SPAN 304 Introduction to Modern Spanish Literature and Civilization

This course surveys Spanish Peninsular literature and culture from the late 18^th-century through the early 21^st-century.  Students engage with various intellectual and literary movements, including Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Naturalism, Surrealism, and Postmodernism.  Special attention is given to the development of democratic traditions in Spain, the clash of political ideologies during the Second Spanish Republic and the Spanish Civil War, the trauma and legacy of dictatorship, and the changes in Spanish society resulting from the assertion of the distinct languages and cultures of the Iberian Peninsula and from globalization and immigration.  Authors read include Leandro Fernández de Moratín, Ángel de Saavedra, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Jacinto Benavente, Ramón Sender, Antonio Buero Vallejo, and Juan José Millás.  Significant examples of modern Spanish art, architecture, and music are also studied.