SPAN 4550

Cervantes: Don Quixote

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2015-2016.

In 1615, Cervantes published the Second Part of his already famous Don Quixote.  Four hundred years later, Spanish anthropologists have been excavating the crypt of a Madrid church in order to recover Miguel de Cervantes' remains.  This search is not fortuitous.  In 2015, the literary world celebrates the tetracentenary of Don Quixote II, a sequel to Don Quixote I (1605).  Constituted by two different works, connected magisterially by its author, Cervantes' masterpiece was hailed by philosopher Michel Foucault as "the first modern work of literature."  In fact, Foucault claimed that Cervantes' discovery of the arbitrary relation of words and things ushered in the modern age.  Don Quixote begins with an erosion of the belief in the authority of the written word, an approach that anticipates postmodern thought.  A revolutionary document in its own age, Cervantes' novel confronts us with the complex history of Spain-the vexed relations among the Moorish, Jewish, and Christian cultures.  Our seminar will undertake an interdisciplinary reading of Don Quixote, using various theoretical approaches.  Cervantes' fascination with Islam, his cultural tolerance, and his display of humor make him a modern author.  In addition, his exploration of fantasy versus "reality," and madness in relation to meaning, turn him into a forerunner of Freud.

When Offered Fall.

Breadth Requirement (HB)
Distribution Category (LA-AS)

Comments Conducted in English.

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