SPAN 248 (LLS 248) - SPRING 2025 TAUGHT IN ENGLISH, Gen Ed for “Literature and the Arts” and “US Minority Cultures;" This course studies the relationships between Latinx and Latin American culture through exciting films. It focuses on a set of current and relevant topics (migrations, assimilation and integration, ICE, political struggles, globalization, nationalism and transnationalism). No prerequisites. Lecture (AL1) is Online and Sections Face to Face (in person). The class will expose and go beyond stereotypes about...

This course explores how Mexican cinema, from its beginnings at end of the 19th century through 21st century production, has commented on and participated in major social and national processes such as the Mexican Revolution, the (re)construction of national identity, modernization, as well as the negotiation of changing conceptions of class, gender, and race. We will analyze canonical, landmark films as well as lesser-known works to explore how a variety of directors and genres have engaged the country’s national imaginary through time. As film is an industrial art form, we will examine the...

Is one form of cinema more truthful than any other? Are realist styles any more ethical with regards to the depiction of marginalized populations? How and why has realism become an idiom of prestige for Latin American films on the festival circuit? For nearly a century, cinemas purporting to offer an alternative to entertainment films have attempted to situate themselves within a privileged relationship to realism in contradistinction to the notions of pleasure, distraction, and deception that critics have identified as inherent to the commercial movie industry. Taking as its point of...

The focus of SPAN 312 is the critical analysis of selected texts and periods representative of Spain's literary production from the 18th century to the present, with special attention paid to broader literary and cultural contexts. In this section of SPAN 312, we will study texts within the thematic frame of ‘strange worlds’: fictional works that portray seemingly otherworldly, fantastic, and speculative experiences, ranging from strange encounters with robots and ghosts, tales of madness, to horrific depictions of warfare and strange post-apocalyptic stories of survival. We will study how...

Within a backdrop of transformations in conceptions about knowledge, reason, and the spiritual experience and religious authority, throughout the 18th and 19th centuries Spain found itself experiencing a skeptical questioning of past truths, values, and methods. This brought about a plural and dissonant nature in representations of identity, the self and other, progress, modernity, and nationhood. These representations—across media, including literature and the visual arts—explored spaces, the natural world, human bodies, cultural beliefs, and the human imagination, and imbued these with...

What have been the political and cultural relations between Spain and Latin America in recent years? From a transatlantic perspective, we will explore key issues in Hispanic culture today through the study of literature, film, art, and music. Topics to be discussed include national identity; diversity, race, and ethnicity; immigration; colonialism and neocolonialism, dictatorship and democracy; feminism, modernity, and globalization. The selected materials will include texts by authors like María Fernanda Ampuero, Icíar Bollain, Luis Cernuda, Cristina Peri Rossi, Las Tesis, Remedios Varo,...

In this course, we will explore the construction of the image of Spain for foreign consumption from the turn of the twentieth Century to the present. We will analyze the presence of Spain beyond its borders, including aspects such as military and economic colonialism, migration, tourism, sports, arts, food, fashion, and language. We will study a wide array of documents (films, literary texts, articles, commercials, visual culture, etc) from the perspective of postcolonial theory and cultural studies. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisites SPAN 228 Section A1: T/R 09:30-10:50AM;...