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Hans Christian Hagedorn

Professor of comparative literature, book critic, jazz lover and avid reader of (almost) everything written about jazz

About Me

Hans Christian Hagedorn is a professor of German and Comparative Literature at Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). Born in Bremen (Germany), he studied at the Universities of Hamburg, Münster and Madrid. His main research interests are in German, Spanish and Western literature from the 17th to the 21st centuries. He is the author of La traducción narrada: El recurso narrativo de la traducción ficticia (2006), and editor of five collective volumes on the reception of Miguel de Cervantes’ masterwork: Don Quijote por tierras extranjeras (2007), Don Quijote, cosmopolita (2009), Don Quijote en su periplo universal (2011), Don Quijote en los cinco continentes (2016) and Nuevas perspectivas cervantinas (2021). He has published on authors such as Cervantes, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Wilhelm Hauff and Thomas Mann, and on the reception history of Don Quixote, especially the reception of Cervantes’ novel in jazz. One of his main efforts in this field is the study “Don Quixote's Adventures in the World of Jazz: 200 Examples and a Few Remarks” (2022). As a literary critic, he has written on Yukio Mishima, Rómulo Gallegos, Julio Cortázar, Juan Carlos Onetti, Xavier Orville, Hans Christoph Buch and Juan Bravo Castillo, among others. He has also been a visiting professor at Humboldt University of Berlin (2004- 2005).

My Jazz Story

I love jazz because, as long as I'm listening, it restores my faith in humanity. I was first exposed to jazz in my childhood, thanks to the local radio stations my mother used to listen to in the sixties and the seventies at our home in Northern Germany. There even was a news program which used the first 40 seconds of Blue Train as an intro jingle... Here are some of the best shows I ever attended: Joni Mitchell (Frankfurt, Alte Oper, 1983), Maria Bethânia (Rio de Janeiro, 1984), John Martyn (Recklinghausen, Flexi, 1986), Pat Metheny (Münster/Germany, Jovel Music Hall, 1989), John McLaughlin (Madrid, San Juan Evangelista, 1989), J. J. Cale (New York, Bottom Line, 1996), Chucho Valdés & Irakere, Iván Lins, Pablo Milanés, Roberto Fonseca, Bobby Carcassés (La Habana, Teatro Mella, 2005), Steely Dan (Hamburg, Stadtpark - Berlin, Zitadelle Spandau, 2007), Air (Madrid, La Riviera, 2010), Stevie Wonder (Berlin, Zitadelle Spandau, 2010), Hiromi (Madrid, Real Jardín Botánico Alfonso XIII, 2014), bassist Avishai Cohen (Madrid, Auditorio Nacional, 2015), Oregon (Madrid, Conde Duque, 2015), McCoy Tyner (New York, Blue Note Jazz Club, 2016), Tomasz Stanko (Madrid, Auditorio Nacional, 2016). My guiding light in this beautiful universe called jazz is John Coltrane.