Modernism was one of the most transcendental literary movements in the Spanish language. It was a daring literary adventure that renewed poetry, narrative prose, and even journalism. It was headed by Rubén Darío, and formed a great school of followers both in Spain and in Latin America, from Juan Ramón Jiménez to Jorge Luis Borges. It will be explained considering its influences from symbolism and French Parnassianism, to the introduction of very adventurous forms of literary expression that broke the old nineteenth-century molds, a revolution that conquered a brilliant myriad of writers. A movement that had also a great political influence.
Graduate Courses
For more detailed information including course description, sample reading list, and instructor, please visit the Registrar Office's course offerings page.
Note: 400-level undergraduate courses may be taken for graduate credit.
Spanish Graduate Courses
Spanish Modernism, 19th to 20th Century
Instructors: Sergio Ramirez
Seminar in Golden-Age Literature: The Politics of Reading and the Dangers of the Text
Although in open societies we tend not to view the writing and reading of fiction as an activity potentially fraught with danger, other ages and places have. In fact, since the time of Plato,
literature has often been considered to be one of the most potentially dangerous media of communication. At the same time, examples and parables have, over the centuries, offered models of behavior that are overtly instructive, projecting the values of the official culture in which they were produced. This course explores these key aspects of Premodern literature.
Instructors: Marina Brownlee
Seminar in Modern Spanish Literature: España s.a. Questions on Iberian Studies
España s.a. (Sociedad Anónima and/or Sin Autor) reflects the problematic condition of a "nación que no acaba de existir" (Alba Rico) as a study case from the colonial crisis at the beginning of modernity to today's global neoliberalism. We explore the current research perspectives of the Spanish nation-state that the federalist movements will call "prison of peoples", others will split into "dos Españas" and that today takes fractal form: the emptied one, the one of the pools, the one in which nothing ever happens, etc. We analyze some of the most relevant recent studies around Spanish modernity (19th century to the present).
Instructors: Natalia Castro Picón
Seminar in Literary Theory
What is the matter of theory? This course is an introduction to critical theory and to some
of the conceptual questions that animate theoretical discussions among scholars today, such as the role of form and structure, ideology and cultural value, difference and representation, and the social and epistemological status of culture and theory itself. In addition to examining texts by Barthes, Bosteels, Fanon, Foucault, Irigaray, Mitchell, Rama, and Richard, we perform theoretical readings of specific literary and visual artifacts by Borges, Bellatin, Darío, Martel, Rennó, Revueltas, Schweblin,Vallejo.
Instructors: Gabriela Nouzeilles
Spanish Undergraduate Courses for Graduate Credit
There are no 400-level courses currently offered for graduate credit.
Portuguese Graduate Courses
There are currently no Portuguese Graduate courses being offered.
Portuguese Undergraduate Courses for Graduate Credit
Liberation & Culture in Portuguese-Speaking Africa
This course examines the history, cultural production, and revolutionary thought of Portuguese-speaking Africa, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe, during the liberation process broadly conceived, from the first expressions of nationalism in the late 1800s to the post-colonial challenges of today. By examining mainly literature and social thought, but also music, cinema, the press, diaries, letters, and pieces of legislation, among other objects, we will explore the imaginations of class, race, gender of revolutionary movements and moments of Portuguese-speaking Africa.