The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset once remarked of his compatriots, ‘We prefer the lively sensation of things to the things themselves.’ This course will focus on these ‘lively sensations,’ national myths of Spain that may or may not maintain much direct connection to the original ‘things themselves.’ National myths contain symbolic cultural significance and can affirm or set shared values. In Spain, throughout many centuries, people have exalted figures and events as representative of national values, or as part of an attempt to project a particular image within or beyond the nation’s borders. In our exploration of this topic, we will examine such media as newspapers, television news reports, political posters, history books, music, film, photographs, and brief works of literature. The focus of the course will be on student-generated discussion and critical thinking about these media, but practice in all four major areas of language (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) will be essential. Students will learn to defend their own ideas in spoken and written language, and we will explore grammatical and linguistic questions as they arise naturally in our classroom. Intermediate-low level. Conducted in Spanish.

Corequisite: Students must attend at least two Languages Series events (Mondays, 7:00pm – 8:00pm)