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This paper is available for the academic year 2024-25.

The study of the Iberian Middle Ages and Spanish early modern period is fundamental to the understanding of modern Spain and its culture. These eras were times of intense political and religious upheaval, yet they fostered a rich, vibrant literary and artistic culture unique in Europe. Historically the peninsula was a site of successive waves of invasion and colonization so that its cultural substrata encompass pagan, Christian, Judaic, and Islamic influences. As a result medieval Hispanic culture is diverse and distinctive in its mixture of Islamic, Hebraic and Christian elements.

After the fall of the Islamic state of Granada to the Catholic Monarchs in 1492, the Castilian language became dominant, the Spanish state had cemented its power, and the themes and ideals that were to shape later Spanish literature and thought had taken root. At this point, Spain developed the largest and most important Empire in the Early Modern period, and was poised at a dynamic moment when it was simultaneously at the height of its power and already on the brink of decline. Across the Atlantic, the conquest of Mexico brought the cultural and political complexity of the Iberian world into contact and conflict with diverse indigenous societies.

Students will acquire a sound knowledge of the literature, art, social and political history of the Middle Ages and Early Modern period in the Spanish peninsula, enabling them to understand key concerns of this era within the unique context of the multicultural society of medieval Spain. One topic focuses on medieval culture (War and the Hero), two topics address central early modern preoccupations with love and the demonic (The Great Romance & Playing the Devil), and introduce students to the richness and variety of expression of those themes through important literary and dramatic texts. The fourth topic will introduce students to the representation of members of the three faiths (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) in the medieval and early Modern periods and give a historical overview of their relationships through an exploration of convivencia (lit. living-togetherness).

Finally, in the transatlantic component of this paper, students will develop a nuanced understanding of the construction of colonial Latin American narratives by analyzing indigenous and European perspectives on a single historical event (Writing the Conquest of Mexico). Students should note that SP3 also provides excellent preparation for the Part II Medieval (SP14) and Early Modern (SP7) papers.

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