Note: A placement exam will be required when you arrive on site.

Intermediate

This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of two semesters (or three quarters) of college-level Spanish. However, students must take a placement exam to determine the course level into which they will be able to enroll.

Advanced

This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of four semesters (or six quarters) of college-level Spanish. However, students must take a placement exam to determine the course level into which they will be able to enroll.

DESCRIPTION

This course offers a panoramic vision of the literature of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, from the colonial era up to contemporary literature, with emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. Representative works of each era from Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico will be read and analyzed.

OBJECTIVES

At the end of the course, the students will be able to:

1. Obtain an integrated vision of the socio-cultural reality of the Caribbean through the history of its literature.
2. Recognize the outstanding authors from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic in each genre.
3. Analyze the most representative literary productions from the Spanish Caribbean.
4. Distinguish the characteristics of the diverse literary movements that have affected literature up to this century.
5. Acquire positive attitudes toward the enjoyment and evaluation of the literary work as and expression of the intellectual work of the Hispano-American peoples.
6. Develop an interpretive and critical attitude in regards to the literary work.

CONTENTS

Unit I: the Shaping of a homeland.

1. Historical panoramaâ€"literature of the 16th to 18th centuries, outstanding features.
2. Intellectual independence: Neoclassicism.

Unit 2: The 19th century: Shaping of national identity.

1. Romantic poetry.
2. Costumbrista prose.
3. Romantic novels and novelists.
4. Romantic essay and criticism.
5. Romantic theatre.

Unit 3: Modernism.

1. Modernist poetry: precursors, Romantic stragglers; great Modernist poets; other poets.
2. Prose: the survival of costumbrismo, the Realist novel and story; artistic-psychological narrative; other narrators.
3. Criticism and the essay.
4. The theatre.

Unit 4: The contemporary period (1910-1945).

1. Avant-garde poetry, the poetics of purity and serenity, black poetry, social poetry, Transcendentalism and metaphysics.
2. Social realist narrative, psychological novel and story: other narrators.
3. Criticism and the essay, literary journals.

Unit 5: Panorama of present-day literature.

1. Cuba before and after the Revolution.
2. Puerto Rico or the agony of the dream for independence.
3. The Dominican Republic, before and after the fall of Trujillo.

EVALUATION:

Modernist and Afro-Antillian poetry: 10%
Stories: 10%
Report on readings/brief essays: 10%
1st Partial Exam (Unit I and the novel
¨Yo¨ by Julia Alvarez): 15%
2nd Partial Exam (Units II and III and the novel ¨El Rojo de tu Sombra¨): 15%
Final Exam (Units IV, V and the novel
¨La Casa de la Laguna¨ by Rosario Ferré): 30%
Total: 100%

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Anderson Imbert, E. (1974) Historia de la Literatura Latinoamericana. México, D.F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Céspedes D. (1983) Estudios sobre Literatura, Cultura e Ideologías. Sto. Dgo., República Dominicana: Editora Taller.

Diez Echarri, E.; Roca, J. M. y Aguiar F. (1972) Historia de la literatura Hispanoamericana. Madrid, España: Editora Playor.

Fernández Moreno, C. (1979) América Latina en su literatura. México D.F.: UNESCO.

Fernández-Marcané L. (1978) Cuentos del Caribe. Madrid, España: Editorial Playor.

Henríquez Ureña, P. (1969) Las corrientes literarias en la América Hispánica. México, D.F.: Fondo de la Cultura Económica.

Henríquez Ureña, P. (1990) Ensayos. La Habana, Cuba: Fondo de la Cultura Económica.

Jorge Rodríguez, E. (1989) Literatura Caribeña. La Habana, Cuba: Editorial Letras Cubanas.

Peix, P. (1987) La Narrativa Yugulada. Sto. Dgo., República Dominicana: Editora Taller.

Rosario Candelier, B. (1988) Tendencias de la Novela Dominicana. Santiago, República Dominicana: PUCMM.

Rosario Candelier, B. (1977) Lo Popular y lo Culto en la Poesía Dominicana. Santiago, República Dominicana: UCMM

Rosario Candelier, B. (1989) La Creación Mitopoética, símbolos y arquetipos en la Lírica Dominicana. Sto. Dgo., República Dominicana: Editora Taller.

Veiravé, A. (1976) Literatura Hispanoamericana. Buenos Aires,
Argentina: Editorial Kapelusz.