Spanish |  Photography |  Twentieth Century Spanish Theatre and Politics |  Art and Architecture in Medieval Spain

Political Science

States, Citizens, Human Rights and Literature (POL 3573.90)

This course consists of discussions surrounding political novels and nonfiction literature that reflect ideological violence, state terror and the response to state power by individuals and groups. Beginning with a political framework the course will concentrate on the tyranny of the Spanish state as symbolized most notably by the Inquisition, and the expulsion of all Jews and Muslims from Spain beginning in 1492. The reign of Ferdinand and Isabella who organized the Inquisition and the expulsion in their attempt to unify Spain through religious and blood purity will be looked at closely. The relationship, in the 20th century, of the Spanish civil war of 1936-1939 to the Inquisition will be also be studied. Picasso's great 1937 masterpiece Guernica, which reflects the bombing and destruction of the Basque town of Guernica by the fascists during the civil war and which we will see in Madrid, will be a central focus of the course since it is a stunningly artistic representation of the issues to be analyzed in this course.    (4 credits)

Professor Peter Schwab, Purchase College