Time Schedule:
Ana M Raftery
SPAN 591
Seattle Campus
Class description
Race and Gender in Material and Written Cultures: Jews, Muslims and Christians in Contact
The course will focus on the literary construction of race and gender within the context of material culture, social change and theories of the body. Medieval Spanish literary works will be studied in the light of a wider written culture that was cemented on the mounting tensions among Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities and the books and artifacts they produced. These include Inquisitorial records, medical treatises, courtesy and manners handbooks, as well as registers and letter collections. The course will emphasize the need for biocultural analyses of socioliterary phenomena. The study of literary texts will also be accompanied by evidence from art, architecture and book illumination. A number of the major medieval Spanish works, including the Libro de Buen Amor, Celestina, Corbacho and Cárcel de amor will be discussed.
The course will be of use and interest to both medievalists and students of later periods since many of the ideas on race, ethnicity, and sexual differences that crystallized in the Middle Ages were transmitted unchanged through later centuries and are at the core of current discussions on cultural, ethnic, and gender issues in different fields.
If you have any questions abut this course, please do not hesitate to contact the professor. Prof. Ana M. Gómez-Bravo (agbravo@uw.edu)
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
