Harry Vélez Quiñones
Wyatt 237, X 3269, velez@ups.edu
University of Puget Sound
Office Hours W: 4:30-5:30, F: 1:00-4:00
FL 385: Don Quijote: The Quest for Modern Fiction
Website: http://webspace.pugetsound.edu/facultypages/velez/Quijote/
Texts:
Miguel de Cervantes. Don Quijote. Trans. Burton Raffel. Norton Critical Editions. (DQ)
Carroll B. Johnson. Don Quixote: The Quest for Modern Fiction. Waveland Press. (QT)
DQ – FL385 Coursepacket Assorted xeroxed Texts (CPK)
Texts on reserve:
Jean Canavaggio. Cervantes. Norton.
J.H. Elliott. Imperial Spain. New American Library.
Henry Kamen. Spain 1469-1714: A Society of Conflict, 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley.
Objectives:
"All prose fiction is a variation on the theme of Don Quixote," according to Lionel Trilling, for whom Cervantes posed "the problem of appearance and reality" (Liberal Imagination 203). In Harry Levin's opinion, Don Quixote is "the prototype of all realistic novels," exemplifying "the literary technique of systematic disillusionment" (Gates of Horn 47–48). René Girard begins his sweeping study of the modern novel with Don Quixote, specifically with "The Tale of Foolish Curiosity" from part 1. Both Wayne Booth and Marthe Robert consider Cervantes' use of the self-conscious narrator as central to the development of modern fiction, and Robert Alter's "partial magic" is, as it is for Borges, the magic of Cervantes. ( . . . ) After World War II, André Malraux remarked that only three books Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, and The Idiot (the first and the last profoundly influenced by the second) were truly meaningful to the survivors of prisons and concentration camps (119–120). (John J. Allen "Coping with Don Quixote" 45)
Having in mind the above observations, this course aims to carry out a close reading of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quijote (1605, 1615). The course will place the text in its cultural and historical setting, illuminate aspects that non-native readers may find obscure, and show its importance in modern fiction. Indeed, the course wants to demonstrate how our own modes of reading are predicated on what Cervantes' text accomplished beginning almost four-hundred years ago.
Requirements:
a) One (1) mid-term exam.
b) Three (3) critical response essays.
c) One (1) research paper.
d) One (1) reading journal.
Rules of the Game:
I. Class participation is fundamental. This assumes that you will read the assigned texts critically and in a detailed fashion. It is to be expected that you will arrive to class ready to answer questions, pose discussion topics, and engage in the detailed discussion of the works. It is your responsibility to contact me prior to class if you cannot meet the above expectations on a given day.
II. Each absence above the maximum number of three (3) will reduce class participation grade one full point: A to A-, B- to C+, etc. Exceptions to this rule may be granted in case of special circumstances. Your class partipation grade amounts to 25% of the final grade.
III. Assigned papers are to be handed in by the stipulated deadline. Extensions or late submissions are not possible. The group project will be presented during the the final days of the semester. Once groups are formed they shold meet throught the term to work collaboratively. The project must include a research component and may include a performance or a multimedia component.
IV. Missing a test or skipping an assignment implies your willingness to forgo all credit for the work in question.
V. The syllabus is your road map to the course. Study it carefully and on a daily basis.
Grading:
a) One (1) mid-term exam. 15%
b) Three (3) response papers. 25%
c) One semester-length group project 25%
d) One (1) reading journal 10%
e) Class participation* 25%
Methodology:
Bibliography:
Allen, John J. Don Quixote, Hero or Fool? 2 vols. Gainsville: U. of Florida Press, 1969, 1979.
Close, Anthony J. The Romantic Approach to "Don Quixote." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
Cruz, Anne J. and Carroll B. Johnson. Cervants and His Postmodern Constituencies. New York: Garland Publications, 1999.
Dudley, Edward J., The Endless Text. "Don Quixote" and the Hermeneutics of Romance. Albany: SUNY Press, 1997.
El Saffar, Ruth. Critical Essays on Cervantes. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1986.
_____. Distance and Control in "Don Quixote": A Study in Narrative Technique. Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina Press, 1975.
El Saffar Ruth and Diana de Armas Wilson. Quixotic Desire: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Cervantes. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1993.
Gerli, E. Michael. Refiguring Authority: Reading, Writing, and Rewriting in Cervantes. Lexington, KY: U. of Kentucky Press, 1995.
Johnson, Carroll B. Madness and Lust: A Psychoanalitical Approach to "Don Quixote". Berkeley and Los Angeles: U. of California Press, 1983.
Mancing, Howard. The Chivalric World of "Don Quixote": Style, Structure, and Narrative Technique. Columbia, MO: U. of Missouri Press, 1982.
Murillo, Luis A. A Critical Introduction to "Don Quixote". New York: Peter Lang, 1988.
Parr, James A. "Don Quixote": An Anatomy of subversive Discourse, Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 1988.
Predmore, Richard L. The World of "Don Quixote". Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1967.
Reed, Walter L. An Exemplary History of the Novel: The Quixotic versus the Picaresque. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1981.
Riley, Edward C. Cervantes's History of the Novel. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.
Spitzer, Leo. "Linguistic Perspectivism in Don Quixote," in Linguistics and Literary History, 41–85. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1967.
Calendar
Acronyms:
––Texts:
CPK = Coursepack FL 385
DQ = Don Quijote, Trans. Burton Raffel, Norton Critical Edition
(In the calendar DQ = ancillary readings, DQI and DQII = first and second parts of Don Quijote)
QT = Don Quixote: The Quest for Modern Fiction, Carroll B. Johnson
––Other:
BG = Background sources
CE = Critical essays
X = Xeroxed handout
NOTE: Read the assigned pages before the day on which they appear listed in the calendar.
The latter indicates the matter to be discussed during each class period.
January 21Monday - |
Martin Luther King Jr. Day |
January 23 Wednesday - |
Introduction to the course and some basic concepts |
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January 28 Monday - |
QT 1-18 CPK–BG 1, 2, 3 –PP. 2-24 The Spanish Empire |
January 30 Wednesday - |
CPK–BG 4,5–PP. 25-44 Gentlemen and Rogues (Hidalgos y pícaros) |
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February 4 Monday - |
CPK–BG 6–pp. 45-54 DQ 755-757, 757-761, 762-765, 765-767 X Lazarillo de Tormes Spanish Literary History and Cervantes's Literary Sources |
February 6 Wednesday - |
X Brief biography QT xi-xiii CPK–BG 7–PP. 55-79 DQ 749-753 DQ 847-853 Cervantes and Pierre Menard |
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February 11 Monday - |
DQ vii-xvi QT 37-56 DQI 7-11 DQ 797-799 On the prologue One Great Prologue and Other Readings |
February 13 Wednesday - |
DQI 13-49 CPK–CE 1, 5–PP. 81-82 & 98-100 DQ 787-792 On identity |
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February 18 Monday - |
DQI 50-86 CPK–CE 6–PP. 101-111 DQ 799-805 On Marcela |
February 20 Wednesday - |
DQI 86-127 CPK–CE 3–PP. 86-89 DQ 805-810 On the chain gang |
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February 25 Monday - |
DQI 127-160 DQ 784-787 On Dulcinea |
February 27 Wednesday - |
DQI 160-202 CPK–CE 7–PP. 112-118 On Aldonza Lorenzo |
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March 4 Monday - |
DQI 203-241 |
March 6 Wednesday - |
DQI 241-278 DQ 810-814 On Dorotea |
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March 11 Monday - |
DQI 278-320 DQ 821-830 On Zoraida |
March 13 Wednesday - |
DQI 320-355 |
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March 15 Friday- |
Spring Semester Mid-Term |
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March 18-22 |
Spring Recess QT 57-120 |
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March 25 Monday - |
Don Quijote in Cinema |
March 27 Wednesday - |
Don Quijote in Cinema |
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April 1 Monday - |
DQII 359-402 |
April 3 Wednesday - |
DQII 403-442 CPK–CE 2–PP. 82-86 On Sancho |
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April 8 Monday - |
DQII 442-479 |
April 10 Wednesday - |
DQII 479-521 DQ 834-839 On the Cave of Montesinos |
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April 15 Monday - |
DQII 521-558 |
April 17 Wednesday - |
DQII 559-598 |
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April 22 Monday - |
DQII 598-640 |
April 24 Wednesday - |
DQII 640-675 DQ 830-833 On the Duke and the Duchess |
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April 29 Monday - |
DQII 675-716 |
May 1 Wednesday - |
DQII 716-746 DQ 839-846 On the end |
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May 6 Monday - |
GROUP PROJECT PRESENTATION |
May 8 Wednesday - |
GROUP PROJECT PRESENTATION Last Day of Classes |