SPA 333 - Spanish Civil War

In this course, we will examine literary and cultural expressions of memory and forgetting involving the Spanish Civil War. Why do we, individually and collectively, sometimes engage with the past and sometimes choose not to? We will study the periods leading up to and following the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) as well as present-day representations and recollections. Fiction and non-fictional works including poetry, prose, a graphic novel, and film will inform our conversations about Socialist, Communist, and Fascist perspectives, as well as those from everyday men, women, and children.

In our goal to understand the Spanish Civil War not only as a civil war but also in its international dimension, we will consider Spanish Communism vis-à-vis Russian Communism, Spanish Fascism vis-à-vis Hitler, the role of the Lincoln Brigade, and other responses from Americans such as Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, Upton Sinclair, as well as works from the Chilean poet-diplomat Pablo Neruda and Peruvian writer César Vallejo. We will pay special attention to marginalized groups of people including Spanish women and African Americans fighting in the Spanish Civil War.

Satisfies the post-1800 requirement for the major in Hispanic Studies and elective for the minor.
Satisfies Global Literary Theory interdisciplinary minor requirement.
Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing and Rhetoric Ways of Knowing requirement.

 

Prerequisites & Notes
SPA 271, or SPA 272