The Generation of ’98
S07
Jonathan Pitcher
Paradoxically initiated by the loss of its last colonies in the Spanish-American War of 1898 and a Nicaraguan poet’s invention of modernism, Spain’s rebirth, its Silver Age, was marked by an increasingly cosmopolitan, radical egoism. This cultural revitalization, particularly the newfound gravitas of the philosophical essay, fed by America to Europe then back to America once again, is sometimes referred to as the essence of Hispanicism. The course will consider the Generation of ’98, emphasizing the work of the leader of its intelligentsia, José Ortega y Gasset, and that of its darkest associate, Ramón María del Valle-Inclán. Discussions and presentations will facilitate the development of oral fluency. Students will expand their descriptive, analytical, and polemical vocabulary. Written work, including an appropriate research project, will solidify familiarity with linguistic structures.