Tag Archives: teaching spanish

Don Quijote, the Graphic Novel, and Snapchat: Alternative Assessments in the L2 Literature Classroom

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

For this post, I’m sharing details of my most recent article, “Snapping the Quijote: Examining L2 Literature, Social Media, and Digital Storytelling through a Cervantine Lens”, which was published in September 2020 in Hispania (vol. 103, no. 2, pp. 323-39). … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Pedagogy, Spain | Tagged Cervantes, comics, Don Quijote de la Mancha, Don Quixote, graphic novel, L2 Literature Pedagogy, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, narratology, pop culture, snapchat, social media, teaching, teaching spanish, technology | 5 Comments

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

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 | 10 Comments

The Red Virgin: Motherhood and Power Dynamics

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

“I shall do as you request, and tell you everything about myself […] You may like me, but I am not alive.” –Hildegarte, played by Ivana Baquero in The Red Virgin “I will do as you ask and tell you … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, History, Pedagogy, Science and Medicine, Spain, Women | Tagged 1920s, Aurora Rodriguez, Birth Control, books, Eugenics, Family Planning, film, first-wave spanish feminism, Gregorio Marañon, Havelock Ellis, Hildegart Rodríguez, madrid, maternity, medical history, motherhood, pedagogy, Red Virgin, sexuality, Spain, teaching spanish, women | 7 Comments

The Dalí Triangle: A Surrealist’s Take on the Catalonian Landscape

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Lately I’ve been writing recommendation letters and filling out language evaluation forms for many of my students who are planning to study abroad during the upcoming academic year. Costa Rica… Ecuador… Argentina… Spain… with each request I find myself wishing … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Spain | Tagged 1920s, art, books, Catalonia, Dalí, Dalí paintings, Figueras, Fundación Gala-Salvador Dalí, photography, Portlligat, Salvador Dali, Spain, spanish art, study abroad, surrealism, teaching spanish | 10 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

Salvador Dalí’s Christmas Cards Are Better than Yours

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Over the weekend, while attempting to get into the holiday spirit by setting up my table-top fiber-optic Christmas tree, baking cookies, and watching the snow fall in sub-zero temperatures, I discovered that one of my favorite Spanish artists, Salvador Dalí, … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Spain, Surrealism | Tagged 1950s, art, Barcelona, Christmas, Navidad, Salvador Dali, Spain, spanish, spanish art, surrealism, teaching spanish | 35 Comments

What People Think about Women: A Bilingual Edition

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

Translation update – Oct. 28, 2013 — Thanks to the careful attention and comment of one of my readers (Lu Cero), I learned about the “terrible mysoginic message” in the search results “Las mujeres necesitan soluciones, lo hombres también pero al … Continue reading →

Posted in Language, Women | Tagged culture, femininity, Feminism, feminists, gender, language, machismo, masculinity, spanish, stereotypes, teaching spanish, women | 4 Comments

Assassination of the Modern Woman: Hildegart and Aurora Rodríguez

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

UPDATE: April 7, 2014 – I assigned the film and podcast in my Spanish literature seminar this semester; read about my lesson plans and student responses here. This week I found an excellent short film on the murder of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Feminism, First-wave spanish feminism, Science and Medicine, Women | Tagged Aurora Rodriguez, Birth Control, Eugenics, Feminism, first-wave spanish feminism, Hildegart Rodríguez, maternity, medical history, motherhood, pseudoscience, Spain, spanish, teaching spanish, women | 5 Comments

Painting the Spanish Civil War

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Dr. Rebecca Bender

(For more information, see my more recent post with details on teaching Guernica in conjunction with Vicente Aleixandre’s poem “Oda a los niños de Madrid muertos por la metralla”, Dec. 2015). In my (Spanish) Introduction to Textual Analysis course, my … Continue reading →