SPAN 3650 - The Spanish Civil War

(CA-AS) Satisfies Option 1.

Spring. 4 credits.

Prerequisite: SPAN 2140, SPAN 2150, SPAN 2170 or CASE Q++.

I. Rodriguez de Rivera

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and its aftermath is without doubt the most significant historical event in 20th century Spain. whose effects can still be felt in today’s Spain. From the moment of its outbreak, the war has been represented by a variegated and abundant number of cultural artifacts including photos, films, literary works, posters, memoirs, historical accounts. In addition to studying the political, social, and cultural history of the civil war, this course will also focus on the interaction between aesthetics and politics, the relation between reality and its representation, as well as the ways in which we remember the past. We will consider a wide range of cultural materials produced during the war that includes photographs taken in Spain by foreign photographers such as Robert Capa or Kati Horna; propaganda posters and Picasso’s “Gernika”: poems by Pablo Neruda and Miguel Henanández; short stories by Max Aub. We will also work on contemporary materials including fiction, film, photography, testimony in order reflect on the politics of memory and current debates surrounding the exhumation of mass graves.