Courses

SPAN 101-102. Elementary Spanish I and II.

SPAN 103. Accelerated Elementary Spanish.Designed for students with significant prior experience in Spanish or another Romance language and for highly self-motivated students who wish to learn at a faster pace, the course reviews essential constructions and vocabulary covered in Elementary Spanish I and II in one semester. The course emphasizes oral proficiency and the development of reading and writing skills while fostering a cross-cultural understanding of the Spanish-speaking world with authentic texts and media. Not open to juniors or seniors. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 101 or 102. Enrollment limited to 22. Normally offered every year. Staff.

SPAN 201. Intermediate Spanish I.Designed to increase students' vocabulary and to improve mastery of language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The course provides a thorough review of grammar as well as an emphasis on conversational proficiency, expository writing, and Hispanic culture. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 103. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 22 per section. Normally offered every year. Staff.

SPAN 202. Intermediate Spanish II.Intensive practice in reading, composition, and conversation, as well as attention to selected grammar problems. The course focuses on discussion through visual presentations and selections of Hispanic literature, art, and culture. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 201. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 22 per section. Normally offered every year. Staff.

SPAN 207. Advanced Spanish: Culture and Language.This course develops oral fluency and aural acuity as well as reading and writing skills by means of directed and spontaneous classroom activities and regular written assignments. Conversations and compositions are based primarily on readings and films. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 202. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20 per section. Normally offered every year. Staff. (C016)' Concentrations.

SPAN 208. Advanced Spanish: Texts and Contexts.This course is a continuation of Spanish 207 with particular emphasis upon analyzing a variety of texts and developing more sophistication in writing. Conversations and compositions are based on both literary and cultural readings. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 202. Recommended background: Spanish 207. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20 per section. Normally offered every year. Staff. (C016)' Concentrations.

SPAN 215. Readings in Spanish American Literature.A survey of representative Spanish American literary texts. Major emphasis is on reading and discussing texts that relate to specific problems of literary form (such as poetry, theater, and novel), literary movements, and literary periodization. The topics are also discussed in their sociocultural contexts. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 207 or 208. Open to first-year students. [W2] Normally offered every year. Staff.Concentrations.  |   Interdisciplinary Programs.

SPAN 216. Readings in Peninsular Spanish Literature.A survey of representative peninsular Spanish texts. Major emphasis is on reading and discussing texts that relate to specific problems of literary form (such as poetry, theater, and novel), literary movements, and literary periodization. The topics are also discussed in their sociocultural contexts. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 207 or 208. Open to first-year students. [W2] Normally offered every year. (C016)' linkset85f1e4e39e7c5c8fb6c19d1a9f4036dfgec[0]+='Writing Spain (C018)' Concentrations.

SPAN 216A. Espa?a en Blanco y Negro.Spanish literature developed complex representations of people of African descent since the Renaissance. Religious difference generated the new category of race. Cervantes, Quevedo, Maria de Zayas, or Lope de Vega created the first credible black characters in European literature at the time. Blacks reappeared in Spanish literature at the end of the twentieth century. Gender, class, sexuality, immigration, inter-racial love, and racial discrimination are the main topics of discussion in fiction, poetry, film, and television in productions where black writers and artists have a voice of their own. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 207 or 208. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. [W2] Normally offered every year. B. Fra-Molinero. (C016)' linkset03b7ffc0da47220d300b595af07e26b1gec[0]+='Writing Spain (C018)' Concentrations.

SPAN 217. Literatura en el cine.This course explores the complex relationship between literature and cinema in light of narrative techniques and the mechanical, social, cultural, political, and economic limitations that determine the representative possibilities of both media. Through the study of literary works and their cinematic adaptations from Latin America, Spain, and the United States, students consider the theoretical and practical debates—between writers and directors, publishers and producers, literary critics and film critics, and readers and viewers as consumers—that emerge in the process of transposition from the written word to film. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 207, 208, 215, or 216. C. Aburto Guzman, D. George. (C016)' Concentrations.

SPAN 250. The Latin American Short Story.A study of the short story as a genre in Latin America. Attention is given to the genre's definition and to the different trajectories and currents in its development. Students read major works as well as those by lesser-known writers. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 207 or 208. Open to first-year students. [W2] Normally offered every year. C. Aburto Guzman.Concentrations.  |   Interdisciplinary Programs.

SPAN 251. Spanish Short Story.The first manifestations of the short story as a genre in Spanish date back to the Middle Ages. In this course, students consider the evolution of the genre, from the cultural hybridity that shaped the earliest short stories to contemporary approaches to the literary form. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 207 or 208. Recommended background: Spanish 216. [W2] F. Lopez.Concentrations.

SPAN 301. Introduction to Translation.An introduction to the basic principles of translation: theories, methods, and techniques. With an emphasis on practical issues related to both language and culture, students focus on linguistic structure, text analysis, idiomatic expressions, and cultural specificities. Students improve their knowledge of the Spanish language and develop their translation skills through extensive practice both in the classroom and beyond. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 208 or one 200-level Spanish literature course. Enrollment limited to 15. F. Lopez.

INDS 321. Afroambiente: Writing a Black Environment.This course studies the response of black writers and intellectuals of the Spanish-speaking world to issues related to the natural environment. In three countries, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, and Equatorial Guinea, modernity has brought serious challenges to notions of economic progress, human rights, and national sovereignty, as well as individual and communal identity. Course materials include written texts from local newspapers and magazines, as well as other sources of information such as Internet sites that discuss issues related to the environment and the arts. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Cross-listed in African American studies, environmental studies, and Spanish. Not open to students who have received credit for Interdisciplinary Studies 320. B. Fra-Molinero. (C016)' linksetd6bfb944a51fb7f29c7203b4b461afbcgec[0]+='Diasporas (C038)' linksetd6bfb944a51fb7f29c7203b4b461afbcgec[0]+='Latin American Studies (C072)' linksetd6bfb944a51fb7f29c7203b4b461afbcgec[0]+='Post/Colonial Issues in French and Spanish (C032)' linksetd6bfb944a51fb7f29c7203b4b461afbcgec[0]+='Racisms (C041)' Concentrations.  |   Interdisciplinary Programs.

SP/WS 323. Gendered Experiences in the Americas Borderlands.This course reviews cultural productions of the gendered experiences of people's border crossings throughout the Americas. Students become acquainted with testimonies, film, photography, fictional narrative, and poetry as well as government reports on human trafficking and slave labor. Readings are in Spanish and English. All discussions and written assignments are in Spanish. Prerequisite(s): one Spanish 200-level literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 223 or 323. C. Aburto Guzman.Concentrations.

SPAN 330. Spanish-Speaking Caribbean Literature.This course examines the twentieth-century novel and short story of Spanish Caribbean nations, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Students explore the sociocultural place of Catholicism, African descendant spirituality, and race to determine the ways the Caribbean nation consecrates certain forms of religious practice while denigrating others. Race is examined in terms of the allocation of visible as well as less perceptible socioeconomic benefits. Critical writing, literary analysis, and the contextualization of the texts are developed in this course. Conducted in Spanish. Prerequisite: one of the following: Spanish 215, 216, 217, 250 or 251. M. Pettway.Concentrations.

SPAN 335. Translation, Gender, and Place.This course examines gender and place in the translation of creative writing from two convergent angles: the writer and the translator. It inquires into the parameters of translation processes, specifically the relationships of power existing between genders and place, and how these are influenced by consumer demands. The course contains a practicum component. Readings are in both languages. Discussion and written work is carried out in Spanish. In the practicum translation is into English from Spanish and into Spanish from English. Prerequisite(s): two 200-level Spanish courses beyond Spanish 208. New course beginning Fall 2012. Enrollment limited to 20. Instructor permission is required. C. Aburto Guzman.

SP/TH 341. Spanish Theater of the Golden Age.This course focuses on the study of Spanish classical drama of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Reading and critical analysis of selected dramatic works by Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Calderon de la Barca, Miguel de Cervantes, Ana Caro, Maria de Zayas, and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, among others, offer an insight into the totality of the dramatic spectacle of Spanish society during its imperial century. Conducted in Spanish. Prerequisite(s): one Spanish 200-level literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish/Theater 241 or Spanish 241. Not open to students who have received credit for SP/TH 241 or Spanish 241. Enrollment limited to 20. B. Fra-Molinero.Concentrations.

SPAN 345. Twentieth-Century Spanish Drama.A study of the evolution of political ideas and social values in Spain in the twentieth century through an examination of several plays. Interconnected and parallel sociocultural realities are analyzed along with different dramatic tendencies: from "poetic" to social-realist to avant-garde theater. Authors may include Lorca, Mihura, Buero Vallejo, Sastre, Nieva, Martin Recuerda, and Arrabal. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 445. F. Lopez.Concentrations.

SPAN 348. Culturas de protesta.At different times and in different countries, many Hispanic writers, filmmakers, and other artists have felt compelled to create works that confront various types of social injustice. These range from the effects of imperialism to political repression, and often address issues of race, sexuality, gender, and class. In this course students analyze such "texts" within their respective social, political, and historical contexts. Prerequisite(s): one Spanish 200-level literature course. Enrollment limited to 25. F. Lopez. (C016)' linksetb13dfd5a4894a4dc004211b5b09b0ebdgec[0]+='Class, Inequity, Poverty, and Justice (C008)' linksetb13dfd5a4894a4dc004211b5b09b0ebdgec[0]+='Post/Colonial Issues in French and Spanish (C032)' Concentrations.  |   Interdisciplinary Programs.

SPAN 360. Independent Study.Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every semester. Staff. (C016)' Concentrations.

SPAN 362. Culture in Franco Spain.Through the analysis of literary texts and popular culture, this course focuses on the impact of ideology on cultural production in Spain from the 1930s to the 1970s. Students pay particular attention to representations of the nation in terms of time (history) and space (national isolation/international connections), and examine how censorship and dissent shaped the form and content of cultural products in Franco's Spain. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 262. F. Lopez.Concentrations.

SPAN 366. Fantastic Hispanic Cinema.This course explores the genres of horror and fantasy in recent Spanish-language films by directors from Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Spain, and the United States. It considers how these works represent the supernatural, the diabolical, evil violence, fear, paranoia, and magic; create, perpetuate, and subvert categories of gender, class, race, and sexuality; and adapt and participate in key literary and cinematic genres such as the Gothic, parody, adventure, family drama, magical realism, and science fiction. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 266. Enrollment limited to 20. D. George. (C016)' linksetb07ad096956f716a7c7ea4e165dd2575gec[0]+='Film and Media Studies (C019)' Concentrations.

SPAN 441. Cervantes.A careful reading and a comprehensive formal and thematic study of Don Quijote. Careful consideration is given to various pieces of Cervantine scholarship. The effects of Don Quijote on the genre of the novel are examined. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 341. B. Fra-Molinero.Concentrations.

SPAN 442. Hybrid Cultures: Latin American Intersections.Latin America is a space of intersections where cultures meet and/or crash. Concepts and experiences used to define, locate, and represent these cultures to each other are continuously modified at the crossings. This course aims to take literary products (novels, essays, short stories, and films) as a cross-section of this phenomenon. Each text identifies multiple oppositions that converge violently, merely scar the individual, or craft a new prism by which we can read the dynamics taking place in these intersections. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 342. Enrollment limited to 20. C. Aburto Guzman.Concentrations.  |   Interdisciplinary Programs.

SPAN 444. Contemporary Spanish Women Writers.In this course, students use gender as the main category of analysis, paying particular attention to its interconnectedness with power. In-depth examination of texts written by women in contemporary Spain show their deliberate use of gender as a lens through which to understand different forms of domination—economic, political, and social. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 344. Instructor permission is required. F. Lopez.Concentrations.  |   Interdisciplinary Programs.

SPAN 447. Guerra Civil or the Good Fight?.The Spanish Civil War is not only an important historical landmark, but also the main theme of a myriad of literary and filmic narratives produced since the establishment of democracy in Spain. The increasing popularity of fictional representations of this armed conflict, its political antecedent (Segunda Republica), and its consequence (el regimen de Francisco Franco), seems to point to a cultural need in democratic Spain—the need for origins. What is the role of these narratives? What do they say about the roots of Spanish democratic traditions? How do they negotiate conflict? What type of Spain do they propose? Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 347. Enrollment limited to 15. F. Lopez.Concentrations.

SPAN 449. Identity Discourses in Contemporary Latin America.This course examines Latin American intellectuals' responses to contemporary issues that directly affect regional identities. Readings include essays and fictional narratives that address (but are not limited to) topics such as modernity versus postmodernity in Latin America, neoliberalism and "pink" left ideologies, mega- and edge-city tensions, transculturation, and migration. Prerequisite(s): History 181, Politics 249, or one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 349. C. Aburto Guzman.Concentrations.

AA/SP 450. Representing Blacks in Cuban Literature: From the Colony to the Revolution.This course examines innovations and shifts in the representation of African descendants in Cuban literature. Students read narrative pieces, essays, letters, and poetry written by and about blacks that span the early colonial period to Revolutionary Cuba. Adapting an in-depth multi-disciplinary approach, black as object is critically analyzed in opposition to literary and historical texts that construct black as subject. Race, religion, slavery, and gender as well as the formation of Afro-Cuban subjectivities are the primary topics of study, revealing the black struggle against multiple structures of domination as well as the resilience to negotiate with power. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215, 216, 217, 250, or 251. M. Pettway.Concentrations.

SPAN 454. Revolucion en el cine.The late 1960s is recognized as a period of diverse and ill-fated revolutions and revolutionaries. From the 1967 assassination of Che Guevara to the 1968 invasion of Prague onward, film has been used to represent heroes, martyrs, and the circumstances surrounding these events. More recently, a variety of cinematographers have produced films as acts of dissidence, presenting a counter-discourse to the hegemonic collage of prevailing capitalistic values. In this course students examine film as a tool of revolutionary negotiation. They analyze the transformation and regional adaptations of representations of dissidence since the 1960s, and they look at early revolutionary creativity within the genre as well as the social functions adopted by Third Cinema. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 354. D. George, C. Aburto Guzman.Concentrations.

SPAN 457. Senior Thesis.Research leading to writing of the senior thesis. Students participate in a limited number of group meetings, plus individual conferences. Students register for Spanish 457 in the fall semester and for Spanish 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both Spanish 457 and 458. A detailed outline and bibliography must be approved by the department. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.

SPAN 457, 458. Senior Thesis.Research leading to writing of the senior thesis. Students participate in a limited number of group meetings, plus individual conferences. Students register for Spanish 457 in the fall semester and for Spanish 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both Spanish 457 and 458. A detailed outline and bibliography must be approved by the department. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.

SPAN 458. Senior Thesis.Research leading to writing of the senior thesis. Students participate in a limited number of group meetings, plus individual conferences. Students register for Spanish 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both Spanish 457 and 458. A detailed outline and bibliography must be approved by the department. [W3] Normally offered every year. Staff.

SPAN 465. Special Topics.Designed for the small seminar group of students who may have particular interests in areas of study that go beyond the regular course offerings. Periodic conferences and papers are required. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 365. Instructor permission is required. Staff.

SPAN 490F. La diaspora afrohispanica.The 500-year presence of descendants of Africans in the Spanish-speaking world has produced a significant body of literature by blacks and about blacks. Spanish America was the main destination of the African diaspora. Afro-Hispanic writers attest to the struggle for freedom and the abolition of slavery. Their literature shows how the participation of blacks in the wars of Latin American independence was a struggle for their emancipation. Afro-Hispanic writers in Spain, the Americas, and Africa use their art and ideas to address the postnational migrations of the twenty-first century, a diaspora that has not ceased. This course is conducted in Spanish but meets jointly, once a week, in English, with African American Studies 390F. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 390F. B. Fra-Molinero. (C016)' linksetd5dbcd8b1dd8a5f8e4e1fa9b58992492gec[0]+='Diasporas (C038)' linksetd5dbcd8b1dd8a5f8e4e1fa9b58992492gec[0]+='Latin American Studies (C072)' linksetd5dbcd8b1dd8a5f8e4e1fa9b58992492gec[0]+='Post/Colonial Issues in French and Spanish (C032)' Concentrations.

SPAN s20. Envisioning Catalan Modernity.Over 180 years, Catalan modernity has been envisioned and re-envisioned by novelists, architects, filmmakers, painters, politicians and poets through a continuous process of rupture and reconciliation between past and present. The economic and cultural revolution set in motion by the mid-nineteenth-century Renaixenca (Renaissance) transformed Catalonia from a rural society to an urban industrial powerhouse that continues to influence Spanish, European, and global cultures in the twenty-first century. In this course students travel to the Catalan capital, Barcelona, to explore the real places and imaginary spaces that reflect and contest Catalonia's unique vision of modernity. Recommended background: Spanish 207. Enrollment limited to 16. One-time offering. D. George.Concentrations.

INDS s25. Introduction to Contemporary Cuban Culture.In this general introduction to Cuban culture students explore selected themes such as contemporary perceptions of race, the cultural politics of music, questions of sexual identity, and implications of the "Special Period" following collapse of the Soviet Union. During the second half of the course, students visit significant cultural sites, attend guest lectures, and experience everyday life in Cuba; they learn to process their experiences using basic ethnographic techniques. Cross-listed in African American studies, American cultural studies, anthropology, and Spanish. New course beginning Short Term 2012. Enrollment limited to 20. One-time offering. C. Carnegie, M. Pettway.

SPAN s29. Cinema in Spain.This course traces the evolution of Spanish cinema from the introduction of the cinematografo in 1896 to the Oscar-winning films of Trueba and Almodovar of the 1990s. The study of cinema as popular entertainment, political propaganda, and as a medium for intellectual experimentation and social and political contestation draws attention to the role those working in the film industry, or at its margins, have played in shaping Spanish culture and society in the twentieth century. Particular attention is given to film genre and narrative technique, and to such theoretical concepts as national cinema, studio systems, the auteur, and gender and sexuality. Recommended background: Spanish 202. Course reinstated beginning Short Term 2012. D. George.Concentrations.

SPAN s30. Escritura creativa: Cuento.This course combines reading and intensive writing. Students read carefully selected short stories in order to gain an understanding of the genre and to apply what they learn to their own craft. The focus is on the fundamentals of short fiction writing: structure, plot, voice, point of view, description, and dialogue. Class meetings follow a workshop format, with writing exercises, class discussions, and in-depth critique of students' writing. Prerequisite(s): one 200-level Spanish literature course. Enrollment limited to 15. F. Lopez.Concentrations.

SPAN s34. The Practice of Translation in Four Specialty Areas.The course gives the students the opportunity to practice translating documents pertinent to four specialty areas: medicine, law, business, and literature. Students translate documents daily and the translations are then revised as a group in class. Students develop new vocabulary, insight into the profession of translating, and familiarity with translation Web sites and document formatting. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 208 or an advanced Spanish course. C. Aburto Guzman.

SPAN s50. Independent Study.Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Normally offered every year. Staff.