Orientalism: España y África (1800 - 2010)

Presentación

Over the past several decades, North African and Middle Eastern cultures have come to exercise increasing influence within Spain. Translations of writers from Lebanon to Morocco abound in Spanish bookstores. Spanish writers are addressing North African and Middle Eastern issues in their own works with increasing frequency. The dramatic rise in the African immigrant population in Spain during the 1980s and 1990s, meanwhile, has been matched by a rise in press coverage of issues concerning Africa and the Middle East. On the political front, Spain has played a strategic role as Europe has sought to develop a better political dialog with the Islamic world. These factors form the point of departure for our historical overview of the treatment of Islamic cultures in modern Spain, from early 19th century to the present. Guided by Edward Said's seminal essay, Orientalism, we will assess the extent to which (and the process by which) Spain sheds its role as the Orientalized subject of European imagination (painting, literature, music) in the 19th century to become a hegemonic force in its own right and in its cultural interactions with its neighbors to the south. Our goal is to evaluate the nature of those cultural interactions, their ethical and ideologyical implications. In doing so, we will seek to relate the representation of Islamic cultures in Spanish literature and painting to social, political, and economic factors, most important of which was Spain's military invasion into Morocco in the late 19th and early 20th century. We will also survey changing attitudes among Spanish intellectuals with regard to the Islamic world and toward Spain's Islamic heritage, the result perhaps of 20th-century modernization and, most recently, of Spain's full integration, after Franco's death, into Europe's military and political structures. The tools for this study include works of literature primarily, but we will also focus on painting, historical essays, the media, and film.

Theoretical

As appropriate, we will assess and adopt from our reading of Edward Said's Orientalism the following concepts and questions as critial tools of cultural analysis:

• Alterity: How has the strategic and systematic representation of the cultures and peoples of the Islamic world and South Asia lead to the construction of Europe's "Oriental other"
• Representation: In what ways is the portrayal of others --or any portrayal, for that matter-- ideologically charged?
• Discourse theory: How is it that artists and intellectuals working within a cultural tradition come to "speak" a common language through the words and images they inherit, and propogate?
• Self-consciousness and cultural sensibility: How can an understanding of these processes of representation lead us to become more insightful readers of various types of texts (literary, auditory or visual) and more sensitive to our own assumptions and to our role within a vast and complex system of cultural meanings, as we seek to represent, to ourselves, what we see?

Practical / knowledge base

Spain within the European imagination and Spanish cultural production will be our laboratory for applying and testing these theories. The practical goals of this course include a deeper understanding of the following:

• The role of Islamic civilization in for formation of Spanish national identity
• Spain's unique position as "border" or "bridge" between Europe and Africa
• Spanish cultural history since Romanticism (1800 - present)

Practical / skill set

As is the case in all advanced Spanish courses at Wesleyan, we aim to enhance in our students the following skills:

• Critical analysis: reading as an exercise in interpretation, conceptualization, synthesis, and judgment
• Expression: toward a better command of oral and written Spanish
• Argumentation: improving skills of persuasive writing and speaking

All discusion and assignments are conducted exclusively in Spanish. With the exception of Said's essay, all readings are also in Spanish.

La evaluación final en este curso se centrará en los siguientes elementos:

Asistencia, puntualidad, preparación y participación (15%)

La preparación para las las discusiones en clase y la participación en ellas son imprescindibles para el aprendizaje de la materia. Los alumnos La evaluación en este apartado será de forma continua y se hará en reconocimiento de la asistencia, puntualidad y preparación de los estudiantes. "Puntualidad" se aplica a la llegada a clase y a la entrega de todos los ejercicios. "Preparación" presupone que los estudiantes han leido todo el material cuidadosamente antes de clase, que han formulado ideas y preguntas antes de llegar a clase y que toman la iniciativa de compartir sus ideas con los compañeros y las compañeras de la clase, de manera espontánea y generosa. Como prueba de su esfuerzo se exige que los estudiantes traiga una "Hoja de comentarios de la lectura" a cada clase. La "participación" de los estudiantes, mediante sus intervenciones informales así como los ejercicios orales formales, se concibe por eso como un gesto de generosidad: o sea, señal de su deseo de contribuir a un ambiente educativo beneficioso y enriquecedor para todos.

Pincha aquí para consultar la plantilla (rubric) para la evaluación de la participación

Presentaciones orales (15%)

Todos los alumnos tendrán diferentes oportunidades para dirigir la discusión en clase. La presentaciones serán organizadas antes de clase por estudiantes en grupos de 2-3, utilizando la "guía de lectura" asequible a través de nuestro programa como punto de referencia.

Pincha aquí para consultar la plantilla (rubric) para la evaluación de las presentaciones orales.

Dos análisis cortos (30%)

Durante la primera y segunda mitad del curso los alumnos escribirán en clase un análisis corto. Estos trabajos se conciben como un ensayo preliminar en anticipación del análisis comparativo final. En estos trabajos los alumnos reflejarán su abilidad de mobilizar los instrumentos de análisis estudiados a lo largo del cuatrimestre, aplicándolos al material variado (literatura, pintura, historia) que hemos ido comentado al hilo de nuestros coloquios en clase.

Pincha aquí para consultar la plantilla (rubric) para la evaluación de tus análisis escritos (redacciones).

Trabajo de análisis comprensivo (25%) y examen final oral (15%)

El día del examen final oral cada alumno/a entregará su trabajo de síntesis final (de 7 a 10 folios) en el que reflejará su aprovechamiento general de la asignatura. Los factores que influyen en la evaluación de este ejercicio son los horizontes históricos del trabajo, el dominio de los instrumentos teóricos, la habilidad de movilizar ejemplos concretos importantes al servicio de temas amplios y la calidad de la expresión lingüística. Por "horizontes históricos" se entiende que el trabajo abarque un amplio sector del período estudiado (1800 - presente). En cuanto a la dimensión teórica, se espera precisión en cuanto a la selección y aplicación de los conceptos de análisis orientalista adquiridos y ejercitados a lo largo del cuatrimestre. Por último, se exige un prosa correcta y clara dentro de lo razonable para alumnos de este nivel. (En preparación para este ensayo, consulta el apartado "Expository Writing," en nuestra Utilería).

En el examen final oral los estudiantes defenderán las tesis expuestas en su trabajo final y demostrarán su dominio de los conceptos teóricos e históricos evaluados a lo largo del cuatrimestre.

¿Qué representan la A, B y C?

En cuanto a la evaluación de ejercicios y trabajos y la calificación final, utilizamos el sistema de equivalencias numéricas estipuladas aquí y nos atenemos a los siguientes criterios establecidos por Wesleyan University y publicados en la página 32 de Teaching Matters:

A/A-	Excellent in all or nearly all respects. The interest of the reader is engaged by the ideas and presentation. Effective organization and writing. Paper marked by originality of ideas.
B+	Clear argument, clear writing, good evidence, appropriate response to question
B/B-	Technically competent, with perhaps a lapse here and there. The thesis is clear, properly limited, and reasonable, and the proposal is generally good but not distinguished. Use of evidence is sufficient.
C/C+	A competent piece of work, but not yet good. More or less adequately organized along obvious lines. Thesis may be unclear or over simple. Development is often skimpy. Use of evidence may be inadequate. Monotony of sentence structure is apparent and errors may be sprinkled throughout.
C-/D/D-	A piece of work that demonstrates some efforts on the author's part but that is too marred by technical problems or flaws in thinking or development of ideas to be considered competent work.
E/F	Failing grade. Essay may not respond to assignment. Essay may be far too short. Grammar and style may be careless.

Disponibles en R.J. Julia Bookstore:

• Edward Said, Orientalism (Vintage)
• Prosper Merimée, Carmen (Cátedra)
• Juan Goytisolo, Reivindicación del Conde don Julián (Cátedra)

Disponible en nuestro sitio de web en versión "pdf'

• Ramón J. Sender, Imán (Ediciones Destino)
• Américo Castro, La realidad histórica de España
• Fátima Mernissi, Fantasías del harén y El harén en occidente
• Benito Pérez Galdós, Aita Tettauen (Alianza Editorial)
• Otros lecturas teóricas e históricas que se asignarán a lo largo del cuatrimestre
  

Olin Reserve:

Los siguientes textos pueden consultarse en Olin Reserve (préstamo: 2 horas)

Castro, Américo, Realidad Historica de España: DP48 .C36 1962
Goytisolo, Juan, Reivindicación del conde don Julián: PQ6613 .O79 R35 1999
Mérimée, Prosper, Carmen: PQ2362 .M4718 1997
Pérez Galdós, Benito, Aita Tettauen: PQ6555 .A72 1979
Said, Edward W. Orientalismo; traducción de María Luisa Fuentes: DS61.85 .S24 1990
Said, Edward W., Orientalism: DS12 .S24 1979
Sénder, Ramón, Imán PQ6635.E65 I42 2001

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• you have received no help of any kind from anyone (this refers especially to compositions);
• you have only used a bilingual dictionary or one of the Spanish dictionaries mentioned above;
• you have not used any type of translator such as those available on the Internet.

The pledges read as follows:

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• desconectar los teléfonos móviles antes de entrar en clase
• no traer bebidas ni comida
• utilizar los aseos (lavabos) antes de clase

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