[Comedias] "Crisis in the Humanities" and the Comedia

[AHCT Listserv]

Dear Matt,

One reason why I became so interested in the Chamizal was the idea that performing theater was a great way to reach students. On my first visit to the Siglo de Oro, I had a midshipman who was from El Paso sit with me and the play was El caballero de Olmedo. The festival corresponded to our spring break. I haven't had the opportunity since 1984 to have a student there what with changing dates. However, the study of languages is now declining at my institution in favor of STEM majors. I was not replaced when I retired. We had five professor lines in Peninsular literature. Now we have two. That should give you an idea of the shifting priorities. Any hires in Spanish are either linguists or Latin Americanists. I hired the last people in Peninsular lit in the year 2000 when I was still chair. Just last week I found a lonely note card that I had inadvertently left in a BAE edition of some Lope de Vega plays. I may be the only person left reading Lope and I'm retired! I used videos from Chamizal performances in the classroom when I was teaching such as Sor Juana's loa to the Divino Narciso or El gran teatro del mundo. Students greatly appreciate literature when they encounter it. However, opportunities are now rare. The situation at my institution I can understand somewhat, yet it isn't much different from other places as far as the literary aspects of our courses go and the lack of students interested in  previous centuries. The ironic thing is that we have more access to texts and historical information on the Internet than ever before, even videos! You don't have to trek off to the library to check editions! I still think we need to fight the good fight and keep literature wherever we can on the curriculum.
Hope this helps!
Sharon

Sent from my iPad

> On Feb 2, 2016, at 10:53 PM, AHCT Listserv <comedias at comedias.org> wrote:
> 
> Thanks so much for your input. Your comments are not that far off from the current situation at Trinity. I have jokingly referred to what I teach as "literature appreciation," since the students are not prepared for real literary study, nor are they willing to do the necessary work. I guess my follow-up question would be, is this approach to Golden Age literature in general and the comedia in particular fulfilling our college's roles (academic and cultural) as liberal arts institutions? Or are we short-changing the humanities by "sneaking" the content in at the margins of the students' pre-professional programs? 
> 
> 
> Matt
> 
>> On Mon, Feb 1, 2016 at 11:23 AM, AHCT Listserv <comedias at comedias.org> wrote:
>> Hi, Matt.
>> 
>> 
>> I teach at a small (1400) liberal arts college and the vast majority of my upper-level Spanish students are majoring in some pre-professional program with Spanish as a second major.  Since their objectives is primarily language proficiency, I'm compelled to sneak comedias in around the edges.  I've found that they react to them more positively if I approach them from a cultural artifact perspective rather than hope that they'll recognize their literary value.  I asked a recent class to reimagine Fuenteovejuna in terms of a contemporary situation that crosses multiple planes of society, to analyze the characterization of roles in the original text and think about how they would achieve similar effects in contemporary dialogue, and to think about shared understandings of context and environment (embodied cognition-, phenomenology- and semiotics-"light").  They actually came up with some intriguing insights and came away with a much deeper appreciation of the original text than students in previous years.  I've found that students can still learn to value a text, but perhaps not in the way I did when I was an undergraduate.  
>> 
>> 
>> I hope this applies to what you're exploring.
>> 
>> 
>> Deb
>> 
>> 
>> Deborah A. Dougherty, Ph.D.
>> Chair, Department of Modern Languages
>> Professor of Spanish
>> Alma College
>> 
>> 
>> From: Comedias <comedias-bounces at comedias.org> on behalf of AHCT Listserv <comedias at comedias.org>
>> Sent: Thursday, January 28, 2016 9:21 AM
>> To: comedias at comedias.org
>> Subject: [Comedias] "Crisis in the Humanities" and the Comedia
>>  
>> There has been considerable discussion the past few years about the "crisis in the humanities": lower interest and lower enrollments in humanities courses due to the perception that philosophy, literature, and art history will be of little or no use in one's career. I have heard a few anecdotes about positions that are filled with Latin Americanists when the comediante leaves, about Golden Age courses being taught by adjuncts or professors who specialize in other areas of Spanish-language literature or culture, about Golden Age courses being taught less frequently or cancelled altogether, declining enrollments causing departments to reconfigure their needs, etc. I would very much appreciate receiving other data (including anecdotes) to determine whether there is a crisis in Golden Age studies, especially in the comedia, for any reason (economic, political, curricular, etc.). If you would like to share, you may send your information to the entire list by responding directly to this message, or you may send it directly to me at mstroud at trinity.edu (especially if would prefer not to have your name made public). Any kind of relevant information (even that which refutes the notion of the crisis in the humanities) will be most appreciated.
>> 
>> Matt . 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Matthew D. Stroud, Ph.D.
>> Professor of Spanish
>> Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
>> Trinity University
>> San Antonio, TX  78212
>> (210) 999-7549
>> mstroud at trinity.edu
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Comedias mailing list
>> Comedias at comedias.org
>> http://mail.comedias.org/mailman/listinfo/comedias_comedias.org
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Matthew D. Stroud, Ph.D.
> Professor of Spanish
> Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
> Trinity University
> San Antonio, TX  78212
> (210) 999-7549
> mstroud at trinity.edu
> _______________________________________________
> Comedias mailing list
> Comedias at comedias.org
> http://mail.comedias.org/mailman/listinfo/comedias_comedias.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.comedias.org/pipermail/comedias_comedias.org/attachments/20160208/dc2244b2/attachment-0002.html>