SPAN 044. Marginalidad y justicia en la época de Cervantes

This course will examine marginality, criminality, and justice as circumstances that define a significant part of the social and literary history of early modernity in Spain. We will focus on some of Miguel de Cervantes’ main works to discover and understand the reality of minority racial groups, and other marginalized such as orphans, sex workers, captives, necromancers, queer people, outcasts and wanderers, as well as people with physical or mental disabilities. The objective of having Cervantes as a central figure in this course is due to the fact that he lived in conditions of poorness and captivity in Argel (Africa) that led him to deeply understand the world of the marginalized; none of his contemporaries portrayed the underprivileged in the realistic and laudable way he did. While we will read some of the Cervantine works, we will also analyze laws, inquisition records, moral treatises, paintings, maps, present-day news, films, and documentaries. Exploring these materials from a modern sensibility will help us understand the contemporaneity of Cervantes’ thought and learn about the strategies that minority and marginal groups have used to survive over time. Reading materials will be available in contemporary Spanish. Taught in Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPAN 022, SPAN 023 , the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Humanities.
1 credit.
Spring 2026. Hernández.
Spring 2027.
Hernández.
Catalog chapter: Spanish
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/spanish

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