Romantic man vs Independent woman
Description:
The woman and the image of the woman were very important for Romantic writers, whose main topic for writing were women. However, we seldom see the presence of an active female characters in any piece of literature of this period. Through the analysis of the famous play Don Juan Tenorio, whose famous protagonist has appeared in several works of literature and has established a stereotype that survives even today, we will study the importance of sorting toxic masculinities and rape culture when reading classic texts.
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Description of primary text: Don Juan Tenorio by Jose Zorrilla is present in most literature syllabus in Spain, however, the content of the play is not usually related to the current events that flood the country. In this play, the protagonist praises himself on the evil deeds he has performed throughout his life. The selfishness of the character will lead to the tragic end of most of his relatives and "friends".
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Materials: Don Juan Tenorio by Jose Zorrilla, current pieces of news of any media.
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Secondary Texts:
As secondary sources, students will have to analyse current events as depicted on the news, both tv, internet and newspapers. This will be a problematic issues, and the professor will have to choose the texts carefully.
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Unit Plan:
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Students will receive two sessions on history of the period and literary criticism of Spanish romantic literature. This is aimed at the wider understanding of the context in which the play was written. There will also be an explanation of the character of Don Juan as he appears in literature from different periods and countries. Students will then be asked if they can come up with a character on a current tv show, film, comic, book, song, etc. that can be considered a Don Juan.
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2. Students will read the first act of the play and underline every instance of "Bad behaviour" by the protagonist (or any other character). In class we will analyse some of the examples and students will need to explain what is happening and who is this behaviour affecting the most.
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3. They will repeat the same process for the other two acts and analyse if Don Juan's behaviour changes. Then, the students will be introduced to the term toxic and toxic masculinity that is so popular nowadays. They will then decide if Don Juan is toxic or not.
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4. The students will then write an analysis of the character at home, remarking his toxic traits and judging if he should have been saved at the end or not. They will also need to answer why they think this type of character was considered a hero in the Romantic period and if he would be considered a hero if the play was written in the present time.
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5. Students will receive some pieces of news reporting domestic and gender violence, plus some news about the feminist movement, such as the strike on March 8th, or the Me Too movement. This exercise will be done in groups of three, each group will receive a different article, so they will have to analyse different issues. Some will analyse if the protagonist Don Juan is misogynist and why, another group will look into examples of abuse, and another will analyse the character of Doña Inés as opposed to a modern day female lead in any literary work or tv show. They will expose their findings to the class and there will be discussion time after every presentation.
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Final project:
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The final project for this unit will consist of a re-writing of the play. The whole class will work together in different positions to re-write and prepare a production of the show. Some students will be in charge of writing, some other will be the actors and actresses, and some other can be in charge of props. The final sessions for this unit will be work time for students to prepare a performance of the play.
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They will have to re-write it to make it a feminist play. They can do as many changes as they want and they can add or suppress the characters. By working together and through these changes, it is expected that they can deeply understand the issues that this play raises and how these are still present in our society.
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Links:
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