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CS92PROD
Out of the Dark and into the Light: (Re)writing Spain during the Dictatorship
SPAN 269
Spring 2018 not offered

How are we able to let our voices be heard when there is a State apparatus in place that suppresses all dissent? How can we elaborate the critique of an unjust situation? How can we effect change when we cannot communicate discord without the risk of going to jail or being put to death? Taking these questions as our point of departure, we will attempt to find answers in the period of the Francoist dictatorship, which officially lasted from end of Spain's civil war in 1939 until the dictator's death in 1975. Over these four decades, the regime went from the darkness of the harshest repression in the 1940s to its international opening in the 1960s, followed by the protests and its end in the 1970s. This changing panorama offered a varied social and cultural production that dialogued with and tried to expose and criticize the repression of the Franco dictatorship. Our objective in this seminar is to explore the techniques adopted by authors to avoid censorship and re-create a faithful picture of day-to-day living in Spain under the dictatorship. We will pay special attention to short stories and novels in which the author chooses the voice of a child or a teenager to give light to the oppressive situation of the moment. How do the voices of these young narrators offer an understanding of their present situation? How do these narrative voices evolve in a panorama that is shifting from the darkness of the early days of tyranny to the light of democracy?
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA RLAN
Course Format: SeminarGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: None

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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