SPAN 4400 - Cervantes’ Don Quixote

3 hours

Prerequisites: SPAN 4101 or SPAN 4102 or SPAN 4201 or SPAN 4202 with a grade of “C-” or better.
This course dedicates an entire semester to a close reading of the two parts of Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote. We will explore the many and complex fictional worlds as creative responses to literary and cultural forces presented in this classic narrative masterpiece. From the premise it is the first modern novel, we will investigate the interplay between literary traditions and discourses of self-consciousness in art, while attempting to contextualize Cervantes’ work within its historical moment. We shall also explore such questions as madness, self-representations, identities, plays on authorship and readership, erotic desire, the juxtaposition of reality and fiction, and the workings of gender, race, class and nation.