early Modern Schauplatz” in Medievalia et Humanistica, vol. 48 (2023), pp 83-107.
“The Loa to El gran teatro del mundo Revisited” in Bulletin of the Comediantes, vol. 72, no. 2 (2020), pp. 117-142.
“Coherence and the Longing for Modernity in Literary Historiography, or: Why History and Historicism Are Two Things” in Res Cogitans, vol. 14, no. 2 (2020), pp. 85-103.
“Antonio’s Sadness in the Stoic Theatrum Mundi of the Early Modern City” in Orbis Litterarum. Vol. 74, no. 4 (2019), p. 264-277.
Reviews
Review of Pedro Caldéron de la Barca, El gran teatro del mundo. Edición de Ignacio Arellano. Estudio preliminar de Enrique Rull y Ana Suárez. 296 pp. Edition Reichenberger. In: Bulletin of the Comediantes, vol. 74, no. 1-2, 2022-23.
Recent Talks/Papers
"Fury and the Antitheatrical Prejudice: The Violent Power of Play-Acting in the Cervantine Picaresque." Spanish Research Seminar, University of Oxford. 4 Dec 2024.
"New Paradigms for the Literary Study of 17th Century Europe," Linacre College Seminar Series, 29 Oct 2024.
"Experiencias de crisis, metáforas teatrales y la tradición picaresca en El subtil cordobés Pedro de Urdemalas." The conference Entre Alonsos anda el zueco El teatro de Salas Barbadillo y Castillo Solórzano, University of Oxford/Exeter College, 24-25 September 2024.
“Historical Prefiguration and Metahistorical Irony. The Role of the Gracioso in Calderón's El médico de su honra.” The Workshop The History Play: The Limitations of a Genre, University of Southern Denmark/Copenhagen. 30 May 2024.
"The Theatrum Mundi of Celebration.. Pedro Calderón de la Barca and the World Theatre in Early Modern Europe." The Early Modern Exchanges Centre, UCL (London). 13 March 2024.
“The Theatrum Historiae of the Dark Ages? A Comparative Approach to the Deaths of Medieval Rulers in Early Modern History Plays.” Historical Drama in Early Modern Europe. University of Oxford, Jesus College. 9 Sep 2023.
“Medieval Material and Desengaño in Early Modern Dramatizations of the Life of Bruno of Cologne.” RSA-Puerto Rico. 11 March 2023
“Medievalisms and the Ecstasies of Time in Early Modern Drama.” Medialatinitas 2022-Prague. 23. sep, 2022.
“Beauty and the Bible in Two Old Testament Plays by Lope de Vega.” Biblical Drama in Europe. University of Oxford, Jesus College. June 10, 2022.
“Disillusion or Objectivity? Historical Desengaño in Spanish Golden Age Historical Plays on the Middle Ages.” RSA-Dublin 2022. April 2, 2022.
“The Meaning of History on Lohenstein’s Early Modern Schauplatz” Transnational Aspects of Early Modern Drama. Ruhr University Bochum-Virtual. June 25, 2021.
“Apologetics and Religion in Early Modern Corpus Christi Drama.” ReForc 2021 Budapest-Virtual. May 6, 2021.
“Calderón's World Theatre of Celebration: 'Aesthetical Theodicy' as a Perspective on the Baroque Theatrum Mundi.” RSA 2021-Virtual. April 21, 2021.
Selected Publications in Danish
"Fromme udskejelser? Thomas Manns muntre middelalderismer" i Polyfemos. Festschrift in Honour of Christian Høgel (København: Atalante, 2024), 98-127.
“Uro i Johannes Weltzers frokoststue. Om angst og ekspressionisme i mellemkrigstidens København” i Floris & Ehlers Dam (red.), Angst i dansk litteratur (Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2023), s. 143-163.
“Det bølgende hav og den oceaniske ro. To bevægelser i europæisk litteraturhistorie” i Thøstesen (red.), Havets mysterier. Myter, virkelighed og videnskab (Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseet, 2023), s. 105-116.
Det historiske blik. Red. Ulla Kallenbach, Sofie Kluge og Rasmus Vangshardt. (Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag 2021). 374 sider.
“Hård sentimentalisme og seksualiseret middelalder i Tom Kristensens En Kavaler i Spanien” i European Journal of Scandinavian Studies (De Gruyter: 2020), s. 66-82.
“Vikingenaturens svaghed. Kvinders vitalistiske frelsestilbud hos Harald Kidde og Henrik Pontoppidan” i Bugge og Herman (red.), Moder, søster, elskte. Frelsende kvindeskikkelser i dansk litteratur (København: Eksistensen 2019).
“‘Hic Rhodus, Hic Salta.’ Profan opstandelse i Lykkelige i Kristoffer.” i Jørgen Jørgensen (red.), For folkets frihed. Martin A. Hansen og bestættelsen (København: Gyldendal 2018).
Livets febrile hemmeligheder. Et litterært slægtskab mellem Henrik Pontoppidan og Thomas Mann (Hellerup: Spring 2017) 160 sider.