Links to the Past: A Digitial Connection to Spain's Literary History

FAIN: FW-50059-09

Felisa Guillen
Occidental College (Los Angeles, CA 90041-3314)

I am applying for an NEH Teaching Development Fellowship to revise my introductory course in Medieval and Renaissance Spanish Literature (Spanish 302).This course in fact surveys Spanish literature and culture from ancient times to the end of the 17th century. The class is conducted entirely in Spanish and requires an advanced level of proficiency in the language. This is a very challenging course to teach due to its interdisciplinary nature, the extensive chronology covered and the foreign vocabulary and artistic conventions. Therefore, I believe that I should implement 2 significant changes in order to make the subject matter more relevant and accessible to students. First, I will re-structure the content along 3 thematic axes and then I will create a web site to present the newly organized content in a digital format. The web site will allow students to make cross references between the different topics and periods and will facilitate independent learning.