Department of Spanish and Portuguese

This course provides students with an introduction to the theoretical humanities. While exhaustiveness of theoretical perspectives and critical methodologies will remain elusive, the course is designed to expose students to fundamental concepts regarding artistic expression, aesthetics, interpretation, and criticism, and to trace the ways in which these foundations have been subsequently challenged, expanded, or reconfigured. We will cultivate conceptual depth and critical vocabulary from sustained engagement with basic questions regarding the functions and implications of reading and viewing; the dynamic relationships between social, technological, and aesthetic forms, and forms of consciousness/the unconscious; the production of space and place through architecture and urbanization; and the conditions, politics, and histories of theoretical production, among others. The course will be conducted in a seminar format and built around collective discussions of the material. Students will prepare for these discussions by completing reflection papers. The course will culminate in a final research paper through which students can further explore the concepts and methods we have covered via an analysis of a primary text (or texts) of their choice, or through a meta-theoretical engagement with them. This course will be taught in English and welcomes students from throughout the College of Arts and Sciences.

HISP-S 512     #30681      4:45P-7:15P      M          BH 240          Prof. Andres Guzman

Note: Above class open to graduate students only