SPAN505

SPAN505

Redes globales: las conexiones textuales entre Hispanoamérica, España y Asia, del pasado al presente

Namban byobu de Kanō Naizen, atribuida a la época Azuchi-Momoyama (siglos XVI y XVII)

Instructor: Kim Beauchesne
Language of instruction: Spanish

Este curso examinará los vínculos textuales que se han desarrollado desde la época colonial hasta nuestros días entre España, Hispanoamérica y Asia. De este modo, no sólo se prestará atención a un corpus que ha sido desatendido por la academia tradicional sino que también se ampliará el enfoque de los estudios transatlánticos para incluir los estudios transpacíficos. Se discutirán, entonces, las nociones de globalización, sincronía planetaria, colonialidad y orientalismo, entre otras, mediante el análisis de una selección de obras primarias y secundarias, tanto canónicas como menores. No cabe duda de que este curso será una contribución a la comprensión de la cultura colonial hispánica y su legado actual, ya que los contactos culturales que se produjeron durante siglos entre España, Hispanoamérica y Asia siguen siendo de gran importancia, como lo demuestran tanto la presencia española en las Filipinas y las Américas como las numerosas comunidades asiáticas de América Latina y España.

Obras primarias (fragmentos disponibles en Canvas):

  • Borges, Jorge Luis. “El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan” (complementado por los textos de Rubén Darío, Octavio Paz, Pablo Neruda y Ariel Magnus)
  • Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, Domingo Francisco de San Antón Muñón. Diario (complementado por los textos de Date Masamune, Luis Sotelo y Escipión Amati)
  • Cruz, Sor Juana Inés de la. Loas para los autos El Divino Narciso y El cetro de José
  • Díaz Lorenzo, Álvaro, dir. Los Japón
  • González de Mendoza, Juan. Historia de las cosas más notables, ritos y costumbres del gran reyno de la China
  • Japón, Juan Manuel. La katana perdida (complementada por los textos de Héctor Palacios y Endō Shūsaku)
  • López de Legazpi, Miguel. Cartas a Felipe II
  • Malaspina, Alejandro. Viaje político-científico alrededor del mundo
  • Moromisato, Doris. Diario de la mujer es ponja (complementado por los textos de José Watanabe y Siu Kam Wen)
  • Pigafetta, Antonio de. Primer viaje alrededor del globo
  • Rizal, José. Noli me tangere
  • Sigüenza y Góngora, Carlos de. Los infortunios de Alonso Ramírez
  • Vega, Lope de. El Nuevo Mundo descubierto por Cristóbal Colón

Obras secundarias (fragmentos disponibles en Canvas):

Selección de textos de Rolena Adorno, Mike Featherstone, Juan Gil, Serge Gruzinski, Koichi Hagimoto, Héctor Hoyos, Fernando Iwasaki Cauti, Julia Kushigian, Debbie Lee-DiStefano, Ignacio López-Calvo, Walter Mignolo, José Koichi Oizumi, Julio Ortega, Beatriz Pastor, Catalina Quesada Gómez, etc.

FREN329

French Literature Survey

Ce cours propose un survol du roman français contemporain (après 1945), avec notamment un choix d’oeuvres représentant une évolution littéraire, à travers les voix masculine et féminine. Nous découvrirons aussi les transformations narratives de ce qui constitue le roman contemporain français. Les textes seront abordés à la lumière de leur contexte culturel (identité française ?), politique (engagement ?), et théorique (discours sur la littérature ?). Le travail en cours portera sur l’analyse critique, notamment en abordant les compétences de réflexion et de composition littéraires.

Required readings:

Camus, Albert. La chute (1956)

Modiano, Patrick. La place de l’étoile (1968)

Duras, Marguerite. Écrire (1993)

Papin, Line. Les os des filles (2020)

Prerequisite: One of FREN 220, FREN 221

Language of instruction: French

Course Registration

FREN334

Exploring French Society after 1945

Engaging with history, culture, politics and intellectual life in contemporary France, this course crafts visions to understand key aspects of French society. We seek out to examine radical transformations through three specific cultural clusters. The first one addresses the Algerian War and the massive political, institutional and cultural upheavals that it brought along. Then, we move to France’s integration into the European Union, and the many challenges, notably around identity, sovereignty, citizenship, and globalization. Lastly, the course focuses on the French brand of feminism, what defines and confronts it on political and cultural grounds. For example, rethinking gender, labor division, or laïcité. The course uses fiction works, films, and  essais to explore the vast area of ideas that shape France’s modernity. Students are expected to develop skills in cultural analysis as well as criticl reading and composition. In French.

Required readings:

Laurens, Camille. Celle que vous croyez (2016)

Mauvignier, Laurent. Des Hommes (2009)

File of documents and essays related to the three clusters

Recommended readings:

Materials will be provided in class

Prerequisite:
One of FREN 220, FREN 221, FREN 223 or permission of the instructor

Language of instruction: French

Course Registration

PORT405

Amazonia (in English)

Amazonia is a vast and complex region in South America—the most bio-diverse on Earth—stretching over nine countries and it is home to 400 indigenous groups. This course will explore pressing environmental and cultural issues of our time through the study of the Amazon rainforest as it is represented in literature, films and media.

The course offers an interdisciplinary perspective on the Amazon, taking into consideration its history, as well as social and political aspects related to the region and its major global impact. The course will be organized around themes such as: environment, ecosystems and sustainability; exploration; anthropology; indigeneity, shamanism; literary, cinema, popular culture and media representations. Fulfills the Faculty of Arts Literature Requirement.

Required readings:

All texts for the course will be in English. Texts will be available on Canvas in PDF; films will be available streaming through the UBC Library.

Primary texts (selections from):

  • Davi Kopenawa Yanomami The Falling Sky (2013)
  • Daniel Munduruku Indigenous Tales from Brazil (2013)
  • Sônia Guajajara, Eliane Potiguara (interviews)
  • Euclides da Cunha The Amazon: Land without History (1909)
  • Candace Slater Entangled Edens (2003)
  • Wade Davis The Wayfinders (2009); One River (1997)
  • Milton Hatoum Orphans of Eldorado (2008)
  • Eduardo Kohn How Forests Think (2013)

Films:

  • Werner Herzog Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972); Fitzcarraldo (1982)
  • John Boorman The Emerald Forest (1985)
  • Takumã Kuikuro Itão Kuẽgü – The Hyperwomen (2012)
  • Ciro Guerra Embrace of the Serpent (2015)
  • James Gray The Lost City of Z (2016)

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Language of instruction: English

Note: This course fulfills the Faculty of Arts Literature Requirement.

ITAL409

The Strongman, the Latin Lover, and other Italian Masculinities

Cross-listed with RMST459

This course offers an overview of diverse Italian masculinities as they are represented in Italian literature and culture. What does it mean to be a man in Italy? How do diverse concepts of Italian manhood come into being? How are they constructed and circulated through literary and cinematic texts? What do these texts tell us about Italian society? And how are these male types challenged in the Italian cultural domain?

We will probe these questions by studying the depictions of Italian virilities in memoirs, novels, public speeches, news articles, films, and television programs from the 18th century to the present, with a focus on the 20th and 21st centuries. Male types and ideals that we will examine include the self-made man, the strongman, the fascist new man, nationalist soldiers, the inetto (schlemiel), the Latin Lover, libertines, and gay men. To delve further into these texts, we will also study a selective number of influential theories from Masculinity and Gender Studies.

Through this course, we will gain a historical and critical understanding of men and gender dynamics in Italian culture. This course is designed to develop your critical thinking, as well as speaking and writing skills in the context of Italian masculinities. No prior knowledge of the Italian language or Italian culture is required.

Language of instruction: English

Prerequisite: No prerequisites

Note: Credit will be granted for only one of ITAL 409 or ITST 419 or RMST 459. Students who plan to minor in Italian must take this course as ITAL and will be expected to do part of their reading and assignments in the Italian language. ITAL 409 may be taken twice, with different content, for a total of 6 credits.

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Grading Breakdown

Critical essay 1: 25%
Critical essay 2: 25%
Final oral presentations: 20%
Two improvised oral presentations and written reports: 20%
Class participation, regular attendance, and professionalism: 10%

Readings

Coming soon

ITST413

[Cross-listed with Italian 403]

Dante and His World: The Divine Comedy in Translation

Undoubtedly the best-known among all poems written in the Italian language during the last seven hundred years, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy takes us on a most unusual journey. We begin our travels quivering with the wayfarer at the outskirts of a ghastly dark forest, and we end up basking in the blissful light of a cosmic embrace. What makes such a change of perspective possible? It is the journey itself, answers Dante, who in his visionary exploration of “the beyond” is taught by his teachers, Virgil and Beatrice, how fearlessly to plumb the abysses and expanse of the human psyche.

From exile to reintegration, from wretchedness to felicity, this is the story of a process of inner transmutation, whose liberating power has touched countless readers over the ages and across cultures. More than ever today Dante’s poem is apt to teach us, “on the wings of the night”, how progressively to uncover the vastness that lies hidden within every single atom of our own self, and of the universe that surrounds us.

This course offers a close reading of Dante’s masterpiece through a large selection of excerpts from all of the canticas (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), along with a reading of Dante’s earlier work Vita Nuova (The New Life) in its entirety.

Required Texts
— D. Alighieri, Vita nuova, tr. S. Applebaum. Dover, 2001.
— D. Alighieri, Inferno, tr. R. Kirkpatrick. Penguin Classics 2006.
— D. Alighieri, Purgatorio, tr. R. Kirkpatrick. Penguin Classics 2007.
— D. Alighieri, Paradiso, tr. R. Kirkpatrick. Penguin Classics 2006.

Recommended Texts (also available at UBC Library Reserve Room)
— S. Bemrose, A New Life of Dante, revised and updated. U Exeter Press, 2010.
— R. Kirkpatrick, Dante, the Divine Comedy. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
— G. Raffa, The Complete Danteworlds. A Reader’s Guide to the Divine Comedy. The University of Chicago Press, 2009.

Prerequisite
At least 30 credits of lower division courses or permission of the instructor. Precludes credit for ITAL 403 and vice versa.

Note
Students who plan to minor in Italian must take this course as ITAL and will be expected to do part of their reading and assignments in the Italian language.

Language of instruction: English

Course Registration

ITAL403

Within the Universe/The Universe Within — Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy: A Visionary Journey into Medieval Eco-Cosmology

Cross-listed with RMST453

Dante con in mano la Divina Commedia by Domenico di Michelino (1465)

Undoubtedly the best-known of all poems written in the Italian language during the last seven hundred years, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy takes us on a most unusual journey. We begin our travels quivering with the wayfarer at the outskirts of a ghastly dark forest, and we end them basking in the blissful light of a cosmic embrace. What makes such a change of perspective possible? The journey itself, Dante maintains, having been taught by his teachers, Virgil and Beatrice, how fearlessly to approach the abysses of the human psyche during his visionary explorations of the “beyond.”

From exile to ecstasy, from wretchedness to reintegration, this is the story of a process of inner transmutation, whose liberating power has touched countless readers over the ages and across cultures. More than ever today Dante’s poem shows us how progressively to uncover the vastness that lies hidden within every single atom of our own self, and of the universe that surrounds us.

In the words of Pope Francis (2014), Dante is «a prophet of hope, herald of the possibility of redemption, liberation and the profound transformation of every man and woman, of all humanity». As such, he «still has much to say and to offer through his immortal works to those who wish to follow the route of true knowledge and authentic discovery of the self, the world and the profound and transcendent meaning of existence». In order to do this, Dante walks a very thin line between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the path taken by visionaries of all times and spiritual traditions.

Dante’s cosmic perspective is powerfully inspiring to this day, witness the exemplary role his journey played in shaping the worldview of C. G. Jung, the father of analytical psychology, at the beginning of the 20th century, and at the other end of that same century, the “wild sacred” ecological visions of Thomas Berry, the father of ecophilosophy. It is indeed as a “wounded healer,” as a “modern shaman,” and even more compellingly perhaps as an ante litteram ecologist and activist of the world-soul that Dante asks to be understood today — beyond the boundaries of society’s self-serving needs for canonicity and legitimization.

This course offers a close reading of Dante’s masterpiece through a large selection of excerpts from all of the canticas (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), along with a reading of Dante’s earlier work Vita Nuova (The New Life) in its entirety.

Language of instruction: English

Prerequisites: No prerequisites

Note: Credit will be granted for only one of RMST 453, ITST 413 or ITAL 403

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Grading Breakdown

35% 5 reading responses
25% Midterm
30% Final
10% Attendance and participation
100% Total

Readings

Required readings

Dante Alighieri, Dante Alighieri, Vita Nuova, tr. Virginia Jewiss. Penguin, 2022. (ISBN 978-0143106203) Please buy this book.

Dante Alighieri, Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso, tr. R. Kirkpatrick. Penguin Classics 2006-07, 3 vols. (ISBN Inferno: 978-01404489; Purgatorio: 978-0140448962; Paradiso: 978-0140448979

Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, tr. Steve Ellis. Vintage Classics 2019. (ISBN 978-1784871987) Please buy this book.

Recommended readings

Guy P. Raffa, The Complete Dante Worlds. A Reader’s Guide to the Divine Comedy. Chicago UP, 2009. (ISBN 978-0226702704)

SPAN530

Salvador Dalí: un acercamiento interdisciplinar

DESCRIPCIÓN

Dalí fue un artista que se expresó a través de diferentes disciplinas, géneros y soportes. De hecho, la pintura fue para él solo uno de los instrumentos de que hace uso para expresar sus ideas. Pero fue también un escritor innovador de obras de teatro, ópera y guiones de cine; de diarios, autobiografías, novelas y poesía. Su interés por la fotografía y la performance es bien conocido; su dedicación al diseño, la publicidad y la moda también, así como a las artes aplicadas, la escultura y la arquitectura. Al contrario que otros surrealistas, fue evolucionando al ritmo de los tiempos y entendió como nadie, y antes que nadie, la importancia de los medios de masa y la publicidad en la vida del artista. Es, además, el teórico más importante de la vanguardia en España, y un espectador y pensador privilegiado que reflexiona, siempre con ironía, sobre la realidad artística, social y política de Cataluña, España, Europa y Norteamérica.

La compleja y diversa obra de Salvador Dalí muestra con claridad que la obra artística no nace aislada; forma parte de una compleja red de relaciones e influencias respecto a otras obras, géneros y disciplinas. Para ahondar en el pensamiento y la obra de Salvador Dalí y de la vanguardia, hay que adoptar necesariamente un acercamiento interdisciplinar y múltiple.

OBJETIVOS

El objetivo de este curso es doble:

  1. descubrir alguna de esas facetas poco conocidas de Salvador Dalí y ahondar en su concepción del arte, el hombre y la realidad, enmarcando su obra en el contexto cultural, social y político del siglo XX.
  2. acercar a los estudiantes al análisis de otras disciplinas hermanas de la literatura: la fotografía, la performance, el teatro, la pintura, el cine y la museografía fundamentalmente.

Al finalizar el semestre, el estudiante habrá profundizado en el conocimiento de la obra y el pensamiento de una de las principales figuras del surrealismo y la vanguardia; asimismo, se habrá iniciado en el análisis de textos culturales de tipo diverso; por último, se habrá familiarizado con un acercamiento de tipo interdisciplinar al abordar el estudio de la cultura española de vanguardia (o la cultura, en general).

Required readings:

Buñuel, Luis y Dalí, Salvador. Un perro andaluz (1929) [película]

Buñuel, Luis y Dalí, Salvador. La Edad de Oro (1930) [película]

Tristán Loco (1938), Trilogía Bacanal-Laberinto-Sacrificio (1941), Las nubes (1941) y Mártir: tragedia erótica en tres actos [teatro y ballet]  En Salvador Dalí.  Obra completa. Vol. 3. Barcelona: Destino, 2004. 947-1030

García Lorca, Federico, y Dalí, Salvador.  Querido Salvador, Querido Lorquito: Epistolario 1925-1936. Barcelona: Elba, 2013.[Epistolario].

Dalí, Salvador.  La vida secreta de Salvador Dalí. (1942)  [Autobiografía] En Dalí, Salvador.  Obra completa. Vol. 1. Textos Autobiográficos.  Barcelona: Destino, 2003. 7-923 + Notas (1231-1257).

Dalí, Salvador. Rostros ocultos (1944) [novela] En Salvador Dalí.  Obra completa. Vol. 3. Barcelona: Destino, 2004. 377-945.

Selección de performances y de fotografías de Dalí (filmadas o tomadas por Jonas Mekas, Averty, Ray, Schaal, Halsman, Casals, y otros (diversas fechas)

Dalí Teatre-Museu / written and directed by Toni Matas. (DVD) o Pitxot, Antoni y Aguer, Montse. Teatro-Museo Dalí  de Figueres (1974). Fundación Salvador Dalí/ Triangle Postal, 2005.

Catherine Grenier, Salvador Dalí. The Making of an Artist. Paris: Flammarion, 2012. [1st. Edition en francés de 2011]

Recommended readings:

Descharnes, Robert, y Gilles Néret.  Dalí. The Paintings.  Köln: Taschen, 2001.

Booth, W.C.; Colomb, G.G., and Williams, J.M.  The Craft of Research.  Chicago and London: The U.of Chicago P. Last edition available.

Language of instruction: Spanish

Professor: María Soledad Fernández Utrera

ITAL304

Introduction to Italian Culture and Literature II: From the Modern to the Post-Colonial Age

This course will be an introduction to Italian history, literature, and culture from Risorgimento (1815-1860/70) to the Berlusconi Era (1994-2011). After an introduction on Unification, the rise and fall of Fascism, WWI, and WWII, this course aims to familiarize students with major political and historical events, and cultural trends from the post-World War II period to the present moment. During the first two thirds of the course, we will examine representative texts from our (too-often-disregarded) women writers and canonical writers, as well as several prominent films from Rossellini’s Roma, Città Aperta to Moretti’s Aprile to deepen our discussion and understanding of the shaping of contemporary Italian society. The last third of the course will concentrate on Post-Colonial Italy, with a segment on memory through architecture in Asmara (Eritrea), and in Rome and Affile (Italy); and a segment on Italianness through the texts of colonial-times writers, second-generation contemporary writers, New Italian Epic, and several documentaries and clips on citizenship, identity and migration. In February, during Black History Month, students will be required to participate in a guest-lecture on Zoom where Italo-Ghanaian activist and film director Fred Kuwornu will present his work on race, ethnicity, and national identity.

Required readings:

  1. Full texts available on-line from Koerner’s library:
    • Selected chapters from Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2013, June 2014 (online);
    • Selected chapters from Peter Brand, and Lino Pertile (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Italian Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1997, March 2008 (online).
  2. All films and documentaries required for the course will be available for on-line free streaming either through Koerner’s library, Kanopy, and Netflix, or will be screened during class-time.
  3. Literary excerpts and critical articles.

Prerequisite: No prerequisites

Language of Instruction: English

ITST232

Introduction to Italian Culture and Literature II: From the Modern to the Post-Colonial Age

[Cross-listed with ITAL 304]

This course will be an introduction to Italian history, literature, and culture from Risorgimento (1815-1860/70) to the Berlusconi Era (1994-2011). After an introduction on Unification, the rise and fall of Fascism, WWI, and WWII, this course aims to familiarize students with major political and historical events, and cultural trends from the post-World War II period to the present moment. During the first two thirds of the course, we will examine representative texts from our (too-often-disregarded) women writers and canonical writers, as well as several prominent films from Rossellini’s Roma, Città Aperta to Moretti’s Aprile to deepen our discussion and understanding of the shaping of contemporary Italian society. The last third of the course will concentrate on Post-Colonial Italy, with a segment on memory through architecture in Asmara (Eritrea), and in Rome and Affile (Italy); and a segment on Italianness through the texts of colonial-times writers, second-generation contemporary writers, New Italian Epic, and several documentaries and clips on citizenship, identity and migration. In February, during Black History Month, students will be required to participate in a guest-lecture on Zoom where Italo-Ghanaian activist and film director Fred Kuwornu will present his work on race, ethnicity, and national identity.

Required readings:

  1. Full texts available on-line from Koerner’s library:
    • Selected chapters from Christopher Duggan, A Concise History of Italy, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2013, June 2014 (online);
    • Selected chapters from Peter Brand, and Lino Pertile (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Italian Literature, Cambridge University Press, 1997, March 2008 (online).
  2. All films and documentaries required for the course will be available for on-line free streaming either through Koerner’s library, Kanopy, and Netflix, or will be screened during class-time.
  3. Literary excerpts and critical articles.

Prerequisite: No prerequisites

Language of Instruction: English