Rep. Empire in Atlantic World

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

In this course, we will explore the cultural production of the Atlantic as an imagined and material space throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth-centuries. We will also consider how that production has reverberated in the last few decades in discussions of historical memory and national identity. Comparing the seafaring adventure tales that produced a Romantic image of swashbuckling pirates and sailors for European and elite criollo audiences in the Americas to narratives produced by enslaved people and cimarrones, among other topics, we will explore the geographical and political tensions that arise out of the stories people tell of themselves and their communities. The primary historical focus will be on the late colonial relationship between Spain and Cuba, but we will also consider the long relationship between the Spanish and British empires more broadly, as well as the cross-cultural anti-slavery movements that grew up alongside them. Readings and films will be in Spanish and English. All discussion and writing will be in Spanish.