In SPAN 406, students will evaluate how different Spanish American authors from the 17^th – 20^th centuries explore the idea of gender as a category of analysis in literature situated in diverse enclosed spaces (the convent, the jail cell, the psychological institution, and others). More specifically, we will evaluate how selected authors promote or move away from the “normative” codes of gender present in society and if and when such codes incorporate and/or compete with other identity categories such as race, class, and ethnicity, and so on. As one of the overarching goals of the course is to engage students in scholarly dialogues on gender, students will explore the construction, performance, and variations of gender through critical and theoretical approaches to the topic and in relation to the literary corpus of the course.