Latin American And Iberian Cultures · Columbia University
The class itself can be kind of intimidating since its all conducted in Spanish and there were a lot of native speakers in my class. But he encourages everyone to speak up. The class content itself was super interesting. He sort of lectures throughout the class and starts off asking us what we thought about each work of art/poem/literature. And then he breaks down most of the elements and provides analysis. As a non-native speaker I think I understood like 85% but he repeats the super important details. Overall he was super friendly and chill to talk to in office hours too.
Professor Firmat is a very friendly person. This is what will be most salient to you in his class. He is kind, reasonable, engaged with the names and personalities of his students from the start, quick to respond to emails, and generally a really relaxed person. That said, I am still trying to figure out what I got from his class. I do not understand what "kind" of interpretation he was providing of the text, as it seemed kind of unstructured and unspecific. I did not learn a lot about the works we were reading. We just read them and talked about their general context without ever doing any close reading or discussion of the broader contextual implications of the works. Professor Firmat is also a really strange grader. Our final was to design a presentation-essay of the works we read as if we were introducing Latin American Literature to a group of students. This was really kind of directionless and a bit unprofessional in my opinion. Our midterms were in-class short interpretations of texts. I was at first happy with how quickly Gustavo graded the exams, but over time it seemed to me that Gustavo has little interest in what his students actually say, and that he might think they're not smart enough to say anything worth our time or his. Overall I was really excited to take Gustavo's class because of all the great reviews, but I was thoroughly disappointed and I wish I had tak…
Gustavo Perez Firmat is very knowledgeable, in all subjects. He frequently references works of art (art, poetry, literature, philosophy...) from all around the world. More importantly, he knows how to teach. And even more important than this, he is a good person. Funny, amiable, interesting, concerned about others, etc. Perez Firmat is unpretentious and open to differing views. He has written novels, poems, and theory. Just check out his website. He is an amazing human being.
Great professor. Loves the etomology of words. Fun class, good discussion. If you can trek your a** over to the Spanish Casa, then go for Gustavo's class. He is nice and never intimidating and gives good insight to the books. He does have sort of a feminist standpoint though. I do think he feels guilty for being a man, part of the ruling class.
A lot about Spanish and Latin American history, art, and literature
not a lot of reading, and no homework except the final
By far the best professor I have had. The best discussions, this man is brilliant. He is funny and besides all of that, he is easy to approach and he will actually listen. He incorporates a lot of the outside world to our discussions and does not limit it to his own ideas. Whoever thinks he's sexist or not acknowledging the underepresented role of women is highly mistaken. Perez recognizes that women are underrepresented in hispanic literature and he is not sexist. I highly recommend this class if you want a fun and intellectually challening class with a great reading selection and a great professor.
I learned a lot about important moments in Spanish and Hispanic American history through art and literature and the different artistic movements from the past couple centuries
Gustavo Perez Firmat is awesome. He's one of the best profs I've had at Columbia. This seminar had great readings, and he knows just how to lead a discussion-based class. He's able to both keep us on topic but also get us to develop our own ideas. I left this class happy every Tuesday. I highly recommend him.
Art and literary history of the Spanish-speaking world since the Enlightenment, including cultural movements, emerging national identities, and political changes.