The Birth of the Jewish Novel: La Celestina, Lazarillo de Tormes, Don Quixote de la Mancha

Class starts Jan 10 6:30pm-7:45pm

Tuition: $325 | YIVO members: $250**

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This is a live, online course held on Zoom. Enrollment will be capped at about 25 students. All course details (Zoom link, syllabus, handouts, recordings of class sessions, etc.) will be posted to Canvas. Students will be granted access to the class on Canvas after registering for the class here on the YIVO website. This class will be conducted in English, and any readings will be in English.

Instructor: Ilan Stavans

This course offers an exploration of the origins of the Jewish novel in Spain after the expulsion in 1492 and the world of so-called marranos. By delving into the sensibility of cristianos nuevos, conversos, and crypto-Jews, the course will discern the role of fiction as a tool of social critique, entertainment, and mimesis.

Three novels will be discussed in English translation: The tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea, commonly known as La Celestina (1499), attributed to Fernando de Rojas; the anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes (1554); and Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605-1615).

Course Materials:
Students should purchase the following books before the first date of class:

Anonymous, Lazarillo de Tormes, trans. by Ilan Stavans (Norton Critical Editions) (Purchase)
Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quixote de la Mancha, trans. by John Ormsby (Restless Books) (Purchase)
Rojas, Fernando de. La Celestina, trans. by Peter Bush (Penguin Classics) (Purchase)
Stavans, Ilan. Quixote: The Novel and the World (Norton) (Purchase)
Stavans, Ilan. Jewish Literature: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford) (Purchase)

Questions? Read our 2023 Winter Program FAQ.

Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities, Latin American, and Latino Cultures at Amherst College, publisher of Restless Books, host of NPR’s podcast In Contrast, and a regular contributor to the New York Times en Español. An international bestselling author, his books include On Borrowed Words (2000), Spanglish (2002), Dictionary Days (2010), and Quixote (2015). Among his graphic novels are Latino USA: A Cartoon History (2000), El Iluminado (2012), Angelitos (2017), and an adaptation of Don Quixote of La Mancha (2018). He is the editor of, among others, The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (1998), The Schocken Book of Sephardic Literature (2008), Norton Anthology of Latino Literature (2011), Becoming Americans (2013), and Oy Caramba!: An Anthology of Jewish Stories from Latin America (2017). His work, adapted into theater, TV, film, and radio, has been translated into twenty languages.

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