Special Topics in Peninsular Hispanic Literature

3 units

Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quijote is a complex experiment in the narration of "history" that has influenced literary and other forms of cultural production in and beyond the geographical zone of the former Spanish empire during more than four centuries. In addition to establishing a prototype for the modern novel, this narrative fiction, written and published ten years apart as two books, dialogues in the story of its errant protagonist with the dominant and emergent discourses of its time, modeling the potential of the cultural artifact to speak to history for its public. Primary focus will be given to the ways that Don Quijote deploys and questions the use in early modernity of the mediums of cultural production (various types of writing, orality, visual representation) to shape knowledge and collective memory; its representation of imperialism and colonialism; and its creation of linguistic and ideological pluralism, reflecting the realities of its world. The seminar's readings will include critical and theoretical works relevant to these areas of focus. Prereq: Graduate Standing. In Spanish. 3units.