March 15: Colloquium discusses Don Quixote in the Cave of Montesinos
FREDERICK, Md.—The spring colloquium “Impossible Dreams” series at Hood College will continue with a presentation on the Cave of Montesinos, a section in part II of Miguel de Cervantes’ “Don Quixote” March 15.
Roser Caminals-Heath, Ph.D., professor of Spanish, will present her talk entitled “The Knight and the Cave, the Dream and the Nightmare” in the Whitaker Campus Center Commons at 7 p.m.
In “Don Quixote,” bored, middle-aged country gentleman Alonso Quijano is inspired by his love for chivalry novels to reinvent himself as a literary character he names Don Quixote. The book follows Don Quixote, his horse Rocinante and his squire Sancho Panza as they embark on various adventures and quests. One of these adventures takes Don Quixote into the Cave of Montesinos. Caminals-Heath will lead the audience through an exploration of this famous passage followed by a discussion of its significance in the novel.
A native of Barcelona, Caminals-Heath earned her doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees at the University of Barcelona. At Hood she teaches several courses including creative writing in Spanish. She has published seven novels, the most recent being the Catalan novel “Els aliats de la nit” or “The Allies of the Night,” which was published in the fall.
The year 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of part II of “Don Quixote,” and Hood has been holding reading group sessions during the course of this academic year. There are three sessions left—March 17, April 7 and April 21. They are drop-in sessions, and no prior knowledge of the book is required.
The colloquium events are free and open to the public. They are funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities challenge grant. For more information, visit hood.libguides.com/colloquium/events or contact Katy Fulfer at 301-696-3211 orfulfer@hood.edu.