Comparative Literature 204 - TOPC: QUEERING DON QUIXOTE

Topics course.: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–15) is allegedly the first and most influential modern novel. We approach this hilarious masterpiece by Cervantes through a “queering” focus, i.e., as a text that exposes binary oppositions (literary, sexual, social, religious and ethnic) such as: high-low, tradition vs. individual creativity, historical vs. literary truth, man vs. woman, authenticity vs. performance, Moor vs. Christian, humorous vs. tragic. The course also covers the crucial role of Don Quixote in the development of modern and postmodern novelistic concepts (multiple narrators, fictional authors, palimpsest, dialogism). With an optional 1-credit course in Spanish (SPN 356).