Class Schedule for Spring 2024

This course explores the development of Peninsular Spanish Poetry from the Renaissance to the present, and of Latin American Poetry from pre-Columbian times until our day. After an initial period that covers poetic terminology, genres, versification, and methods of analysis, the course dedicates precisely the same number of days to Peninsular Poetry as it does to Latin American poetry. The poems are selected to represent specific literary periods, movements, and highlights of both regions, but also to represent the historical moment. They are also carefully selected to be representative of the work of each poet. Except in cases of movements/periods such as the Baroque in which the most defining characteristic is complexity, the poems are chosen for their ease of comprehension and for their potential interest and pertinence to our current times. The objective is to lead the students into understanding how our current poetry and literature in Spain and Latin America have been shaped by the cumulative effects of literature and its relationship to history and the arts.

The course moves chronologically. It progresses through the Renaissance, the Baroque, Neoclassicism, and Romanticism until the end of the 19th century. Beginning with the Generation of '98 there is even more of a historical connection of the poems. After the Generation of '27, they are tied to the Spanish Civil War and then the various stages of the Franco regime. After Franco's death in 1975 the poetry is viewed more in terms of its social value, feminism, and other tendencies of current importance.

The Latin American part of the course begins at this point and we go back to pre-Columbian times to read some poems that illustrate philosophies and artistic values of the indigenous cultures. Then we move relatively fast through the colonial period stopping to look with more attention to Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz. After Modernism at the end of the 19th Century enters the picture, the rest of the term is spent looking at specific poets of major importance as well as various movements that are evident in specific countries, in most cases associated with the historical moment. Countries such as Chile and Argentina which went through difficult political periods are represented by poetry that illustrates their struggles. Feminist poems from various countries are studied, as well as poetry that represents environmental concerns.