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CS92PROD
History and Memory in Modern Spanish Literature
COL 250
Spring 2010 not offered
Crosslisting: IBST 304

This course will examine conceptualizations of memory and history--as themes and as discursive strategies--as they intersect in Spanish (primarily narrative) texts from the late 19th to the turn of the 21st century. Issues to be addressed will include the narrativity of historiographic texts and the possible historicity of fiction, as well as conceptual integration and transference between the private past of memory and the public domain of national history. Readings will include works influenced by 19th-century notions of the Spanish national character and the generation of 98's critical revision of this legacy; examples of historical fiction and drama; the so-called "novel of memory," which focuses major events in contemporary Spanish history through characters' personal recollections; and the recent novel of historical inquiry, where characters situated in post-Franco Spain engage with a mysterious or conflictive past in an investigative process that commingles personal memory and national history. This most recent development in Spanish narrative will be considered in the context of late-20th-century public debates on historical memory, with its underlying metaphorical conceptualizations of society as a remembering subject and accession to historical truth as resistance to amnesia or resolution of a mystery. Work on conceptual metaphor by George Lakoff and his associates in the field of cognitive linguistics will guide our reflection on the metaphorics of historical memory.

Essential Capabilities: None
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA COL
Course Format: Lecture / DiscussionGrading Mode: Student Option
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None

Last Updated on APR-19-2024
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