Spanish 425 - La Malinche: Translating Myth and Legend in the New World

In this course students will learn about the life and myths of Doña Marina, the Indigenous woman enslaved by Hernán Cortés during the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire. A genius by many accounts, she served as his translator as she was fluent in Mayan, Nahuatl, and Spanish. Mother of the first “mestizo,” she has conveniently been viewed as a “traitor” to the Mexican nation. In the contemporary moment, she at times is seen as a feminist icon of resistance partly through a recognition of her victimhood as a woman who had to navigate multiple empires. We will work to separate fact from fiction by engaging multiple secondary and primary sources. Given her role in the conquest, the course will also serve as an exploration of theories of translation as a putatively empirical and aesthetic project. Conducted in Spanish.

Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or permission of the instructor.  Limited to 20 students. Fall semester: Professor Coráñez Bolton.

How to handle overenrollment: Spanish majors will be given priority.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Emphasis on written work, readings, independent research, oral presentations, group work, instruction in language other than English, visual analysis.