Summer 2004

SPN s328 • Spanish Civilization

Course Description

This course introduces students to various aspects of Spanish culture and civilization: history, geography, art, architecture, literature, music. Although the course will be structured chronologically, we will devote the first classes to the terrorist attacks of March 11, 2004, and their aftermath as they reveal a great deal about the past, present and future of the country. Other topics we will study in some detail include the architecture of the Middle Ages in Christian and Moorish Spain, the great Spanish painters (El Greco, Velázquez, Goya, Dalí, and Picasso), the watershed events of 1492 (the conquest of Granada and the completion of the Reconquest, the expulsion of the Jews and the first voyage of Columbus), the Spanish Missions in Texas and the American Southwest, and the Spanish Civil War.

Grading Policy

Three tests 45% Comprehensive final exam 30% Homework assignments 10% Discussion section 15%

Texts

Juan Kattán-Ibarra, Perspectivas culturales de España (2nd ed.) A packet of readings

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