Baltasar Gracián, master of the aphorism, summed it up this way: “Something good, if brief, is twice as good.” Jorge Luis Borges and Adolfo Bioy Casares sought in the microrrelato (a very short story) “the essence of narrative”. In our time, compressed political slogans or tweets compete to attract the fragmented attention of the public. This course will explore the question of narrative brevity in the Spanish tradition. Chronologically, from classic aphorism and proverbs to greguerías and microrrelatos, not forgetting newspaper headlines and slogans, and alongside longer readings, we will discuss the art of linguistic economy in Spanish, its main characteristics and possible limitations. By analyzing these “verbal miniatures,” students will continue polishing their grammatical skills while widening their cultural understanding. Low-intermediate level. Conducted in Spanish.

Corequisite: Students are required to be in attendance at Language Series