The Italian composer of operas, Giuseppe Verdi, relied heavily on plays of the Romantic Era as sources for opera librettos. Three such plays were from the Spanish Romantic School: El trovador and Simon Bocanegra by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez, and Don Alvaro o la fuerza del sino by Angel de Saavedra, el Duque de Rivas. The operas which Verdi composed using these plays as sources--Il trovatore, Simon Boccanegra, and La forza del destino--range in popularity from near zenith (Il trovatore) to near nadir (Simon Boccanegra). The study attempts to assess the suitability of the three Spanish dramas as source material for operas, and to determine if this suitability is correlated to each opera's popularity.

This thesis presents a brief biography of the Mexican writer José Rubén Romero and discusses his prose writings, with an emphasis on his novels.

It will be the purpose of this thesis to comment upon the eight novels by Marta Brunet. The novels will be examined in detail, giving special consideration to her emphasis on fatalism and destiny, and will examine critical opinion of her work and draw conclusions as to the author's place in the modern Latin American novel.

This thesis discusses the life and works of the Mexican novelist Mariano Azuela, who lived and wrote during the time of the Mexican Revolution.

This thesis inquires into the nature of the esperpento of Ramon del Valle-Inclan in order to understand the qualities inherent in the genre; and further, it considers the contemporaneous nature of this art form that makes it relevant to contemporary art and thought.