Spain as Seen Through Its Movies: 1980s to Today

The use of movies as a vehicular tool allows not only for the introduction of the cultural factors, but also the very Spanish perspective(s) that helps explain how the country sees and understands itself. The course will address the following general questions: a) what it means to speak of a "national cinema;" b) how cinema constructs and/or contests of his or her story; c) cinema's impact on shifting notions of what constitutes the human condition; d) how the formal qualities of cinematic narrative shape on-screen stories; e) where and how issues of gender, sexuality, class, and ethnicity surface in cinematic articulations of the relationship between national identity, global trends, and personal history.