215.631 Calderon de la Barca: Golden Age Drama
In this course we will discuss two dramas by Calderón, the auto sacramental "El divino Orfeo" (second version, 1663) and the comedia "El médico de su honra" (1635). Classes will focus on a close reading of these texts. In addition we will consider such general problems related to Golden Age literature as the relation to humanism, the function of the references to theology and dogma, the status of allegory, and the prominence of quasi-archaic patriarchal structures. This course will be open to graduate students and to advanced undergraduates.
Kupper 215.632 Celestina
“Celestina” is one of the most famous dramas written in
castellano, but in the present day its resonance can seem
difficult to explain. Course offers close reading of the text
and proceeds to more general topics.
Küpper 215.634 The Picaresque Novel in Spain
A close reading of the Lazarillo de Tormes, Alemán’s
Guzmán de Alfarache, two of Cervantes’ Novelas ejemplares,
and the Pícara Justina. These novels’ socio-historical references
will be researched; the picaresque as literary genre
will also be a primary topic.
Sieber 215.635 Seminar on Early 17th-Century Spanish
Drama: Lope de Vega and His Followers
Readings in theory of the drama and various plays and
their relationships to the corrales will be the primary
topic covered; anaylsis of individual plays from the viewpoint
of court theater will also be included.
Sieber 215.637 Patrons and Writers in Golden Age Spain, Part I
Sieber, Kagan 215. 638 Patrons and Writers in Golden Age Spain,
Part II
Sieber, Kagan
215.640 Self-Representation in Latin American Fiction: Testimonio and Memoir
The course will and analyze the autobiografies, memoirs and fictional autobiograpies of several Latin American canonical writers. Starting with the memoirs by Domingo Sarmiento and Romulo Gallegos, moving through Borges and Jose Maria Arguedas we will go on to Rigoberta Menchu's testimonio and finalize with the memoirs of Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas LLosa.
Castro-Klarén 215.642 Three Theoretical Approaches to the Latin
American Novel: Archetypal, Intertextual, and Historical
Choosing mainly from the 20th-century corpus of the
Latin American novel, this course will deal with theoretical
approaches in narratology as well as theories that examine
the discursive relations between literature and history.
Castro-Klarén 215.643 Gender and Autograph: Theoretical
Exploration of the Question of Male/Female Autograph
This course explores the question of feminine markings
in the text. Special attention is paid to current debates
in theory of genre. Latin American contributions to
this debate receive special emphasis. (Cross-listed with
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.)
Castro-Klarén 215.644 Travel and the Displacement of the Subject
This course examines the displacement of the subject
in modern travel narrative written in Latin America and
about Latin America. Special focus is given to the construction
of self and place.
Castro-Klarén 215.645 Colonial Texts and Postcolonial Theory
This seminar considers the production of subject identities
in the “chronicles” authored by Spanish and Indian
letrados during the early period of Iberian colonization
of this hemisphere.
Castro-Klarén 215.648 Writing Mexic Anonymous Nahuathl Authors
and the Work of Sahagun
Deploying post-colonial theory, the course will examine
the discursive modes in which “Mexico” appears as both
an object of knowledge and of memory in selected readings
of Sahagun’s work.
Castro-Klarén 215.649 The Cid
This course traces the figure of the Cid from medieval warrior
to national hero. Readings include the Poem of Mio Cid,
recreations of the legend, and the history of scholarship.
Altschul 215.650 Across the Avant-Garde: Race, Culture, Nation
The study in comparative perspective of socio-cultural
issues in race and cultural formation during the postromantic
emergence of distinct modernist literary and
artistic movements and trends in Spain, Cuba, and Ireland,
from the 1830s through the 1920s. Of central concern will
be Terry Eagleton’s depiction of an “archaic avant-garde”
in the Irish case, examined through James Joyce’s The Portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man, and related to equivalent
(though no similar) affirmations and critiques of ethnic
and national identities in Spain and Cuba, across the crisis
created by the demise of empire and the troubles and challenges
of post-colonial nation-building.
González 215.653 Goya and Carpentier
A study of Enlightenment mythology and its revolutionary
aftermath through a close examination of El siglo de las
luces and the significance of Goya’s work in the novel’s
conception of romantic irony and satire.
González 215.654 Poet, Nation, and Democracy
Selected readings in the poetry and socio-political through
critical legacies of José Maria Heredia, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Walt Whitman, José Martí, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela
Mistral, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Nicolás Guillén.
González
215.665 Vargas Llosa and the French Connection
The course will explore the genealogy of Vargas-Llosa’s
art and literary criticism. The course will consider the
relationship of Vargas Llosa’s narrative art and French
realism. Assignments will be on the theory of the novel,
novels authored by Flaubert and Hugo and four novels
by Vargas Llosa.
Castro-Klarén
215.684 From Manuscript to Copyright and Beyond:
The Life of Medieval Iberian Text
This course will examine texts beginning with El Conde
Lucanor by Don Juan Manuel through medieval versions
and modern scholarly adaptations. This collection
of framed narratives, contemporary to Canterbury Tales
and Boccaccio’s Decameron, will lead us to current discussions
on copyright and individual authorship, open
source and hypertextuality. Taught in Spanish.
Altschul 215.685 Literature and Religious Experience
The focus of this course is how the mystical, the sacred, the ineffable is expressed in literary language. We will look at both contemporary theoretical discussions of religion and its renewed importance in philosophical debates, as well as examine cases of literary religious expression from the Middle Ages to the modern period. Case studies will be comparative, but the emphasis will be on Spanish examples. Reading knowledge of Spanish is required.
Egginton 215.691 Muslim, Jewish, and Christian Literatures in
Iberia
Please see description for 212.491.
Altschul 215.697 Chivalry in Spain
This course examines chivalry in the Spanish Middle Ages through literary and theoretical accounts. Readings include Arthurian, Antique, and Carolignian subject matter as well as Knightly manuals.
Altschul 3 credits 215.714 Philosophico-Political Marginality
This seminar will examine the work of four prominent thinkers of the political outside mainstream philosophical traditions in 20th-century Europe. We will study their intersections and differences, as well as their approaches to political theology. The emphasis will be on Zambrano, as the least known of the four. We will read primary works and secondary bibliography.
Morieras 215.715 Romanticism
In this course we will examine the literary and cultural discourse of the early nineteenth century in Europe and specifically Spain, focusing on the literary aesthetic movement known as Romanticism. As Romanticism was an international and intercultural movement, our approach will necessarily involve a comparative analysis of romantic writing. In addition, although mostly centered on the romantic form of expression par excellence, namely poetry, the course will delve into other media of romantic expression, specifically other literary forms like drama and the essay, as well as musical forms such as opera. In particular, the influence of Spanish romantic works of literature on the Italian opera will be discussed.
Egginton 215.725 Conceptualization of History in Spanish
Golden Age Drama
By comparing Cálderon’s dramas to the 16th century
sources they are based on (Alvares, Garcilaso) it should
be possible to draw conclusions regarding the concept of
history which dominated or was intended to dominate in
the Golden Age of Spain.
Küpper 215.736 Indelible Footprints: Islam in Spain
This course explores the effects of the Muslim invasion
of the Iberian peninsula in 711—its impact during the
800-year occupation and beyond. Spain’s unique “orientalism”
the hybrid realities of moros and moriscos in a
predominantly Christian society, of mudejares and mozarabes,
their variations over space and time, religious and
occult associations and inquisitorial practices, as well as
intriguing representations of the gendered Other will be
topics for discussion based on our analysis of literary, historical,
and theoretical texts.
Brownlee 215.738 Novelas Ejemplares de Cervantes
A close reading of Cervantes’ short stories, with concentration
on their literary tradition & their relationship to
some of his other works. Will also investigate Spanish
court society, politics, and history between 1598 & 1621.
Sieber 215.739 Novela, cine y teoría
Highlights in the philosophy and theory of the novel and
narration from Lukacs to Barthes, Bahktin, and Derrida,
examined in reference to leading approaches to cinema
in the 20th century. Works of fiction from Cervantes to
Manuel Puig and Javier Marías and films from classical
Hollywood to Almodóvar.
González 215.742 Contemporary Latin American Narrative:
Heteroglossia, Pedagogy, and the Construction of the
Past
The course will examine the work of Macedonio Fernández,
José María Arguedas, Ricardo Piglia, Andres Rivera,
Carlos Aparicio, Edgardo Rivera Martinez, and Reina
Roffé. The course will examine the deployment of heteroglossia
and contested doxias in fictional texts which
dismantle the novelistic genre in order to come to grips
with fields of memory as yet on the “outside” of received
historiography. Special attention will be paid to the theoretical
work of Mikhail Bakhtin and Michel Foucault, but
the emphasis of the course will fall on the intertextual
reading of the novels.
Castro-Klarén 215.743 The Coloniality of Power and the Counter
Reformation in Mexico and the Andes
Readings will include texts written without words, Sahagun’s
informants, Guaman Poma, Garcilaso de la Vega
Inca, Hagiogrpahies’ and Mystic’s and Inquisitor’s texts.
Castro- Klarén 215.744 Representations, Nature, and Social
Formations in Modern Latin America
Castro-Klarén 215.747 Borges in Theory
An in-depth reading of Borges major work & its relation
to critical theory.
Castro-Klaren 215.750 Medieval and Contemporary Literatures and Cultures Face-Off
Taking into account comparative studies in medieval and modern literatures and theory, this seminar examines ways in which these temporally distant and apparently incommensurable cultural productions reflect on and dialogue with one another. Classes will discuss modern works and selections from medieval texts including Tirante el blanco and Amadís de Gaula face-to-face with Alejo Carpentier’s Los pasos perdidos; Cárcel de amor and El collar de la paloma with Gabriel García Márquez’s El amor en los tiempos del cólera, and Siete infantes de Lara and Poema del Cid with Crónica de una muerte anunciada. Additional texts include El amor y otros demonios (García Márquez), El beso de la mujer araña (Manuel Puig), Eric y Enide (Manuel Vázquez Montalbán), and El señor de los últimos días (Homero Aridjis). Theory includes psychoanalysis, the location of medievalism in the development of contemporary critical theory, and studies on spatialization and temporality.
González/Altschul 215.756 Conquest and Writing in the Andes: 1430-1630
In view of the latest arguments and revision of the history
of Andean Cultures in the work of Gary Urton, Frank
Salomon, Maria Rostoworosky and Irene Silverblatt, the
course will consider the problem of writing and memory
in the Andes together with the relation of writing to the
formation of both imperial and colonial cultural formations.
Readings will include the Huarochiri myths, the
Inca relations of the war with the Waris, the narrative
of conquest authored by Betanzos, Cieza de Leon, Garcilaso
de la Vega Inca and Guaman Poma. The course will
depart from a post-colonial perspective and approach to
studies of conquest and colonial formations.
Castro-Klarén 215.758 La Novela y del al Tierra en America y España
Novels written in Spanish America and Spain in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries characterized by rural and pastoral themes, barbarism and civility, and the question of nationhood. Ignacio Manuel Altamirano (México), La navidad en las montañas (1871); Emilia Pardo Bazán (Spain), Los pazos de Ulloa (1886); José Eustacio Rivera (Colombia), La vorágine (1924); Ricardo Güiraldes (La Argentina), Don Segundo Sombra (1926); Rómulo Gallego (Venezuela), Doña Bárbara (1929); Alejo Carpentier (Cuba/Venezuela), Los Pasos perdidos (1953); Juan Benet (Spain), Volverás a región (1967).
González 215.759 Authorship and Nobility in Early Lyric Poetry
This seminar will begin with discussions of the 15th century as a threshold in intellectual and literary history, explore the writings of aristocratic poets, and end with a close reading of the work of Gomez Manrique.
Sieber/Altschul 215.760 Authority and Nobility in 17th Century Castile
This seminar will begin with a discussion of the 1400s as a threshold in European intellectual and literary history. Classes will consider authorship, print history, nobility in a converso society and, in particular, we will examine differing perspectives on the beginnings of the ‘sense of history’ as a marker of European modernity. Along these lines, this seminar will explore writings of aristocratic and court poets as well as historiographical works that traverse the 15th century and include, among others, Juan de Mena, Gómez Manrique, Marqués of Santillana, Fernán Pérez de Guzmán, and Fernando del Pulgar.
Sieber/Altschul 215.773 Baroque and Neo-Baroque Aesthetics
Works from the Spanish Baroque and colonial period will be read in conjunction with that aesthetic production of the 20th century that has come to be known as neobaroque. We will attempt to confront the question of what, if anything, connects these periods aesthetically, politically, and philosophically. Media beyond the textual will be included in our considerations.
Egginton 215.776 Canon Formation in the Idea of Latin America
The seminar explores, in the work of major Latin America's writers and critics such as Rodo, Borges, Mariategui, Neruda, Jean Franco, Antonio Cornejo, Angel Rama, Antonio Candido, Elena Parente Cunha, Rosario Castellanos, John Beverley and Walter Mignolo, the key concepts that have allowed for the construction of a canon in Latin American culture and literature .
Castro-Klarén 215.826 Spanish Independent Study
Staff 215.827 Spanish Dissertation Research
Staff 215.828 Spanish Proposal Preparation
Staff
| 
