SPAN 6540 - Cervantes in Algiers: A Captive’s Tale

Fall. 4 credits. Student option grading.

Conducted in Spanish. This is the required course for all Spanish graduate students.

M. A. Garcés.

This seminar explores the impact of Cervante’s captivity in Algiers (1575-1580) in his literary production, a traumatic experience that marked great literary invenetion. As a soldier and captive in the wars between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires, Cervantes left us a vital testimony of this tumultuous period, including his relations with Muslims and “renegades” - Christian converts to Islam. The idea that survivors of traumatic events must tell their stories in order to continue living explains in a compelling way the profusion of stories created by Cervantes that turn around his Algerian captivity. Our readings include plays and novellas by Cervantes, and texts by Braudel, Caruth, Daklhia, Derrida, Lacan, Laub, Primo Levi, Lifton, and Antonio de Sosa, among others.