Comparative Literature 204 - WRITINGS AND REWRITINGS

Topics course. Don Quixote is statistically the most famous, read and rewritten of novels in the world. Don Juan is the central modern myth of seduction. Why do these two 16th century Spanish texts continue to attract so many readers and writers to this day? First, because they are fun. Moreover, because fractured Spanish identity (Jewish, Islamic, Christian) made possible the surge of our contemporary sensibility. Finally, because these texts pose fundamental questions about the nature of fiction, humor, sex, power, madness and seduction. In addition to the texts by Cervantes and Tirso de Molina themselves, we will examine the mad adventures of Don Quixote and the perverse seductions of Don Juan and some of their respective progenies in a variety of genres (film, theater, poetry, Yiddish parody, opera and novel) and with authors such as Moliere, Mozart, Zorrilla, Borges, Abramovitch/Mendele the book peddler, and Zapatista leader and writer Subcomandante Marcos. (E)

Topic: Seductive Madness: Don Quixote & Don Juan.