Course Description
Reading and discussion of selected masterworks of literature as they reflect the historical, political, and social context of the Peninsular Spanish experience. Students will be introduced to reading and writing critically, and discussing both form and content within these works. All discussions will be carried out in Spanish.
Course Narrative
In Masterpieces of Hispanic Literature, we were able to explore how masterworks of literature reflected historical, political, and social context throughout the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. This course contributed to my understanding of literary movements and how it’s reflected in the Peninsular Spanish experience such as romanticism, naturalism, realism, and vignettes of everyday life. My favorite literary movements we studied were romanticism and naturalism in this course. Romanticism gave headway for free expression of thoughts, which we see reflected in the poem “La canción del pirata” by José de Espronceda. Naturalism took place towards the end of the nineteenth century, was a little more extreme than realism, so it brought more detail to reality. Exploring this type of literature was extremely interesting to me, and my favorite poem was “El girasol” by Carolina Coronado. Here, the author connects a sunflower to how in human life we experience peace, freedom, love, misery, and death in our lifetime. Another analysis I completed during class was on “El lazarillo de Tormes” whose author is anonymous. I analyze the following themes depicted in the novela: poverty, hunger, injustice, and the recognition of different races. Reflecting on this piece now saddens me for there being a character who has bias towards someone who has darker skin, but it also brings recognition that this was something not as common during the sixteenth century.
For the future, I would like to explore by reading more masterpieces written during romanticism and naturalism periods. Each piece is beautiful and I love to see the perspective someone had in a different time period or trying to figure out what they wanted to convey.
Assignments
"El girasol" análisis
"El lazarillo de Tormes" análisis
Reading and discussion of selected masterworks of literature as they reflect the historical, political, and social context of the Peninsular Spanish experience. Students will be introduced to reading and writing critically, and discussing both form and content within these works. All discussions will be carried out in Spanish.
Course Narrative
In Masterpieces of Hispanic Literature, we were able to explore how masterworks of literature reflected historical, political, and social context throughout the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. This course contributed to my understanding of literary movements and how it’s reflected in the Peninsular Spanish experience such as romanticism, naturalism, realism, and vignettes of everyday life. My favorite literary movements we studied were romanticism and naturalism in this course. Romanticism gave headway for free expression of thoughts, which we see reflected in the poem “La canción del pirata” by José de Espronceda. Naturalism took place towards the end of the nineteenth century, was a little more extreme than realism, so it brought more detail to reality. Exploring this type of literature was extremely interesting to me, and my favorite poem was “El girasol” by Carolina Coronado. Here, the author connects a sunflower to how in human life we experience peace, freedom, love, misery, and death in our lifetime. Another analysis I completed during class was on “El lazarillo de Tormes” whose author is anonymous. I analyze the following themes depicted in the novela: poverty, hunger, injustice, and the recognition of different races. Reflecting on this piece now saddens me for there being a character who has bias towards someone who has darker skin, but it also brings recognition that this was something not as common during the sixteenth century.
For the future, I would like to explore by reading more masterpieces written during romanticism and naturalism periods. Each piece is beautiful and I love to see the perspective someone had in a different time period or trying to figure out what they wanted to convey.
Assignments
"El girasol" análisis
"El lazarillo de Tormes" análisis