Focus on Film - SPA 490/550 En el camino: Travel in word and image
Professor Kathleen March
3 Credit
SPA 490 TuTh 11:00-12:15 p.m., 206 Little Hall
SPA 550 TuTh 2:00-3:15 p.m., 212 Little Hall
Also available online
This course addresses themes and characters in stories of travel of various sorts: exploration, adventure, escape, commercial and spiritual searching, educational experience. Travel is either to the Hispanic world, through it, done by a writer of Hispanic origin, or in some way illuminates the history and culture of a portion of this part of the world. Class discussion will include the difference between traveler and tourist, the effects of travel on the traveler and on the region visited, the role of gender in the ‘road experience’, and more. Authors: Christopher Columbus and other chroniclers of the conquest, Flora Tristán, Catalina de Erauso (the Ensign Nun). Films/directors: Aguirre, or the Wrath of God, Buñuel (The Milky
Way), Martin Sheen (The Way), Motorcycle Diaries and more. Some attention will also be given to mapping and painting the traveler’s experience.
Requirements: Participation (weekly written responses); 1 essay on historical theme; 1 essay on visual depictions of travel.
Further details available on request.