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

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.

COURSE: CERVANTES AND EL QUIJOTE

DESCRIPTION: This course will embark upon an analysis of the most universal work of Spanish literature and includes a focus on its creator, Cervantes, and his times. The figure converted into myth serves as the common thread to study the historical, social, and literary coordinates of the time period.

CONTENT:
UNIT 1. MIGUEL DE CERVANTES AND HIS TIMES
1.1. Spain in the Golden Age
1.2. The life of Cervantes
1.3. The works of Cervantes: narrative, theatre, and poetry

UNIT 2. THE MODERN NOVEL
2.1. The narrative genre
2.2. The predecessors to El Quijote

UNIT 3. El QUIJOTE
3.1. Part One
3.2. Part Two
3.3. Avellaneda’s Quijote
3.4. Structure and Content
3.5. Characters
3.6. The intentions of Cervantes

UNIT 4. THEMES
4.1. Realism
4.2. Universality
4.3. Individual and Society
4.5. Characters and their evolution throughout the book
4.6. Literary values

UNIT 5. VISIONS OF EL QUIJOTE
5.1. The figure of Don Quijote: from novel to myth
5.2. The literary work throughout time. Translations. Children’s versions.
5.3. El Quijote in the cinema. Adaptations for theatre, music, and television.
5.4. The image of Spain through the figure of El Quijote. Recurrence in advertising.