Hello everyone! I come to you all for some advice. I have been asked to teach an advanced Spanish class for seniors( 6th year of Spanish)under the heading of Advanced literary themes. This course is in lieu of the AP course(which our school has done away with).
It will be for the Fall semester only. The students will be taking a course on Latin American short stories in the Spring semester. I am free to teach any genres, writers, themes, etc.
I value your opinions very much! I am hoping you all could give me some advice and suggestions regarding the class, possible texts to use, etc.
I have been toying with the idea of doing a semester only on García Lorca, one of my favorite authors. The book Federico García Lorca seems quite good for this type of course. I also thought of reading La casa de Bernarda Alba in addition to [i]Bodas de sangre [/i] which is included in this anthology.

My question is this...Do you think it would be "over kill" to do so much Lorca with High school kids. Will I lose them? I don't think so; especially if I bring in the flamenco and the cante jondo. I would also plan on using Saura's movie adaptation of Bodas de sangre and also seeing La casa de Bernarda Alba in a production here in NYC.

I thought of also tying in other contemporary authors who have been influenced by Lorca's work. Any suggestions on who might be good for high school seniors?
Any thoughts and suggestions are most appreciated.

Esperanza,

Thank God they have done away with that AP literature course. That was TOO biased towards Spain for me.

I think Lorca all semester would be overkill. Why not focus on 2 of his works, as you have mentioned and bring in short stories, by for instance, Ana María Matute and other contemporary authors.

At least students would see that there are more writers other than Lorca.

Shawn

Hi Esperanza

Without doubt, Garcia Lorca is a great study option. But too much Lorca is a bit heavy on the tragic side. Perhaps comic works would engross your students a bit more. In this case I would higly recommend the play "Cuatro corazones freno y marcha atras", written by Javier Poncela.
With immortality being the main theme, we the readers can witness the way in which each of the characters deal when immortality is attained.
I first read this play at college when I was 16 and not being a great reader, I really enjoyed reading this play.

We also have Atonio Buero Vallejo whose works principally focus on life after the spanish civil war. With a mixture of such theatre your students can then see the contrast of literary styles of the time.
"Historia de una escalera" y " La llegada de los dioses" stand out as his best plays.

This is my suggestion regarding theatre. Hope this helps

Regards
Alberto

Esperanza,

I have been doing Lorca with my senior 6th year class for years, but instead of the plays, I do some of the poetry. Like you stated in your first post, It combine it with the music,dancing and gypsy culture. Saura's Carmen is a great movie to show the passion and beauty of the culture. My students start out saying they hate poetry and by the end of the unit they write their own Lorca style verses. If you want more information contact me off list.

I love Julio Cortazar stories and I also use Doce Cuentos Peregrinos by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. We don't have time to read them all, so I choose the ones I think teens will like the most. I have also done Como Agua para Chocolate.

Gloria

thanks Gloria, Shawn and Alberto for posting. I also love to use Esquivel's Como agua para chocolate...the students really like it too. However, this time I want to focus on only Spain since my colleague will be doing Latin American short stories with them in the second semester.

Alberto, I was thinking of Buero Vallejo also...I have to make up my mind soon.

Shawn, I respect your opinions always and I thought about the overkill factor...so I am going to not ONLY do Lorca. I am thinking of having a good amount of Lorca though . I, of course will be using Lorca's poetry...which I adore!... I will do Generacion del 98 and try to get into the literatura de la posguerra at the end of the semester.

Far be it from me to criticize Una Maestra tan Estimada como Ud., Señora but:

A point of order, Esperanza: If you refer to the poet by his surname, you should refer to him as Garcia Lorca rather than 'Lorca.' His father's name was Garcia and his mother's maiden name was Lorca. So he would have been known more as Federico Garcia or Federico Garcia Lorca before he was killed by Guardia Civil for the crime of being a flagrant homosexual.

When I was living in Spain, a radio locutor would read Garcia Lorca's poetry with such passion that I became a 'fan.' I still have a leather-bound Aguilar edition of the complete works of Federico Garcia Lorca that I bought in Madrid in 1961. It also contains a pretty comprehensive biography.

I think you are going in the right direction with your syllabus for the course. I was going to suggest a ciné-club type approach like I was exposed to in Spain and wherein I polished a lot of my Spanish speaking ability. Members (students) view a film, then comment on any 'message' or moral it was trying to convey and whether it achieved its goal. At times the discussions may get pretty lively; but (and this you must enforce)they must be all in Spanish. Another movie you might consider is Todo lo de mi Madre (All about my Mother) that won some awards a couple of years ago.

Another film (Cannes Film Festival prize winner) that I enjoyed but that may be a bit risqué for American H.S. Seniors is one with a French title: Belle Epoque. That may have been Penelope Cruz's debut film. Both films should be available at your local Blockbuster.