Learning lessons from Spain's Golden Age

Nina Cox Davis finds many links between Renaissance Spain and America today

For Nina Cox Davis, Ph.D., studying Spain's Golden Age is a continual source of fascination and ideas; for her students, it's a bit like delving into a 16th- and 17th-century soap opera. The era, which spanned the years from about 1492 to 1650, was fraught with high drama: religious oppression, censorship, misogyny and class struggles, not to mention the European discovery of the New World.

"It's rich and fascinating at every turn," said Davis, chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures and associate professor of Spanish in Arts and Sciences.

Not surprisingly, all that turmoil -- from Spain's drive to eradicate its own multiple cultures to exploitation of the New World -- provided great fodder for a literary community directly affected by the country's imperial woes. Getting students fascinated with the story lines is surprisingly easy, said Davis. Students, for example, are vitally interested in learning what happened to an earlier Western power's minority culture and understanding the role of the arts in questioning the status quo.

"You can watch them getting more and more drawn into the culture," she said.

For Davis, the best way to study an era's social and political tensions is to examine its art. And while the era may seem to have little in common with modern-day American realities, Davis sees many parallels.

"I always encourage students to make connections, find links," she said.

A multicultural society

"The nascent Catholic country was actually much more diverse than its ideology would allow," Davis said. "Many socio-political tensions were worked out through the arts."

The term "Golden Age" was coined by 19th-century German intellectuals after the era's heyday. The name was a testament to the Germans' admiration for the exceptional quality of literature, theater in particular, the era produced. Much of the theater at the time dealt with themes of kingship, honor, Catholicism and a rigid class structure, which provided them a model for early expression of their own nationalism. But did it? The question, said Davis, is still debated. She believes, though, that the Germans' interpretation was naive.

"Theater and other prose genre at the time actually questioned the status quo from within a very complex representation of reality," she said.

So what does royalty and rigid class structure have to do with modern American life?

Nina Cox Davis, Ph.D., examines the art and writings of Spain's Golden Age and finds parallels with 20th-century America.

"The so-called Golden Age actually gives us a lot of paradigms for our own culture," she said.

For example, like Spaniards of that era, we live in a multicultural country that has gradually become more conservative over the years, led by what Davis calls a "vocal Christian right."

"The movement today, like then, glosses over the many important differences of our cultures," she said. "It's easier sometimes for students to see that by studying other countries."

In 16th- and 17th-century Spain under the Catholic monarchy, the Muslim and Jewish presence was ostensibly eradicated by legislation, but a large population of Catholic converts and centuries of cultural intermingling ensured the continued echoes of these voices, particularly in Spanish literature.

"They invented entirely fictive characters and situations that allowed for the evaluation of extra-literary context. Despite the act of censorship of books by the Inquisition, literature found ways to open an ideologically very-closed cultural space.

"I think it's important for students to find analogies between contemporary culture and earlier ones," she said.

Davis' scholarship is widely admired. Diana de Armas Wilson, professor of English and Renaissance studies at the University of Colorado-Denver, called her writing "remarkably elegant... wonderfully instructive and entertaining." Washington University, Wilson said, "is fortunate indeed to have on its faculty such a fine scholar and able administrator."

Davis grew up in Kenosha, a small factory town in southeast Wisconsin. While the town's permanent residents were predominantly Caucasian, the city did host a sizable migrant population during the spring planting and fall harvest. Groups of migrant Hispanic farm workers descended on the small town and Davis, who helped with outreach services for the medical community, was drawn to the differences in their traditions.

"It was a very compelling contact," she said.

After studying Spanish and Latin throughout middle and high school, Davis went on to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she received a bachelor's degree in Spanish in 1975. She earned a master's degree and doctorate in romance languages from Johns Hopkins University, leaving there in 1982.

Davis joined the Washington University faculty in 1985. She was named chair of the romance languages and literatures department in 1997.

She has written extensively on the Golden Age -- satirical prose is her specialty -- and is a passionate scholar. But she also derives immense satisfaction from watching students fall in love with another culture. Most students approach Spanish language classes with a great deal of pragmatism, she said, hoping they will increase their marketability. Double majors among undergraduates are not uncommon. But as they master the tools -- from the subjunctive to the past perfect -- they gradually get to know another world.

Building bridges

"I love seeing that bridge between the classroom and living in the country," she said. "Students gain a much broader sense of who they are when they live in another country. You watch them come into their own."

Courtney M. Crawford, a junior from Clive, Iowa, approached the idea of studying abroad with excitement but also a bit of trepidation. Davis, however, infused a sense of encouragement and belief that carried him throughout the trip.

"Going to Spain has been one of my most memorable college experiences," he said. "Professor Davis was a source of immense information and advice. She really cares about all of her students."

While Spanish fluency is likely to help an undergraduate who's majoring in business find a job, language students pursuing doctorates still face a difficult job hunt as the market's demands continue to change. With that in mind, Davis is consulting with chairs of other foreign language departments to develop a certificate in pedagogy to expand the job market for students pursuing doctorates in literary studies.

When not serving as chair, teaching a class or pursuing research, Davis keeps busy with her family. Her husband, Christopher Dadian, is an industrial communications consultant who is self-employed. They have two children, a 16-year-old daughter, Silvia, who attends University City High School, and a 9-year-old son, Kai, who attends Jackson Park Elementary School. Family trips to Spain are treasured by all. Their children, in fact, have appreciated such Spanish favorites as squid and octopus since they were little.

Davis and her husband are involved in a number of activities for younger children: She is a scout leader, and he is involved in gifted education. The family also helps to prepare meals for the homeless through their church.

Davis' colleagues marvel at her ability to juggle so many duties so well.

Elzbieta Sklodowska, Ph.D., professor of Spanish, said students like Davis' fresh readings of the classics and her enthusiasm, while colleagues appreciate her receptivity, her warmth and "her ability to perform the high-wire act of being chair with great grace as well as remarkable agility."

"If this were the Golden Age," said Sklodowska, "I'd commission a statue and put it on display in Ridgley Hall."