SPAN 354W – 001 Topics in Cultural Contact and Exchange Borders and Boundaries: Literature, Art, and Film in Spain and Hispanic America

This interactive course examines borders as sites of contact, exchange, conflict, and identity production in literary texts, works of art, and films of Spain and Hispanic America. We will analyze literary and visual productions that deal with borders as constructs of dynamic interaction and transformation. Topics include Spanish colonialism, race, slavery, mestizaje, and transculturation, as well as questions of neocolonialism, decolonialism, and national identity in Caribbean writers and artists. Considered is the crossing of temporal and spatial boundaries in fantastic short stories, social borders in Roma ballads, and feminist works that cross traditional boundaries by challenging gender stereotypes and socially accepted conceptions of beauty.