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.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of analyzing and evaluating selected dramas and novelas of Juan Perez de Montalban. This study concludes that Montalban was not a writer of original works, but his familiarity with and utilization of certain literary devices, stereotyped situations, cliches, and popular themes, along with his notable talent in portraying women and rulers allowed him to produce works which met with great acclaim in his lifetime.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining the merit of the works of the contemporary Spanish playwright Carlos Muñiz in the area of social drama.

This thesis is a study of Benito Jeronimo Feijoo y Montenegro's Teatro Critico Universal and includes a look at the major, minor, lesser, and miscellaneous French references in this work.

This thesis is about the Spanish poet and playwright Don Tomás Rodríguez y Díaz Rubí.

The purpose of this thesis is to study Denis Diderot's two masterpieces, Le Neveu de Rameau and Jacques le Fataliste, from the point of view of human relations. The thesis seeks to show what Diderot feels are the bases for conduct between members of a given social class, as seen in examples from Le Neveu de Rameau and Jacques le Fataliste.

The type of alienation discussed in this thesis is not related to the famous Verfrenidungseffekt attempted by Brecht, where the audiences are prevented from identifying with the characters of the drama in the hope that the public will reflect on the ideas presented more rationally and objectively. "Alienation" in this thesis is a psychological force which acts divisively between the characters in the drama and thus contributes to the development of a tragic situation.

The purpose of this thesis is to show that an indigenous, emotional, and poetic lyricism is found in the novels of Jose Maria Arguedas, which distinguishes and separates Arguedas from the Hispanic indigenous classical writers.