HISP 216 - Topics in Multidisciplinary Analysis

Semester Offered: Fall and Spring
1 unit(s)

This course develops a set of methodological and theoretical tools for the investigation of cultural practices such as literature, popular and mass culture, social movements and institutions in Spanish-speaking countries.

Topic for 2018/19a: Reading, Writing and Thinking Fiction. This course explores a set of theoretical concepts (from philosophy, sociology, Marxism, psychoanalysis, phenomenology and semiotics) to develop a set of interpretative tools through which we are reading Latin American short stories while engaging in creative and essay writing exercises in Spanish. Mario Cesareo.

Topic for 2018/19b: Latin American Culture through Music. This course explores the history, culture and geographies of Latin America through its musical traditions, with particular attention to modern theories of cultural interpretation. Materials for analysis include music videos, literary texts, film and art as we seek to piece together the social, anthropological and personal dimensions of the region’s music. In Spanish. Lizabeth Gebert-Paravisini.

Topic for 2018/19b: Approaches to Hispanic Literature. This course aims to introduce the student to Latin American literary and cultural texts while developing methodological and theoretical tools for their interpretation. The course is divided into four parts. The study of poetry, in the first part, is dedicated to examining notions of periods and literary movements. In our study of the short story, novel and drama readings (parts two and three) we consider appropriate analytical strategies for these genres highlighting the relationship between literature and national discourse, feminism, ideology, and colonial discourse. Finally, the fourth part is dedicated to cinema through which we examine various cultural aspects such as the theology of liberation, gender and revolution, and popular religiosity. An important part of the course is also dedicated to creative writing. Students are encouraged to write both poetry and short stories in Spanish, and the most successful ones are published in our literary journal, Puro Cuento. Mihai Grünfeld.

Prerequisite(s): HISP 206 or permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.