LFU:online

Students get to know two emblematic authors of the 20th century - Gloria Fuertes (Spain) and María Elena Walsh (Argentina) - and can classify and critically reflect on their position in the cultural tension field of popular / children's / “high” literature. They will develop a deeper and (gender)critical understanding of the central literary entities: “author” and “text”. In addition, the seminar familiarizes students with the tools of literary analysis: researching and excerpting secondary literature and theoretical texts, application to literary texts, with focus on poetry analysis. Formulating an appropriate question, planning, structuring and writing a first own literary work.

Gloria Fuertes (Spain, 1917-1998) and María Elena Walsh (Argentina, 1930-2011) are still part of the childhood memories of several generations in Spain and Argentina: as icons of children's literature, somewhat quirky, lovable clown characters, famous for television programs like the Spanish “Un globo, dos globos, tres globos” or the Argentinian cult figure “Manuelita la tortuga”. Those aspects of their biographies that were diametrically opposed to the narrow gender norms of Spanish Franquismo and Argentine terror regimes – homosexuality, childlessness, financial independence - do not seem to have opposed this popularity, but permeate - unspokenly, implicitly - the figures of the authors.

Against this background, the seminar will deal with the extensive lyrical works for adults by these authors and ask how they design this figure of themselves as a poet in the poem, what they reveal about "themselves", how they identify themselves as "serious" authors, legitimizing her authorship. In terms of method, on the one hand we rely on the latest concepts of authorship studies that have been increasingly present in Hispanic studies in recent years, especially from Argentina, where terms such as "autopoética" or "autoficción poética" are particularly useful for analyzing the construction mechanisms of the author in poetry. On the other hand, the lyrical figurations are to be analyzed with regard to their gender and heteronormative character, with the help of gender-critical approaches of literary theory.

Reading assingments  of theoretical and literary texts, short teacher-centered inputs, discussion of contents based on readings.

Written and oral assignments during the semester, one longer writing assignment at the end of the semester.

Will be facilitated at the beginning of the semester (OLAT)

Lektüre und Analyse Spanisch; basic knowledge of literary text analysis.

The seminar will be held partially/mostly in Spanish; all assignments (especially written assignments) can also be handed in in German.