Courses

001-002.
Grammar, composition, conversation, listening comprehension; readings from Spain, Spanish America and the Hispanic community in the United States. This is a year-long course. One section of this course is intensive and meets nine hours a week. (Arribas, Breña, Rooney)

101-102. Intermediate Spanish
Intensive grammar reviews, exercises in composition and conversation, selected readings from modern Spanish. This is a year-long course. Prerequisite: 002 or placement. (Breña, Lima, Mayer, Song)

105. Intensive Intermediate Spanish
A thorough review of grammar with intensive oral practice (group activities and individual presentations), writing of short essays and a longer final project, and readings from the Hispanic world. Prerequisite: A merit grade in Intensive Elementary Spanish or the recommendation of the department. (Mayer)

107. Conversación
Intensive practice in conversational Spanish. This course seeks to enhance speaking proficiency through the development of vocabulary, pronunciation skills and correct grammatical usage. Students participate in daily practice of speaking on wide variety of topics, as well as give formal presentations. This course will not count towards the major or minor. Prerequisite: SPAN 102 or 105. (Song)

200. Estudios culturales de España e Hispanoamérica
An introduction to the history and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world in a global context: art, folklore, geography, literature, sociopolitical issues and multicultural perspectives. Prerequisite: Spanish 102 or 105, or placement. (Lima, Song, Division III)

202. Introducción al análisis literario
Readings from Spanish and Spanish-American works of various periods and genres (drama, poetry, short stories). Special attention to improvement of grammar through compositions. Prerequisite: Spanish 102 or 105, or placement. (Arribas, Quintero. Division III)

203. Tópicos en la literature latinoaméricana.
Topic for Fall 2008 is "Modernismo y Generación del 98.
Topic for Spring 2009: Memoria y Guerra Civil Española "
(Song, Division III)

206. Composición (nivel superior)
A course designed to develop a student's written expression in Spanish. This course includes a systematic study of the structure of modern Spanish and a variety of frequent written assignments. (Song)

208. Drama y sociedad en España
A study of the rich dramatic tradition of Spain from the Golden Age (16th and 17th centuries) to the 20th century within specific cultural and social contexts. The course considers a variety of plays as manifestations of specific sociopolitical issues and problems. Topics include theater as a site for fashioning a national identity; the dramatization of gender conflicts; and plays as vehicles of protest in repressive circumstances. (Quintero, Division III).

211. Borges y sus lectores
Primary emphasis on Borges and his poetics of reading; other writers are considered to illustrate the semiotics of texts, society and traditions. (Sacerio-Garí, Division III; cross-listed as Comparative Literature 212)

214. Encuentros caribeños: entre imperios y diásporas
This course examines Hispanic Caribbean literary and cultural production from the early colonial chronicles of exploration to contemporary Caribbean performance artists. By studying pivotal moments in Caribbean literary and cultural history we will engage the “New World’s” first multicultural center through the analysis of its complex legacies: racism, slavery, mestizaje, empire building and its dissolution, and emancipation. Prerequisite: SPAN B200 or B202, or any 200-level Spanish course, placement or permission of instructor. (Lima, Division III)

215. "Memoria negra": la literatura afrohispánica en África y las Américas
A study of the major works of African, and Afro Hispanic literatures written in Spanish with comparative examples from the literatures of the "Black Atlantic," including Lusophone African literature. The course considers how racially marked aesthetic expression (Criollismo, Negritude, the Harlem Renaissance, etc.) fashioned literary Modernism and the ensuing "Black Atlantic" polemic. (Representative writers and critics may include Donoto M'game, Manuel Rui, Laudino Viera, Nancy Morejón, Nicolás Guillén, Edouard Glissant, Franz Fanon, Martin Bernal, Fernando Ortíz, Lydia Cabrera, etc.) (Lima, Division III; Counts toward Africana Studies concentration, and Comparative Literature 215)

223. Género y modernidad en la narrativa del siglo XIX
A reading of 19th-Century Spanish narrative by both men and women writers, to assess how they come together in configuring new ideas of female identity and its social domains, as the country is facing new challenges in its quest for modernity. (Song, Division III)

225. La poesía hispanoamericana
Study of poetic language from the Avant-garde movements to the present. Special attention to key figures. (Sacerio-Garí, Division III)

227. Genealogía de la literatura latina
This course examines the emancipatory and, sometimes, collusive appropriation of "American" literature by Latinos. The course begins a genealogical survey of Latino writing and cultural production from the nineteenth century to the present in order to contextualize the eventual rise of Latino ethnic particularisms from the sixties. We will analyze how Latina/os, often living inside two languages and cultures, inflect the national landscape by erasing both literal and linguistic "American" borders in a country made up largely of immigrants. We will also analyze how the mass media construct "insiders" and "outsiders" by delimiting privilege and access to cultural capital with demands for assimilation and call for a univocal "American" literary ethos. (Lima, Division III)

231. El cuento y novela corta en España
Traces the development of the novella and short story in Spain, from its origins in the Middle Ages to our time. The writers will include Pardo Bazán, Cervantes, Clarín, Don Juan Manuel, Matute, María de Zayas and a number of contemporary writers such as Julián Marías and Soledad Puértolas. Our approach will include formal and thematic considerations, and attention will be given to social and historical contexts. (Quintero, Division III)

231. El cuento y la novela corta en España
This course traces the development of the novella and short story in Spain, from its origins in the Middle Ages to our time. The writers will include Don Juan Manuel, Cervantes, Zayas, Clarin, Pardo Bazan and a number of contemporary writers. Our approach will include formal and thematic considerations, and attention will be given to social and historical contexts. Prerequisite: Spanish 120 or placement. (Quintero, Division III)

240. Historia y cultura en América Latina
A brief survey of the political, social and cultural history of Spain and Spanish America. Topics include Spanish nation/ state/empire, indigenous cultures, polemics about the "Indians" in the new world, Spanish-American independence, current social and economic issues, Latin America's multiculturalism and Latinos in the United States. Prerequisite: permission of instructor. (Sacerio-Garí, Division III)

260. Ariel/Calibán y el discurso americano
A study of the transformations of Ariel/Calibán as images of Latin American culture. (Sacerio-Garí, Division III; cross-listed as COML B260)

265. Escritoras españolas: entre tradición y renovación
Fiction by Spanish women in the 20th century. Breaking the traditional female stereotypes during and after Franco’s dictatorship, the authors explore socio-political and cultural issues through their creative writing. Topics of discussion include gender marginality, feminist literary theory, portrayal and role of women in modern society.(Song, Division III)

Note: The prerequisite for 300-level courses is Spanish 202 plus another 200-level in Spanish or permission of instructor.

307. Cervantes
A study of themes, structure and style of Cervantes' masterpiece Don Quijote and its impact on world literature. In addition to a close reading of the text and a consideration of narrative theory, the course examines the impact of Don Quijote on the visual arts, music, film and popular culture. (Saad-Maura, Division III)

308. El teatro del Siglo de Oro
A study of the dramatic theory and practice of 16th- and 17th-century Spain. Topics include the treatment of honor, historical self-fashioning and the politics of the corrales (I) and palace theater. (Quintero, Division III)

309. La representación de la mujer en la literatura española del Siglo de Oro
A study of the depiction of women in the fiction, drama and poetry of 16th- and 17th-century Spain. Topics include the construction of gender; the idealization and codification of women's bodies; the politics of feminine enclosure (convent, home, brothel, palace); and the performance of honor. The first half of the course will deal with masculine representations of women (Lope, Calderón, Cervantes, Quevedo) and the second will be dedicated to women writers such as Teresa de Ávila, Ana Caro, María de Zayas and Juana Inés de la Cruz. (Quintero, Division III)

311. Crimen y detectives en la narrativa hispánica contemporánea
An analysis of the rise of the hardboiled genre in contemporary Hispanic narrative and its contrast to classic detective fiction, as a context for understanding contemporary Spanish and Latin American culture. Discussion of pertinent theoretical implications and the social and political factors that contributed to the genre's evolution and popularity. (Song, Division III)

318. Adaptaciones literarias en el cine español
Film adaptations of literary works have been popular since the early years of cinema in Spain. This course examines the relationship between films and literature, focusing on the theory and
practice of film adaptation. Attention will be paid to the political and cultural context in which these texts are being published and made into films. (Song, Division III)

320. Surrealismo español: poesía, arte y cine
A multimedia study of the development of a surrealist aesthetic in Spain in the 20th Century as represented chiefly in the works of Federico García Lorca, Luis Buñuel, and Salvador Dalí, among others. The scope and validity of the Spanish surrealist movement will be examined in relation to its originating principles: Freud's psychonalytic theory and the artistic and political manifestoes of the avant-garde. Through the study of works of poetry, art, and film, we will also discuss the relationship between the theoretical and historical background of this artistic movement as we contrast art and politics, artistic freedom with political commitment. (Song, Division III)

321. Del surrealismo al realismo mágico
Examines artistic texts that trace the development and relationships of surrealism, lo real maravilloso americano and magic realism. Manifestos, literary and cinematic works by Spanish and Latin American authors will be emphasized. (Sacerio-Garí, Division III)

327. La novela latina en la edad de la globalización
In the United States, Latino literature is often construed as a “minority” literature, charting immigrant experiences. In Latin America, it is often seen as testing the limits and considered “inferior.” This course studies this phenomenon in relation to the linguistic, historical, racial, ethnic and sexual assumptions that undergird the study of national literatures. (Lima)

329. Brown Affect: Narrating Latina/o Lives
This course studies the construction of Latino lives in and through autobiographies and autobiographical fiction in the context of the civil rights movement and the rise of Latino nationalism. The course will also focus on the Latino subversion of genre from its belletristic associations with the bildugsroman to its more recent manifestations borne of inter-American and European (post)modernist traditions, as well as Latino autobiography's more culturally specific grounding in the Latin American crónica. We will study how writing about "feeling brown" has made Latino life-writing a political as well as literary act of self-creation in the work of Lolita Lebrón, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Susana Chávez-Silverman, Esmeralda Santiago, Rosario Ferré, Sonia Rivera, Irene Vilar, Reinaldo Arenas, Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga, Richard Rodríguez and others. (Course is taught in English. Students seeking major credit in Spanish must do appropriate assignments in Spanish.) Prerequisite: SPAN B220, ENGL B250 or equivalent. (Lima, Division III)

331. TransNation: U.S. Latino and Latin American Queer Diasporas
Engages current US Latino and Latina American debates about state formation in the construction of citizenship from the perspective of queer and transgender studies. Explores recent theoretical and cultural works to consider the challenges posed to understanding gender, sexuality, ethnic identity, nationalism, state-formation, citizenship and the body. Analyzes the limits of cultural and theoretical interface between U.S. Latino/Latin American and Anglo-American cultural theory. Prerequisites: SPAN B202 or ENGL B250 or equivalent.
(Lima, Division III)

350. El cuento hispanoamericano
Special attention to the double, the fantastic and the sociopolitical thematics of short fiction in Spanish America. Authors include Quiroga, Borges, Carpentier, Rulfo, Cortázar and Valenzuela. (Sacerio-Garí, Division III)

351. Tradición y revolución: Cuba y su literatura
An examination of Cuba, its history and its literature with emphasis on the analysis of the changing cultural policies since 1959. Major topics include slavery and resistance; Cuba's struggles for freedom; the literature and film of the Revolution; and literature in exile. (Sacerio-Garí, Division III).

399. Senior Essay
Available to students whose proposals are approved by the Department.

403. Indepedent Work
Independent reading, conferences and a long paper; offered to senior students recommended by the department. (staff)


Language Courses	Culture Courses	Peninsular Literature	Latin American Literature	Other

NOTE: To view a list (including times) of courses currently being offered go to Course schedules

Language Courses