Through the Looking Glass: Short Stories from the Spanish and Portuguese Americas

This course will be taught in Spanish and Portuguese for students proficient in or who have previously studied both languages. The main goal of the course is to examine and compare key historical issues of the Hispanic and Lusophone Americas through the reading of short stories. By scrutinizing these issues in both contexts, and contrasting them, students will explore their commonalities and specificities. Critical essays will accompany the fictional texts. Authors to be read include Borges, Rulfo, and García Márquez, from the Spanish side; Rosa, Lispector, and Machado de Assis, from the Portuguese side. Topics to be analyzed are violence, love and sexuality, madness and sickness, power dynamics, otherness, and the feminine condition. (PGSE 0215 and SPAN 0350 or above, or by approval) 3hrs. lect.