Realism & Naturalism

Catalog description

This course focuses on the various political, ideological, and intellectual trends that have shaped nineteenth-century Spanish literature and emphasizes the aesthetic and cultural influences that made the Spanish literary universe unique. It also takes up the question of the ways in which the literature of nineteenth-century Spain might be compared to that of Latin America and of the Western world generally. It will provide an overview of the key topics, writers, and literary genres of nineteenth-century Spanish literature, with particular emphasis on novels, poetry, folletines, short stories and, to a lesser extent, visual art. We will discuss the complexities of Spanish modernity using current theoretical perspectives in addition to various historical approaches, while emphasizing the way in which these texts offer multiple views of Spanish national identity and the construction of different models of the modern self.