Carlos Ramos
Margaret E. Deffenbaugh and LeRoy T. Carlson Professor in Comparative Literary Studies & Professor of Spanish
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Teaching and research focused on 19th, 20th and 21st century Spanish peninsular literature and cultural history.
The literary reverberations of modernization and urbanization in Spain have been the focus of my two books: Ciudades en mente: Dos incursiones en el espacio urbano de la narrativa española moderna, 1887-1934 (2002), and Construyendo la modernidad: Arquitectura y escritura en el Madrid moderno, 1918-1937 (2010), both published in Spain. Another direction of my recent research has involved the recovery of never-before-seen photographs of the Spanish Civil War. Two exhibits were organized (in Wellesley and Spain) with Professor Judith Black from the Art Department. I edited the trilingual catalog (Catalan, Spanish, and English): Lleida en guerra. La colleció Ramon Rius (2007) with contributions of specialists from Spain, México, and the United States. I have also published articles in Spain and the United States on urban literature, Spanish poetry, and Catalan narrative. My current research explores “Albadas” (Dawn songs), a poetic genre with origins in the Middle Ages, but with a fascinating contemporary life as well.
At Wellesley I have tried to keep my research connected to the areas in which I teach. I have developed courses on Spanish poetry, post-Civil War Spanish narrative, 19th-century Spanish literature and culture, the cultural connections between Spain and the United States, the cultures and civilizations of Spain, as well as two seminars. One seminar is devoted to the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, and the other explores modernity and avant-garde in Spain. Since January 2003 I have organized, directed, and taught a Wintersession course in Barcelona called "Barcelona and the Spirit of Modernity, 1859-Present." In 2011 I was awarded the Pinanski Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
My administrative duties at the college have included service in the Agenda Committee (2002-05, chair 04-05), the Foreign Languages and Area Studies Task Force (2009-10), the Committee on Faculty Appointments (2012-15 & 20), the Provost’s Council (2011-15) the Accreditation Steering Com
Favorite pastimes include enjoying nature in New England with my wife Neus, our two daughters Blau and Duna, and our English cocker spaniel, Cooper; listening to music of all kinds; following with paralyzing anxiety my soccer team, F. C. Barcelona; and anticipating our next trip to Vall de Boí, in the Catalan Pyrenees.
Education
- B.A. or B.S., Universidad Central de Barcelona
- M.A., Emerson College
- Ph.D., Boston University
Current and upcoming courses
Using a gender-aware perspective and a wide variety of literary texts,, documents, films, and architectural and artistic examples, this course will explore various forms of Modernity and Modernization in Spain. The analysis will go beyond aesthetic modernity to consider social change and cultural transformation. Main figures will include Federico García Lorca, Maruja Mallo, Vicente Huidobro, Antonio Gaudí, Luis Buñuel, Concha Méndez and “las sinsombrero”, José Ortega y Gasset, Clara Campoamor, Victoria Kent, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso. The connections between modernity and postmodernity will also be explored, as well as a comparison of the attitudes towards change and innovation at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.
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A study of the struggle for self-expression in Franco's Spain and the transition from dictatorship to democracy. Special attention will be devoted to the literature and the cinema of the Civil War and exile, and to contemporary renegotiations of the memory of the war. The materials will include recent explorations of the effects of war trauma in literature, cinema and politics. Authors include Mercè Rodoreda, Carmen Laforet, Manuel Rivas, Alberto Méndez, Adelaida García Morales, and Víctor Erice.
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Understanding Modern Spain
SPAN272
A multidisciplinary introduction to contemporary Spain’s life and culture. Literary, historical, artistic, and anthropological readings will inform our understanding of recurrent themes in the construction and questioning of Spanish national identity and culture: Spain as a nexus of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic thought; centripetal vs. centrifugal forces; religion and class; long-term economic and cultural consequences of global empire; dictatorship and democracy. Attention will be paid to Portugal and to the diversity of languages and cultures of the Iberian Peninsula.