Tpcs in Hispanic Std: Beyond the Film Screen: The Hispanic World Through Film

Catalog description

This course is offered only at Carnegie Mellon's campus in Qatar. The purpose of this course is to explore Hispanic culture and history through contemporary films in Spanish. Undoubtedly, films are a rich source of meaningful cultural information that can provide the audience with an understanding of a country's culture (history, politics, social problems, etc.) through their discussion and analysis. Movies not only represent reality, but they do it from a particular position. The images produced in films are charged with political interests that reproduce or challenge established beliefs and views. Films offer different representations of reality as well as different ways of relating to it (Achugar, 2008). We will view and analyze a selected group of films portraying four main issues in Hispanic history and society: memory and oblivion, immigration and exile, marginalized identities throughout history, and the Hispanic world in globalization. An understanding of the socio-political context that these films aim to portray through in-depth reading, analysis, discussion, and investigation will provide a thorough understanding of the complexities of various historic events, and opportunities and challenges faced by the Hispanic world. Throughout the semester, we will practice the four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) as we continue to build on vocabulary and review grammar points based on the films viewed, the texts read, and the topics discussed. Prerequisite: 82-242