Fall Courses 2001
This course will deal with problems surrounding the preparation of the critical edition of a literary text. After a brief historical overview of the origin and development of modern philology, it will describe the process of and the material elements that go into the productionof the manuscript and printed text. It will also provide a brief examination of the philological terminology and its correct application in order to understand the main theories from different literary traditions thus far advanced in the field of textual criticism. Upon completion of presenting the material aspects of the textual tradition and its problematic nature, the course will then focus on the analysis of the main types of critical editions most commonly in use. To this end, the course will examine very closely the contributions and shortcomings of past and present theories of textual criticism regarding both the manuscript and printed tradition of the literary work as well as the most recent proposal in textual bibliography, genetic or author's philology. Bibliography and texts for the course will be announced later.
This course will offer a review of some of the "big" themes in literary theory and their main formulations, ancient and modern, from the platonic-aristotelic notion of art as "mimesis" to the more recent debates in feminist literary theory, gender studies and cultural studies. Among the critical terms studied will be "representation," "poetry," "poetics," "fiction," "literary value," "canon," "the classics," "major and minor," "artistic languages," "literary genres," "gender," "ethnicity," "nationalism," "ideology," "popular culture," "Hispanic cultures," "female writing," "queer theory," etc.
In SPAN 71700 Romancero poetry we will study spanish ballads from a historic (R. Menéndez Pidal), semiotic (D. Catalán), and socio-linguistic (L. Mirrer) point of view. The focus of the course will be oral literature (the production and transmission of poetic texts from mouth-to-ear, that is, without the mediation of writing: P. Zumthor). We will also explore the problems related to the compilation of these oral texts in anthologies (c. 1512-20th century), and the Golden-Age practice of composing "romances nuevos" signed by authors like Góngora and Quevedo. Text: Romancero, ed. Paloma Díaz Mas. Barcelona: Crítica, 1994.
This course will focus on the transmission of the text of Cervantes' Don Quijote in the seventeenth century and in the twentieth century. The question of the relationship between the first and the second parts of the novel will be also examined, as well as the most important semantic and ideological aspects of the text. To study problems of annotation, several modern editions will be analyzed, among them, the best known ones of M. de Riquer, J.J. Allen, L. Murillo, J.B. Avalle-Arce, V. Gaos, F. Sevilla-A. Rey Hazas and Francisco Rico. Critical interpretations of the Quijote will be also considered so as to recast the history of its reception in the twentieth century.
Selected plays representing the most significant work in Mexican, Argentine and Caribbean theater since the 1940's. Dramatists include Emilio Carballido, Griselda Gambaro, Vincente Leñero, René Marqués, Manuel Puig and José Triana.
The course covers the major linguistic features that differentiate varieties of Peninsular and Latin American spanish. Focusing on the spanish spoken outside the U.S., the course will be centered on contemporary sociolinguistic approaches and will include as well other philological and linguistic models.
This seminar will focus upon Góngora's Polifemo, its classical antecedents and some recreations that were composed in Italy and in Spain before 1613, the year when Andrés de Almanza y Mendoza started circulating Góngora's major narrative poems, the Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea and Soledades. Its purpose will be a twofold one: on the one hand, to examine Góngora's poetical text in the context of Baroque aesthetics, studying its rhetorical language and disposition by referring to B. Gracián's treatise, Agudeza y arte de ingenio; on the other, to reconstruct some mechanisms of textual production in the Baroque by relating Góngora's poem to its sources - Odyssey, IX, Aeneid, III, Ovid's Metamorphoses, XIII, Theocritus' Idylls IV and XI - and to some European translations and imitations, among them, Marino's Rime Boscherecce, T. Stigliani's Il Polifemo, Stanze Pastorali, and Luis Carrillo y Sotomayor's Fábula de Acis y Galatea.
This course will offer a diachronic view of how the Indian has been represented in a variety of documents –essays, poems, short stories, dramas, novels– from colonial times to the present. The political, economic, and social forces and the ensuing debates that have contributed to shaping the frequently erroneous portray of the Amerindian will provide the context in which the literary texts will be examined. Recent conceptualizations (i. e., "otherness", subalternity, the "migrant" subject) will be discussed and critiqued in order to ascertain their applicability to spanish American literature and historical developments. Among the works read will be: Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias; El reverso de la conquista; Aves sin nido; Huasipungo and Los ríos profundos.
J. Martí's role as as one of the towering figures of spanish-American Modernismo has long been established. At the same time he was transformed into a national and Panamerican icon. His equestrian statue in Central Park places him alongside Bolívar and San Martín. Paradoxically, the heroic proportions of this image have tended to minimize the complexity of his legacy. By focusing on key moments of Martí's journey, and on the texts he produced along the way, we will outline an image of Martí that contrasts with the rigidity of the heroic statue and that is still an important source for a radical sense of Latin/o American difference and identity. Our readings will include Martí's crónicas on Coney Island, Emerson, Whitman, Wilde, his writings on "race," "Our América," the diary of his final expedition to Cuba, Versos sencillos and a selection from Versos libres.
This seminar will study the interaction of theatre, education and political and social activities in Galicia from an interdisciplinary perspective. We will analyze the repertory of dramatic works written between 1882 - 1936 identifying the most important trends and the different projects that are presented in them.
SPAN 89900 - Independent Literary Research
SPAN 90000 - Dissertation Supervision |
ROML 70000 - Studies in Romance Philology: Textual Criticism
[Studies in Romance Philology]:
GC, Monday, 4:15-6:15 p.m., Rm. 6494, 3 credits, Prof. Di Camillo, [60167]