SPAN 228-02- Foundations of Spanish and Latin American Literature & Literary Analysis and Interpretation
Pr. Gustavo Remedi
Telephone 297-2148
Office Hrs. T-Th 10-11 am;1:30-2:30 pm, or by appt.
I. Description and objectives of the course
This course is a "bridge course" connecting the years of Language Acquisition to those upper level courses devoted to the study of culture and literature.
This survey course introduces students to a whole series of Spanish and Latin American literary works from various historical periods: the Middle Ages, the Conquest of America, and the Renaissance, the Colonial times and the foundation of the Global Mercantile System, the Imperial Absolute State and the Baroque, the crisis of the Empire and the Revolutions of Independence; the construction of the national cultures in Latin America; Modernization, democratization and the rise of the middle classes and of urban culture, the crisis of capitalist peripheral modernization, the civil wars and capitalist dictatorships in Spain and throughout the Americas.
It also covers various regional cultural formations (Spain, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, South America), various literary traditions and kinds of literary practices (poetry, short story, essay, theater, novel) in an attempt to prepare the student for the courses following 228—290s and 300s.
Attention will be paid to the cultural background and the specific literary forms of expression created by each author, as well as to the social, political and historical context within which these texts enter into a dialogue with, and in relation to which they gain meaning and significance.
On top of discussing the way writers and “the institution of literature” (publishing houses, the market, the State, scholarly authorities, universities, the socio-political context, the cultural institutions that surround us) produce both the texts and their readers, we will also discuss how readers produce their own texts by approaching the texts from various angles and wearing different critical lenses (which is the purpose of the discipline of “literary analysis, interpretation and criticism”).
II. Students' obligations and grades
The students must read all the assigned texts in advance, must be acquainted with the authors, their times and their works, and need to be prepared if the professors asks you to analyze, discuss and interpret the assigned reading.
Students must keep a personal diary of short weekly entries on each assigned work (it will be collected three times during the term), and actively participate in class interpretations and discussions.
Students (individually or in teams) will be assigned short research projects (a minimum of two during the course) which will be the basis for the student presentations in class. In addition, there will be a Midterm and Final exam in which students will have to demonstrate their knowledge of the materials covered (rests as well as contexts and theories) as well as their understanding of class lectures and discussions.
Except for very extraordinary circumstances—which will require a letter from the Dean of Students—, absences will not be excused. More than 3 absences lowers the final grade significantly.
Final Grade: Preparation, (reading and “research”),
notes and class participation 10%
Personal Diary 20%
2 research projects and presentations 20%
Midterm 25%
Final 25%
ENERO 2003
Lunes 20 Introducción al curso; Panorama histórico-cultural general;
historia de “la reflexión literaria”
Miércoles 22 La cultura y la comunicación: los signos, el lenguaje,
el lenguaje literario (Aproximaciones págs. 2-8; 124-130)
Viernes 24 (I) “ÀQué es la literatura?” (Eagleton, págs. 1-14)
Lunes 27 La narrativa (10-24); Panorama histórico de la narrativa (24-37)
Miércoles 29 Don Juan Manuel (pág. 38)
Viernes 31 La poesía (110-124); Panorama histórico (133-142)
Lunes 3 Romances de la Edad Media (pág. 145); la música (Carrasco y Fernández)
Miércoles 5 Renacimiento y Barroco: Garcilaso (pág. 149), Góngora (pág 157)
Viernes 7 Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (pág 163), Quevedo (pág 159)
Lunes 10 (II) Teoría de la recepción, Fenomenología y hermenéutica (47-78)
Miércoles 12 Los románticos: Espronceda (165-166), Martí (173-174), Darío (180)
Viernes 14 El realismo y el naturalismo: Emilia Pardo Bazán (pág. 46 )
Lunes 17 (III) Estructuralismo y Semiótica (79-109)
Miércoles 19 Hernández y la poesía gauchesca
Viernes 21 Machado y la Crisis del 98 (185)
Lunes 24 TRINITY DAYS
Miércoles 26 Lorca (197)
Viernes 28 El ensayo (336-345), panorama histórico (346-358)
Lunes 3 Rodó y el arielismo (handout)
Miércoles 5 Hostos (371), Mariátegui (handout) y el Indigenismo, Cardenal (handout)
Viernes 7 MID TERM EXAM
Lunes 10 El teatro (222-241); panorama histórico (241-255)
Miércoles 12 Lorca, La casa de Bernarda Alba (pág. 299 )
Viernes 14 Lorca
Lunes 17 SPRING VACATION
Miércoles 19 SPRING VACATION
Viernes 21 SPRING VACATION
Lunes 24 Palés Matos (200), Guillén (202) y Morejón (218)
Miércoles 26 (IV) El post-estructuralismo (110-130)
Viernes 28 Carpentier, "Semejante a la noche” y “lo real maravilloso” (handout)
Lunes 31 García Márquez, “Los funerales de la Mamá Grande” y “el realismo mágico” (handout)
ABRIL
Miércoles 2 Borges, “Las ruinas circulares” (handout)
Viernes 4 Cortázar. “La noche boca arriba” (pág. 50 )
Lunes 7 La novela; Guerra Cunningham, Más allá de las máscaras
Miércoles 9 Guerra
Viernes 11 Guerra
Lunes 14 (V) El psicoanálisis y el feminismo (130-168)
Miércoles 16 El Cine; Retrato de Teresa, de Pastor Vega
Viernes 18 El beso de la mujer araña, de Héctor Babenco
Lunes 21 (VI) La crítica política (169-189); Postscriptum (190-208)
Miércoles 23 Barthes: El análisis y la crítica cultural (más allá de la literatura)
Viernes 25 El análisis espacial; el análisis corporal
Lunes 28 Presentación de ejercicios de semiótica aplicada
MAY 5-9 FINAL EXAM