Classic Spanish Plays: Love, Violence, and (Poetic) Justice on the Early Modern Stage
SPAN 231
Spring 2014
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
COL 313, IBST 231, THEA 231 |
From 1580 to 1680 Spanish playwrights created one of the great dramatic repertories of world literature, as inventive, varied, and influential as the classical Greek and Elizabethan-Jacobean English traditions. This profit-driven popular entertainment of its day appealed to the learned and illiterate, to women and men, and to rich and poor alike. And the plays correspondingly mixed high and low characters, language, genres, and sources, with results regularly attacked by moralists. Vital, surprising, and ingenious, they exposed the creative tension between art and profit on a new scale, a tension that remains alive for us. We will examine six of the greatest of these plays by Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, and Tirso de Molina, in a variety of genres and modes (history, epic, romantic comedy, tragedy, Islamic borderland, parody, siege play, philosophical and theological drama), with their deft character portraits (the original Don Juan by Tirso, Calderón's "Spanish Hamlet" Segismundo, and Lope's spitfire diva Diana the Countess of Belflor) and their virtuoso dialogue, inventive plots, and dazzling metrical variety. We look at the social conditions that enabled the Spanish stage to serve as a kind of civic forum, where conflicts between freedom and authority or desire and conformism could be acted out and the fears, hopes, dangers, and pleasures generated by conquest, urbanization, trade, shifting gender roles, social mobility, religious reform, regulation of matrimony and violence, and clashing intellectual and political ideals could be aired. We pay particular attention to performance spaces and traditions and the shaping influence of women on the stage (in contrast to England). Organized around the careful reading of six key play-texts in Spanish, together with historical, critical, and theoretical readings, this course assumes no familiarity with the texts, with Spanish history, or with literary analysis. However, an interest in engaging these wonderful texts closely, imaginatively, and historically is essential. There will be opportunities to pursue performance, adaptation, and translation. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA RLAN |
| Course Format: Discussion | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (COL)(HISP)(RMST)(THEA) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Major plays by Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Calderón de la Barca, along with critical, historical, and theoretical readings.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Three short (3-5 pp.) papers, one short oral presentation (3-5pp. or 5-10 minutes), the recitation of 15 memorized lines from a play, and one longer final paper (7-10 pp.) constitute 70% of the grade. Preparation for class (including regular short response papers), attendance, and informed participation count for the other 30%. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
SPAN 231 is intended for students who have completed SPAN 221 or the equivalent. Students who have not done so should consult with the professor before pre-registering. An additional semester of upper-level Spanish beyond 221 (or the equivalent), taken earlier or concurrently, is recommended but NOT required. Readings, written assignments, and class discussions will be in Spanish. Only COL students may take this course CR/U. |
| Instructor(s): Armstrong Roche,Michael Times: ..T.R.. 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: WYL113; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 18 | | SR major: 10 | JR major: 3 | | |
| Seats Available: 8 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 1 | JR non-major: 1 | SO: 2 | FR: 1 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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