BA History and Spanish

The course will address the evolution of Hispanic cultures from 1492 to 1695. We will examine their transformations by analysing and discussing texts, paintings and maps. We will focus on such themes as the relationship between empire and language, practices of literary imitation and transmission of culture between early modern Spain and Latin America. Students will also be encouraged to think through the lens of gender by examining the role of early modern female writers on both sides of the Atlantic. By the end of the course, students will have studied five canonical Hispanic writers (Garcilaso, Cervantes, Zayas, Góngora, Sor Juana), three major Baroque painters (Velázquez, Valdés Leal, Cabrera), as well as a key Counter-Reformation saint (Teresa of Ávila). They will also have been introduced to the colonial cases of Mexico and Peru. No previous knowledge of early modern Spanish literature, culture or history is required to attend the course.
 

•    To expand students’ understanding of the cultures, literatures and histories of the early modern Hispanic world
•    To provide basic grounding in the relationship between art and poetry 
•    To give due prominence to Creole, mestizo and indigenous works within a more inclusive and less hierarchical canon of Spanish Golden Age and viceregal Latin American literatures 

Upon successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

•    Identify and describe the major trends in Hispanic cultures from the Renaissance to the Baroque
•    Understand and explain some of the ways in which literature, art and cartography can reflect social and political transformations
•    Assess the potential of artistic creations to articulate different forms of (proto)racial, class-based, and gender identities (with a focus on colonial Mexico and Peru)
 

Upon successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

•    Analyse the social and political content of different narratives and how they can be placed within the broader panorama of early modern Spanish history
•    Demonstrate advanced research and thinking skills
•    Evaluate the key issues at stake within debates surrounding Spanish imperialism, focusing on Nebrija’s assertion “siempre la lengua fue compañera del imperio” [language has always been a partner of empire] 

Upon successful completion of this unit students will have further developed their ability to:

•    Read, understand and discuss early modern literary works, paintings and maps
•    Apply critical theory to cultural productions
•    Articulate ideas in written and oral forms in a critical manner

Upon successful completion of this unit students will have:

•    Honed their communication skills for working both collaboratively and independently
•    Furthered their ability to critically evaluate texts, images and ideas
•    Developed the skills to critically examine the intersections between literature and art and, more broadly, word and image 
 

1. Aracil Varón, Beatriz. 2009. ‘Hernán Cortés en sus Cartas de relación: la configuración literaria del  héroe’, Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica, 57: 747–59
2. Brown, Jonathan. 1986. Velázquez: Painter and Courtier (New Haven/London: Yale University Press)
3. Campos Muñoz, Germán. 2013. ‘Cuzco, Urbs et Orbis: Rome and Garcilaso de La Vega’s Self-Classicalization’, Hispanic Review, 81: 123–44
4. García López, Jorge. 2013. ‘Miguel de Cervantes y las Novelas ejemplares’, in Miguel de Cervantes, Novelas ejemplares (Madrid: Real Academia Española), pp. 717-88
5. Greer, Margaret Rich. 2000. María de Zayas Tells Baroque Tales of Love and the Cruelty of Men (University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press)
6. Helgerson, Richard. 2007. A Sonnet from Carthage: Garcilaso de La Vega and the New Poetry of Sixteenth-Century Europe (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press) 
7. Martínez, Miguel. 2013. ‘Language, Nation, and Empire in Early Modern Iberia’, in A Political History of Spanish: The Making of a Language, ed. by José del Valle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 44–61
8. Praz, Mario. 1970. Mnemosyne: The Parallel between Literature and the Visual Arts (London: Oxford University Press), pp. 3-28