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School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics Department of Spanish & Portuguese

Minor Literatures and Cultures: Catalonia, Basque Country and Galicia

Castilian is the official national language of Spain. However, the Constitution recognizes other co-official languages such as Basque (Euskera), Galician, and Catalan. These languages have a long history and rich literatures and cultures. However, unlike Castilian, Basque, Galician, and Catalan were repressed during long periods of Spain’s history. In this course we will analyze some of Basque, Galician, Catalan literature masterpieces by paying attention to issues of linguistic deterritorialization, politicization, visibility, and cultural translation. Readings will be in Spanish, but texts...

Spanish Migrations in Literature and Culture

This course will examine how both emigration and immigration have been portrayed in the Spanish literature and in others cultural manifestations since 1900 to the present. In order to analyze the different Spanish migrations, the course will explore the historical, political, social, and economic contexts that caused them. The course will discuss concepts and themes such as immigration and emigration, exile, diaspora, community, and transculturation. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisites: SPAN 228Section X: 9:00-9:50am (MWF); 1030 LCLB CRN 53119...

Pleasure and Fun, In Spite of It All (Spain, 1898-1960)

This class examines how various sorts of pleasure and fun were represented and policed and how pleasure was created through literature, art, and film during an angst-ridden period. We hope to find pleasure and fun in our own explorations as well. Readings and discussion will be in Spanish.Prerequisites: SPAN 312 & SPAN 320, or Consent of InstructorMondays, 2:00-4:50 pm; 241 ArmoryCRN: 61601 (Undergrads); 61602 (Grad students)Instructor: Prof. Joyce Tolliver...

Estéticas de la Migración: Migrant Fictions and Border Culture throughout the Americas

This course explores how art and culture represent migration and borders throughout the Americas. In recent years, migration dynamics in Latin America and the Caribbean have evolved significantly, presenting challenges for governments and host communities. From South-to-North migration flows to cross-border journeys, economic, social, and political imbalances in Latin American countries have fueled mass migration across the hemisphere. Scholars worldwide, including Gloria Anzaldúa, Glenda R. Carpio, Rossi Braidotti, and Søren Frank, argue that we need a new paradigm to reveal the historical...

Mapping the Borderlands: Border Culture & Migration in the U.S. & the Americas

This course focuses on how Mexican and Central American communities envision, experience, and coexist in el Norte, the American Southwest, and along the U.S.-Mexico border. The queer Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa describes the U.S.-Mexico border as an open wound: "una herida abierta where the Third World grates against the first and bleeds" (Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, 25). This dynamic creates a "third space" or "third country" where both worlds merge, resulting in a unique 'border culture' that challenges political, artistic, racial, gender, and sexual norms. ...

Tourism, Modernization, Environment, & Difference: Imagining Spain & Other in Spanish Cultural Production

This course considers changing notions of travel and its association with processes of   modernization, mass consumption, nation building, and climate change in Spain from the 19th C to the present. It will examine non-fictional texts (e.g. essays,  newspaper articles, travel writing)—alongside a range of cultural production including literature (short stories, graphic novels), visual culture (painting, photography), and film.  Prerequisite: SPAN 228 or consent of instructor.T/TH 2:00-3:...

Beatriz Jiménez, recipient of SLCL Dissertation Completion Fellowship & Douglas A. Kibbee Prize

Graduate student Beatriz Jiménez has been selected as anSLCL Dissertation Completion Fellowship for her dissertation project “The search for tesoros in Mexico: Shifting Discourses and Representations of Enforced...

Profs. Eduardo Ledesma & Pilar Martínez Quiroga awarded HRI Summer Faculty Fellowships

Prof. Eduardo Ledesma and Prof. Pilar Martínez Quiroga have both been selected to receive 2025 Summer Faculty Fellowships from the Humanities Research...
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School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics Department of Spanish & Portuguese

4080 Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics Building

707 S. Mathews Ave. | MC-176

Urbana, IL 61801

Phone: (217) 333-3390 | Fax: (217) 244-2223

Email: span-port@lists.illinois.edu

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