SPAN 361 - The Fight Against Tradition: From the Enlightenment to the Avant-Garde

The course offers a panorama of Hispanic culture from the nineteenth century to the Spanish Civil War. It centers on the literature and the arts during the periods of the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Realism, and the Avant-Garde. The period from 1800 to 1936 is crucial to the development of art. We will examine critical issues such as the limits of authority and the freedom of choice; the origins of modern subjectivity/ the pursuit of the ideal and the impossible; the conflict between individualism and nationalism, and that between empire and colonies; the rise of the bourgeoisie and the transition to a secular world; the crisis of reason; and the autonomy of art. Our goal will be to shed light on the Janus-faced mingling of progress with tradition that defines modernity in the Hispanic world. to this end, we will deal with the social, cultural, aesthetic and political dimensions that shape the evolution of literature and the arts during the 19th- and the first half of the 20th- centuries. This course satisfies the area 2 requirement for the Spanish major. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 307 or consent of the instructor. Generally taught alternate years. (4 Credits)