SPAN 240 Reading Madrid: from Royal Court to Global City
Taught in English, the course introduces students to the cultural and artistic history of Madrid. Once the capital of an empire that extended from the Mediterranean to the Philippines, Madrid today is an example of a contemporary postmetropolis. The course is structured around how literature helps us understand the changing nature of the city through characterization and narrative development, novelistic sagas, the poem's visual sonority, or theater's embodied nature, and the ways in which the urban experience shapes how we write and read literature. In addition to literary works, Madrid's broader artistic heritage (Velazquez, Goya, El Escorial, Royal Palace, la movida) will illuminate its modern literary culture of bohemian tertulias and writers' cafes. Course readings include both Spanish authors (Cervantes, Larra, Pérez Galdós, Valle-Inclán, MarÃas) and international writers (Hemingway, dos Passos, Neruda). This course satisfies the Explorations in Literature requirement.