18th Century Spanish Literature in the European Context: The Invention of Modernity

3 units

The eighteenth century radically changed Spain as it did the whole of Europe. The founding of academies, the proliferation of newspapers, advances in the sciences and technology, the emergence of a new social class, the seduction of new ideas about society, morality, and gender, are only a few of the strands that make this time and literature notable. We will study Spanish writers such as Feijoo, Isla, Torres Villarroel, Moratin, Iriarte, Melendez Valdes, Cadalso, and Jovellanos, within the framework of the European Enlightenment.