SPAN 347 - 001

Regular Academic Session

5981

Undergraduate

3 units

Graded Alpha

Madness and Laughter

Prerequisite: permission of chairperson.

This course reads Cervantes' masterpiece with an emphasis on critical approaches, and on the book's impact on the invention of the modern novel.

Outcomes: Students will learn about Cervantes's contribution to the development of modern fiction; They will become familiar with the novel's connection to other literary genres, and the role of metafiction and textuality.

European Studies

This course explores Miguel de Cervantes¿ Don Quijote de la Mancha through the intertwined lenses of humor and mental health. Often hailed as the first modern novel, Don Quijote invites readers to laugh¿and to question why and at whom they are laughing. Is Don Quijote¿s ¿madness¿ a symptom of mental illness, a form of moral idealism, or a critique of the society that mocks him? Through close readings of the novel alongside psychological, philosophical, and literary scholarship, students will examine how Cervantes uses humor both to entertain and to illuminate the fragile boundaries between imagination and delusion, joy and despair, sanity and madness.

Gabriela Buitrón Vera

We 4:15PM - 6:45PM

01/12/2026 - 05/02/2026

In person

Lake Shore Campus

Lake Shore Campus

Open

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5

18

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