SPANISH | Literatures of the Americas (4th year) | Madres del verbo: Spanish American Women Writers
Course Description
This course studies Spanish American women’s literary production in their historical context from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. We work extensively on poetry, letters, narrative, and plays produced by women travelers (viajeras), nuns (monjas), stay-at-home mothers (madres de familia), teachers (maestras), journalists (periodistas), and escritoras literarias (literary authors) such as Isabel de Guevara, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Catalina de Erauso, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, Clorinda Matto de Turner, Soledad Acosta de Samper, among others.
Prerequisite: Latin America and Its Literature
Learning Goals
At the end of this class the students should be able to:
1. Think critically about women’s writings and their place in Latin American letters
2. Read carefully literary texts and analyze their content and purposes in their historical context
3. Build a mental map of Latin American women’s writings and their timeline
4. To understand present-day women’s concerns through its artistic/literary production
Required Materials
• Nina M. Scott, Madres del Verbo/Mothers of the Word. Early Spanish American Women Writers. A Bilingual Anthology (1999)
• Yo, la peor de todas (dir. M. L. Bamberg, 1990)
Rocío Quispe-Agnoli 