Culture/Literature/Film Artifacts

Rosa Montero y El Fin de La Dictadura (Rosa Montero and the End of the Dictatorship):

• This artifact is a paper written for a class I took while studying abroad in Spain, “Literatura Española del Siglo XX” (Spanish Literature of the 20th century). In this class, I learned many facts about the history of Spain, giving me insight into some of the culture of the 20th century compared to now, as well as many important authors and other contributors to Spanish literature and arts. As the title of this paper suggests, I wrote about the Spanish author, Rosa Montero, and the impact she made on Spanish literature after the end of the dictatorship in 1975. As I wrote in my paper, the transition from a dictatorship to a democracy was when “fear was lost, and freedom began”. Through the research and writing done for this assignment, I am now more competent in how history can be influenced by simple things such as an author publishing controversial novels. This paper tested my Spanish literacy skills, not only because of the writing, but also because we had to talk about it in class, while only talking in Spanish. For me, this was the most challenging part of this assignment because before I went to Spain, I hadn’t taken any classes in which I had to apply my writing skills to more complicated topics such as literature. In hopes to use my Spanish literacy skills in the future, I found this assignment to be useful and rewarding.

La Novia en Bodas de sangre y Su Conflicto Amoroso (The Bride in Blood Wedding and Her Love Conflict)

This artifact was also written for my class, “Literatura Española del Siglo XX” (Spanish Literature of the 20th century). One thing that I enjoyed about this assignment is that Bodas de sangre is a play, and I had never analyzed a play in any of my other classes. I think this is also something that was a challenge for me because the last time I had to analyze things such as plays, literature, and poetry was in high school. However, this challenge made me excited to learn about it because I knew it would broaden my knowledge of analyzing the emotions and symbolism used in the arts. Bodas de sangre (Blood Wedding) is a play that shows tragedy, love, magic, and symbolism. The style of writing used by the author, Federico García Lorca, has been compared to William Shakespeare’s writing. I really enjoyed breaking down this play because I was actually able to compare it to my religion, Christianity. I liked being able to incorporate something important in my life to this paper, and I was able to display my own perspective on it. This assignment has increased my critical thinking skills, as well as my ability to analyze information, which I will be able to use in future professions.