Race, Gender, and Class in the Early Modern Spanish Empire

The cultural productions of the Spanish empire of the early modern period often appear to have a veneer of social neatness and structured compliance. Closer readings, however, reveal a messy social world in which the disenfranchised, or those who identify as such resist and respond to dominant forces and ideologies. In this course, we examine literary and documentary texts with the purpose of reading them against the grain and with a focus on uncovering their hidden scripts of dissent. Our approach emphasizes methods of close analysis and discussions revolve around issues of race, gender, and class.