Sections offered FALL 2020:
#7235 |
STEVEN WAGSCHAL |
T 1:10-2:25pm
|
WEB
|
CLASS NOTES: COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry credit; COLL (CASE) Global Civ & Culture credit
Students who tested into the Spanish 300-level may take this class but may need a permission placed on-line first. Call the HISP office at (812) 855-8612 for that permission.
Above class taught in a Hybrid manner which includes In Person and Online Instruction. For more information visit https://fall2020.iu.edu/learning-modes/
Paintings of animals ar
e the earliest known forms of representational art. Literature from all times has depicted human relationships with animals. Undeniably, the lives of human animals have been interwoven with those of non-human animals to this day, since prehistoric times. Animals have been used in many complex ways, including in ritual sacrifices, for food, for transportation, for entertainment, and as companions. In recent times, humans have become increasingly aware of our encroachments on animals through urbanization, deforestation, and hunting. This course offers an introduction to the critical reading of Hispanic literature through the analysis of selected literary texts of prose fiction, poetry and drama that treat human-animal relationships from Spain and Spanish America across a range of historical periods. In these texts, sometimes animals are the main characters while at other times they only make a brief appearance, sometimes they are creatures of fantasy with special powers, while other times they are domesticated beasts. All of these texts raise important questions about culture, ethics and our own place as humans on the animal continuum.
Readings will include King Alfonso X’s miracle poems about animals, Aztec legends from Sahagún’s Historia natural de las cosas de Nueva España, “La cordera” by Leopold Alas, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda’s poem “A mi jilguero,” “Axolotl” by Julio Cortázar, and “Perro 1” by Griselda Gambaro.