This course on comparative literature provides an introduction to one of the most original genres of the Spanish canon. From its historical context in the Golden Age (16th and 17th centuries), students will not only recognize picaresque patterns in modern Spanish literature and culture, but they will be able to compare at the same time the pícaro to other well-known characters from modern American and European fiction.
Attendance policy:
Attendance is mandatory for all IES classes, including field studies. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical or family emergencies. If a student misses more than three classes in any course half a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Seven absences in any course will result in a failing grade.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, students are able to:
• Identify the origins and evolution of picaresque literature and recognize picaresque patterns in modern Spanish literature and culture.
• Discuss the social and political factor involved in the origins of picaresque literature.
• Compare at the same time the pícaro to other well-known characters from American and European fiction.
• Critically appraise and interpret a literary work of the picaresque tradition.
Method of presentation:
Lectures, discussions, student presentations, film projections, classes on site.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation (20%); Term paper [draft version] (5%); Term paper [final version] (25%): Oral presentation (10%): Midterm exam (20 %); Final exam (20%)
Students will choose any text from the picaresque tradition, which has been continually rewritten through history, and present their work in progress at three different stages: a 1500-word paper draft due on session 9, an oral presentation on sessions 18-19, and a 3000-word term paper due on session
23. The work will be written in English. Class participation is expected to stimulate and enrich class discussion; this grade will take into account every aspect of the student’s performance, including preparation, contributions, effort and attentiveness. Mid term and final exams will be essay format,
asking students to read closely, analyze, and interpret a particular passage of one of the texts studied.
content:
Session 1: Introduction to comparative literature and course presentation: the pícaro as a universal literary figure.
Session 2: The classical origins of the picaresque.
Required Reading:
Apuleius (1996). Book Three. In The Golden Ass. 34-48.
Hertfordshire: Wordsworth.
Session 3: Huckleberry Finn: the picaresque (I).
Required Reading:
American key to the Spanish Twain, Mark (1982). Chapters 1-3. The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn. In Mississippi Writings. 617-912. New York: Literary Classics of the United States.
Session 4: Huckleberry Finn: the American key to the Spanish picaresque (II).
Required Reading:
Twain, Mark (1982). Chapters 15, 16, 19, 31. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In Mississippi Writings. 617-912. New York: Literary Classics of the United States.
Session 5: A secondary character in Don Quixote joins the picaresque clan.
Required Reading:
Cervantes, Miguel de (2000). First part, Chapter 22. The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 171-181. London: Penguin Books. Second part. Chapters 25-27. The Ingenious
Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 629-645. London: Penguin Books.
Session 6: Field study: Don Quixote arrives in Barcelona.
Required Reading:
Cervantes, Miguel de (2000). Second part. Chapters 60-65. The
Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 854-895. London: Penguin Books.
Session 7: From the enchanted
Don Quixote to the disenchanted pícaro.
Required Reading:
Auerbach, Erich (1953). “The Enchanted Dulcinea”. In Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. 334-358.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Session 8: Lazarillo de Tormes or the reasons why the author had
to remain anonymous.
Required Reading: Anonymous. (1969). The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes: His Fortunes and Adversities. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 23-65
London: Penguin Classics.
Session 9: Lazarillo de Tormes:
the conversion of the pícaro into a respectable citizen.
Paper drafts due.
Required Reading:
Anonymous. (1969). The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes: His Fortunes and Adversities. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 66-79
London: Penguin Classics.
Session 10: The crucial year of
1604: the picaresque as parody.
Required Reading:
Quevedo, Francisco de (1969). Book One. The Swindler. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 83-154. London: Penguin Classics.
Session 11: The Counter Reformation in the Spanish picaresque.
Required Reading:
Quevedo, Francisco de (1969). Book Two. The Swindler. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 155-214. London: Penguin Classics.
Session 12: Falstaff or the Elizabethan rogue.
Required Reading:
Shakespeare, William (1980). King Henry IV (Part I). In Complete Works. 409-437. Oxford University Press. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/1kh4scenes.html
Session 13: Debate on the origins of the picaresque in Spain.
Required Reading:
Group 1:
Parker, Alexander A (1967). “The Genesis of the Picaresque”. In Literature and the Delinquent: The Picaresque Novel in
Spain and Europe 1599-1753. 1-27. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press.
Group 2:
Rico, Francisco (1984). “The Picaresque Novel and the Point of
View”. In The Spanish Picaresque Novel and the Point of View.
56-90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Session 14: The pícaro of our days.
Session 15: Midterm Exam
Session 16: Cervantes' exemplary novels: the pícaro as a philosopher (I).
Required Reading:
Cervantes, Miguel de (1992). “The Deceitful Marriage”. In:
Exemplary novels. 67-83. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
Session 17: Cervantes' exemplary novels: the pícaro as a
philosopher (II).
Required Reading:
Cervantes, Miguel de (1992). “The Dialogue of the Dogs”. In:
Exemplary novels. 84-167. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
Session 18: Student presentations (I)
Session 19: Student presentations (II)
Session 20: The eruption of gender: the pícara.
Required Reading:
Defoe, Daniel (1971). The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous
Moll Flanders. 7-169. New York: Oxford University Press.
Session 21: The irruption of gender: the pícara.
Required Reading:
Defoe, Daniel (1971). The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous
Moll Flanders. 213-343. New York: Oxford University Press.
Session 22: Film viewing: Alatriste (2006).
Session 23: Course conclusions. Final papers due.
Required Reading:
Group 1:
Cervantes, Miguel de. (2000) Second part. Final chapter. The
Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 934-940. London: Penguin Books.
Group 2:
Borges, Jorge Luis (1970). “Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote”.
In Labyrinths. 62-71. London: Penguin.
Session 24: Course conclusions.
Final Exam
Required readings:
Anonymous. (1969). The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes: His Fortunes and Adversities. In Two Spanish
Picaresque Novels. 23-79 London: Penguin Classics.
Apuleius (1996). Book Three. In The Golden Ass. 34-48. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth.
Auerbach, Erich (1953). “The Enchanted Dulcinea”. In Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western
Literature. 334-358. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Borges, Jorge Luis (1970). “Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote”. In Labyrinths. 62-71. London: Penguin.
Cervantes, Miguel de (2000). First part, Chapter 22. The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.
171-181. London: Penguin Books.
Second part. Chapters 25-27. The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 629-645. London: Penguin Books.
Second part. Chapters 60-65. The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 854-895.
London: Penguin Books.
Second part. Final chapter. The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 934-940. London: Penguin Books.
Cervantes, Miguel de (1992). “The Deceitful Marriage”. In: Exemplary novels. 67-83. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
“The Dialogue of the Dogs”. In: Exemplary novels. 84-167. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
Defoe, Daniel (1971). The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. 7-169. New York:
Oxford University Press.
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. 213-343. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Parker, Alexander A (1967). “The Genesis of the Picaresque”. In Literature and the Delinquent: The
Picaresque Novel in Spain and Europe 1599-1753. 1-27. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Quevedo, Francisco de (1969). Book One. The Swindler. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 83-154.
London: Penguin Classics.
Book Two. The Swindler. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 155-214. London: Penguin
Classics.
Rico, Francisco (1984). “The Picaresque Novel and the Point of View”. In The Spanish Picaresque Novel and the Point of View. 56-90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Twain, Mark (1982). Chapters 1-3; 15, 16, 19, 31. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In Mississippi
Writings. 617-912. New York: Literary Classics of the United States.
Recommended readings:
Alter, Robert (1964). Rogue’s Progress: Studies in the Picaresque Novel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Bloom, Harold (1994). The Western Canon. New York: Riverhead.
Bjornson, Richard (1977). The Picaresque Hero in European Fiction. Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press.
Cervantes, Miguel de (1988). “Curriculum Vitae”. In Nicholas Spadaccini and Jenaro Talens (eds).
Autobiography in Early Modern Spain. 265-280. Minneapolis: Prisma.
Dunn, Peter N. (1993). Spanish Picaresque Fiction: A New Literary History. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press.
Erasmus of Rotterdam (1979). The Praise of Folly. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Guillén, Claudio (1987). The Anatomies of Roguery: A Comparative Study in the Origins and the Nature of Picaresque Literature. New York: Garland.
Huizinga, Johan (2002). Erasmus and the Age of Reformation. London: Phoenix Press.
Moseley, William (1953). “Students and University Life in the Spanish Golden Age”. In Hispania, 3 (36):
328-335.
This course on comparative literature provides an introduction to one of the most original genres of the Spanish canon. From its historical context in the Golden Age (16th and 17th centuries), students will not only recognize picaresque patterns in modern Spanish literature and culture, but they will be able to compare at the same time the pícaro to other well-known characters from modern American and European fiction.
Attendance is mandatory for all IES classes, including field studies. Any exams, tests, presentations, or other work missed due to student absences can only be rescheduled in cases of documented medical or family emergencies. If a student misses more than three classes in any course half a letter grade will be deducted from the final grade for every additional absence. Seven absences in any course will result in a failing grade.
By the end of the course, students are able to:
• Identify the origins and evolution of picaresque literature and recognize picaresque patterns in modern Spanish literature and culture.
• Discuss the social and political factor involved in the origins of picaresque literature.
• Compare at the same time the pícaro to other well-known characters from American and European fiction.
• Critically appraise and interpret a literary work of the picaresque tradition.
Lectures, discussions, student presentations, film projections, classes on site.
LANGUAGE OF PRESENTATION: English
Class participation (20%); Term paper [draft version] (5%); Term paper [final version] (25%): Oral presentation (10%): Midterm exam (20 %); Final exam (20%)
Students will choose any text from the picaresque tradition, which has been continually rewritten through history, and present their work in progress at three different stages: a 1500-word paper draft due on session 9, an oral presentation on sessions 18-19, and a 3000-word term paper due on session
23. The work will be written in English. Class participation is expected to stimulate and enrich class discussion; this grade will take into account every aspect of the student’s performance, including preparation, contributions, effort and attentiveness. Mid term and final exams will be essay format,
asking students to read closely, analyze, and interpret a particular passage of one of the texts studied.
Session 1: Introduction to comparative literature and course presentation: the pícaro as a universal literary figure.
Session 2: The classical origins of the picaresque.
Required Reading:
Apuleius (1996). Book Three. In The Golden Ass. 34-48.
Hertfordshire: Wordsworth.
Session 3: Huckleberry Finn: the picaresque (I).
Required Reading:
American key to the Spanish Twain, Mark (1982). Chapters 1-3. The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn. In Mississippi Writings. 617-912. New York: Literary Classics of the United States.
Session 4: Huckleberry Finn: the American key to the Spanish picaresque (II).
Required Reading:
Twain, Mark (1982). Chapters 15, 16, 19, 31. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In Mississippi Writings. 617-912. New York: Literary Classics of the United States.
Session 5: A secondary character in Don Quixote joins the picaresque clan.
Required Reading:
Cervantes, Miguel de (2000). First part, Chapter 22. The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 171-181. London: Penguin Books. Second part. Chapters 25-27. The Ingenious
Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 629-645. London: Penguin Books.
Session 6: Field study: Don Quixote arrives in Barcelona.
Required Reading:
Cervantes, Miguel de (2000). Second part. Chapters 60-65. The
Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 854-895. London: Penguin Books.
Session 7: From the enchanted
Don Quixote to the disenchanted pícaro.
Required Reading:
Auerbach, Erich (1953). “The Enchanted Dulcinea”. In Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature. 334-358.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Session 8: Lazarillo de Tormes or the reasons why the author had
to remain anonymous.
Required Reading: Anonymous. (1969). The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes: His Fortunes and Adversities. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 23-65
London: Penguin Classics.
Session 9: Lazarillo de Tormes:
the conversion of the pícaro into a respectable citizen.
Paper drafts due.
Required Reading:
Anonymous. (1969). The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes: His Fortunes and Adversities. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 66-79
London: Penguin Classics.
Session 10: The crucial year of
1604: the picaresque as parody.
Required Reading:
Quevedo, Francisco de (1969). Book One. The Swindler. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 83-154. London: Penguin Classics.
Session 11: The Counter Reformation in the Spanish picaresque.
Required Reading:
Quevedo, Francisco de (1969). Book Two. The Swindler. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 155-214. London: Penguin Classics.
Session 12: Falstaff or the Elizabethan rogue.
Required Reading:
Shakespeare, William (1980). King Henry IV (Part I). In Complete Works. 409-437. Oxford University Press. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/1kh4scenes.html
Session 13: Debate on the origins of the picaresque in Spain.
Required Reading:
Group 1:
Parker, Alexander A (1967). “The Genesis of the Picaresque”. In Literature and the Delinquent: The Picaresque Novel in
Spain and Europe 1599-1753. 1-27. Edinburgh: Edinburgh
University Press.
Group 2:
Rico, Francisco (1984). “The Picaresque Novel and the Point of
View”. In The Spanish Picaresque Novel and the Point of View.
56-90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Session 14: The pícaro of our days.
Session 15: Midterm Exam
Session 16: Cervantes' exemplary novels: the pícaro as a philosopher (I).
Required Reading:
Cervantes, Miguel de (1992). “The Deceitful Marriage”. In:
Exemplary novels. 67-83. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
Session 17: Cervantes' exemplary novels: the pícaro as a
philosopher (II).
Required Reading:
Cervantes, Miguel de (1992). “The Dialogue of the Dogs”. In:
Exemplary novels. 84-167. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
Session 18: Student presentations (I)
Session 19: Student presentations (II)
Session 20: The eruption of gender: the pícara.
Required Reading:
Defoe, Daniel (1971). The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous
Moll Flanders. 7-169. New York: Oxford University Press.
Session 21: The irruption of gender: the pícara.
Required Reading:
Defoe, Daniel (1971). The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous
Moll Flanders. 213-343. New York: Oxford University Press.
Session 22: Film viewing: Alatriste (2006).
Session 23: Course conclusions. Final papers due.
Required Reading:
Group 1:
Cervantes, Miguel de. (2000) Second part. Final chapter. The
Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 934-940. London: Penguin Books.
Group 2:
Borges, Jorge Luis (1970). “Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote”.
In Labyrinths. 62-71. London: Penguin.
Session 24: Course conclusions.
Final Exam
Anonymous. (1969). The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes: His Fortunes and Adversities. In Two Spanish
Picaresque Novels. 23-79 London: Penguin Classics.
Apuleius (1996). Book Three. In The Golden Ass. 34-48. Hertfordshire: Wordsworth.
Auerbach, Erich (1953). “The Enchanted Dulcinea”. In Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western
Literature. 334-358. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Borges, Jorge Luis (1970). “Pierre Menard, author of the Quixote”. In Labyrinths. 62-71. London: Penguin.
Cervantes, Miguel de (2000). First part, Chapter 22. The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.
171-181. London: Penguin Books.
Second part. Chapters 25-27. The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 629-645. London: Penguin Books.
Second part. Chapters 60-65. The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 854-895.
London: Penguin Books.
Second part. Final chapter. The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha. 934-940. London: Penguin Books.
Cervantes, Miguel de (1992). “The Deceitful Marriage”. In: Exemplary novels. 67-83. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
“The Dialogue of the Dogs”. In: Exemplary novels. 84-167. Warminster: Aris & Phillips.
Defoe, Daniel (1971). The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. 7-169. New York:
Oxford University Press.
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. 213-343. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Parker, Alexander A (1967). “The Genesis of the Picaresque”. In Literature and the Delinquent: The
Picaresque Novel in Spain and Europe 1599-1753. 1-27. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Quevedo, Francisco de (1969). Book One. The Swindler. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 83-154.
London: Penguin Classics.
Book Two. The Swindler. In Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. 155-214. London: Penguin
Classics.
Rico, Francisco (1984). “The Picaresque Novel and the Point of View”. In The Spanish Picaresque Novel and the Point of View. 56-90. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Shakespeare, William (1980). King Henry IV (Part I). In Complete Works. 409-437. Oxford University
Press. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/1kh4scenes.html
Twain, Mark (1982). Chapters 1-3; 15, 16, 19, 31. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In Mississippi
Writings. 617-912. New York: Literary Classics of the United States.
Alter, Robert (1964). Rogue’s Progress: Studies in the Picaresque Novel. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press.
Bloom, Harold (1994). The Western Canon. New York: Riverhead.
Bjornson, Richard (1977). The Picaresque Hero in European Fiction. Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press.
Cervantes, Miguel de (1988). “Curriculum Vitae”. In Nicholas Spadaccini and Jenaro Talens (eds).
Autobiography in Early Modern Spain. 265-280. Minneapolis: Prisma.
Dunn, Peter N. (1993). Spanish Picaresque Fiction: A New Literary History. Ithaca: Cornell University
Press.
Erasmus of Rotterdam (1979). The Praise of Folly. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Guillén, Claudio (1987). The Anatomies of Roguery: A Comparative Study in the Origins and the Nature of Picaresque Literature. New York: Garland.
Huizinga, Johan (2002). Erasmus and the Age of Reformation. London: Phoenix Press.
Moseley, William (1953). “Students and University Life in the Spanish Golden Age”. In Hispania, 3 (36):
328-335.