Fall 2005

GRADUATE COURSES IN HISPANIC STUDIES

(Course information subject to change)
(Cross-reference with Department Roster)

Spanish 681
The Legacy of the Avant-Garde
Prof. López
T 1:30-4:30

An introduction to the canonical works in twentieth-century Spanish poetry.  The first part of our course starts with the reactions against the Romantic tradition (Bécquer).  We will continue with the study of the innovative trends in ‘98 poetry (the Machado's, Unamuno) and the deep transformation that JRJ imposes with his concept of 'pure poetry,' concluding with a review of avant-garde poetry and the main figures of the Generation of 27 (Guillén, Lorca, Aleixandre, Cernuda).  The second part of the course is dedicated to the reaction against the avant-garde in the Realist and "social" poetry of the post-war poetry as well as the engagée movements of the 1940's and 50's.  We will conclude with a study of the transformation seen in the poetry of the novissimi that occupy the 1970's and 1980's.

Spanish 690
Caribbean Detours: Coloniality, Mulataje, and Diaspora
Prof. Martínez-San Miguel
R 1:30-4:30

This course proposes a critical analysis of key debates in political, historical, and cultural discourses in the Hispanic, French and Anglo Caribbean that allow us to consider the Caribbean as a different geopolitical zone vis-à-vis continental Latin America.  This area functioned as a fragmented frontier of multiple imperial projects, that allows for a suitable comparative framework within a relatively small region.  The main purpose of the course is to explore the place of Caribbean cultures within contemporary Latin American studies, a discipline usually defined by Hispanic and Anglo cultural criticism. We will examine and compare regional inflections of notions of political and cultural identity to explore the limitations of some of the theoretical paradigms currently used in the study of Latin American literatures and cultures, such as  multi-imperial frontier vs. modern nation-states, (neo)coloniality vs. postcolonial theory, creolité vs. criollismo and indigenismo, negritud vs. mestizaje, patriarchal/matriarchal vs. queer gender roles, diasporas vs. migrations, civilization and barbarism vs. cannibalism. Course includes primary texts from Abilio Estévez, Achy Obejas, Manuel Ramos Otero, Abraham Rodríguez Jr., Javier Bosco, Pedro Vergés, Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, Aimé Cesaire, Edouard Glissant, Maryse Condé, Gisèle Pineau, Edwidge Danticat, Derek Walcott, George Lamming, Jamaica Kincaid, and V.S. Naipaul. Critical texts by Eduoard Glissant, Bernabé,Chamoiseau and Confiant, Frantz Fanon, Antonio Benítez Rojo, Fernando Ortiz, Stuart Hall, Juan Flores, Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Victor Fowler, Emilio Bejel, José Quiroga, Aníbal Quijano, Angel Rama, Roberto Fernández Retamar, Shalini Puri, and Paul Gilroy, among others.

Spanish 694
Mexican Cinema
Prof. Solomon
M 2-5

This graduate seminar offers an introduction to history of Mexican film from its late nineteenth century roots to the Cine de Oro (1934- 1960), through the Nuevo Cine of the sixties and seventies, and on to the present. Special attention will be paid to the social and political movements surrounding the growth of the Mexican film industry including its relation to the United States, Europe, and Latin America. The seminar will also explore the works of individual filmmakers such as Emilio Fernández, Luis Buñuel, Felipe Cazal, Jaime Hermosillo, Arturo Ripstein, and Diana Bracho.

Spanish 697
Nineteenth Century Latin American Literature
Prof. Salessi
W 1-4

Through the reading of major Latin American texts and authors of the 19th
century, the course will explore important fields of critical inquiry into the
literature of the period: the articulation of a formative period of national
literatures; writing, literature, and a national imaginary as an instrument for
the legitimation and hegemony of a national bourgeoisie and an instrument for
the construction of counter cultural discourses; the problems of the literary
canon and the system of exclusions and hierarchies of neopositivist
historiography; and the dialogic tension between cultural production and
reception in the complex process of nation formation. Authors will include J.
Marmol, E. Echeverría, D. F. Sarmiento, J. Isaac, J. Hernández, E. Cambaceres,
M. Zeno Gandia, G. Gómez de Avellaneda, J. A. Silva and others.