Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Prerequisite:  S280 or S310 or Consent of the Department

This course offers an introduction to the cultural history of Spain and Latin America, focusing on key moments of cultural exchange and identity construction. Its second goal is to introduce students to methods for interpreting images as texts and as cultural artifacts. The course traces the formation of cultural practices from the pre-Columbian period through the twenty-first century, and it offers a series of transatlantic and transhistorical frameworks on which to build an understanding of the material and non-material culture of the Hispanophone world. We will cover pre-contact societies on both sides of the Atlantic; contact, conquest, and the ages of exploration; epistemic changes of the Renaissance and Enlightenment; Latin American indepencende and the US’s first interventions in the region; and the rise of 20^th-Century authoritarianism. Through analysis of varied texts in multiple media –painting, photography, propaganda posters, and literary and political writing– students will develop skills in cultural analysis and grow their understanding of the Hispanic world and of the promise of cultural studies. Course conducted in Spanish; students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, homework, written and investigative work, and exams.

HISP-S 324   #4543    3:55P-5:10P      MW     BH 314    Prof. Rhi Johnson

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