Undergraduate Courses (list)

Cinema may contribute powerfully to the construction of social identities, and the interaction between films and audiences is often especially complex during authoritarian regimes and in their aftermath. In this course we will examine films produced from the 1960s to the present in Spain and Argentina, both of which have experienced periods of dictatorial rule as well as transitions to democracy, in order to explore their reflection of and intervention in processes of identity production (as inflected by kinship, national formations, race/ethnicity, class, religious belief, gender, sexuality, health and dis/ability, and life stages). We will study films by internationally acclaimed directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Lucrecia Martel, Luis Buñuel, Isabel Coixet, Julio Medem, and Lucía Puenzo.

Readings and class discussions will be in English, and all films will be subtitled. Students wishing to receive Spanish major/minor credit for this course must complete all written work in Spanish.