Category Archives: Literature

Teaching Spanish America: From the Conquest to Contemporary Film

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

This semester at Kansas State I’m teaching a 500-level Spanish American Literature survey course, and I decided to experiment a bit with the way I structured the content. Survey-style courses are always challenging to design, given their vast scope — … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Literature, Pedagogy, Spanish America | Tagged Bolivia, colonization, conquista, film, Latin American Literature, literature, teaching spanish | 1 Comment

Picasso’s “Guernica” and Aleixandre’s “Oda”: The Spanish Civil War in Art and Poetry

Posted on December 5, 2015 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

One of my favorite things to do when creating lesson plans and homework assignments is to find visuals that evoke the same themes or feelings as the literary text. When teaching poetry for example, I have found that images work … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, History, Literature, Spain, Spanish Civil War | Tagged art, guernica, madrid, picasso, poetry, spanish art, spanish civil war, teaching, Vicente Aleixandre | 12 Comments

Following the Footsteps of a Literary Hero: Personal Histories of Place

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

This summer I had several projects to work on, including an article on urban Madrid, two new syllabi to prepare, and a conference presentation in Salamanca on the film Las 13 Rosas. But I also took on another smaller project … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Spain, Spanish Civil War | Tagged books, fiction, Franco, hero, history, journey, Laurie Lee, Spain, spanish civil war, travel | Leave a comment

Miguel de Cervantes: An internet sensation?

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547-1616) has been in the news a lot lately… considering he lived over four centuries ago! First, in late January, Spanish researches reported unearthing a coffin in the Madrid convent where Cervantes was purportedly buried in … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Literature, Spain | Tagged Cervantes, digital humanities, Don Quijote de la Mancha, Golden Age, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, novel, Quijote, Salvador Dali, Spain, spanish literature | 2 Comments

Maternity and Madrid: Gendered Spaces in La rampa (1917)

Posted on September 30, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

I have officially decided that September is the fastest-moving, shortest month of the (academic) year. It flies by quicker than winter break. One day you are rather calmly introducing the course syllabus and getting to know new students… the next … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Literature, Modernity, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, Carmen de Burgos, gender, literature, madrid, maternity, motherhood, Spain, urban studies | 10 Comments

“Fun” with Academic Publishing: Wordle, Coffee, and Pedagogy

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

As any professor, graduate student, or postdoc knows, publishing an article in an academic journal is not a particularly enjoyable process… and it can take months, if not years, to see your article in print once accepted and revised. Knowing … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, Literature, Pedagogy, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, academia, Feminism, first-wave spanish feminism, gender, language, literature, Margarita Nelken, maternity, motherhood, pedagogy, spanish literature, teaching, women, Word Cloud | Leave a comment

Bicycles, typewriters, and sex!?!? Cultures of the Erotic in early 20th Century Spain

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Among the many articles and books I consulted for my last article on La Venus mecánica, Maite Zubiaurre’s Cultures of the Erotic in Spain, 1898-1939 (from Vanderbilt UP, 2012) was by far my favorite. Not only does Prof. Zubiaurre‘s monograph … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Literature, Modernity, Spain | Tagged 1920s, art, books, erotica, Eugenics, gender, Hildegart Rodríguez, literature, madrid, modernity, pseudoscience, sex, sexuality, Spain, spanish art, spanish literature | 6 Comments

La Llorona: Incorporating Latino Studies into Hispanic Literature

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

If you grew up in the southwest United States, if you can claim Hispanic heritage, or if you’ve lived in a community with a distinct Hispanic population, you are likely quite familiar with the numerous legends of “La Llorona” (The … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Feminism, Literature, Pedagogy, US Southwest, Women | Tagged art, catholicism, children, femininity, Feminism, first-wave spanish feminism, gender, gender ideology, infanticide, La llorona, La Malinche, La virgen de Guadalupe, language, Latino literature, latino studies, legends, literature, Mexico, motherhood, myth, pedagogy, Sandra Cisneros, teaching, teaching spanish, Virgin of Guadalupe | 11 Comments

Exploring Female Identities in Carmen de Burgos’ “La rampa”

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

One of the first novels to spark my interest in early twentieth-century Spanish women’s literature was Carmen de Burgos’ La rampa (1917). As an urban novel, the narrative explores the effects of modernity not only on the residents of and … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, History, Literature, Modernity, Pedagogy, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, art, books, Carmen de Burgos, city, culture, femininity, Feminism, first-wave spanish feminism, gender, La rampa, literature, madrid, maternity, modernity, motherhood, pedagogy, Spain, spanish, spanish literature, teaching, teaching spanish, urban studies, women | 16 Comments

The Perfect Wife in the 21st century: “La perfecta casada” en el siglo XXI

Posted on February 5, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Now that February is suddenly here, the Spring 2014 semester is officially underway and I am finally organized (well, for the most part!). For me, the most exciting part about this new semester is that I’m teaching a course I … Continue reading →