This course emphasizes fluency speaking and is designed to provide students the opportunity to practice the language through discussion of selected texts and topics of interest. SPAN 135 prepares students to express opinions, ideas, points of view and critiques on debates, readings and films. With this goal in mind, this course will also provide exposure to other language skills important to the development of fluency in speaking Spanish. The course will meet for three hours per week with the lecturer and one hour with the language assistant. This course counts for the major.
Requisite: SPAN 130, Spanish Placement Test or with permission of Language Coordinator. Omitted 2015-16.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course is designed specifically for native or heritage speakers of Spanish with oral proficiency but little or no formal training in the language. Generally, these are learners who were raised in homes where Spanish was spoken. The course is designed to build on the language base students already possess. Spanish-speaking students are not viewed as using an “improper” form of Spanish that is incorrect or needs to be eliminated. Rather, their language is viewed as an extremely valid means of oral communication. The primary purpose of this course is to develop reading and writing skills, although all of four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are emphasized via cultural and community activities.
Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2015-16
2023-24: Not offeredThis course is intended to enhance language skills and share knowledge of local Spanish-speaking communities. Organized around field-based learning, the material, shaped into modules, will connect students with pre-existing community service organizations in Holyoke, Springfield, and other nearby urban centers. Class time will be devoted to understanding the concept of voluntarism in a pluralistic society. Sociological and historical readings on Latinos will provide context. Students will spend approximately three hours a week doing volunteer work in the field.
Requisite: SPAN 199, Spanish Placement Test or consent of Language Coordinator. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2015-16. Senior Lecturer Maillo.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course provides an introduction to the diverse literatures of the Spanish-speaking world over the course of six centuries, from the Middle Ages to the turn of the twentieth century. Students will learn the tools, language, and critical vocabulary for advanced work reading the canon of Hispanic literatures from Spain, Latin America, and the Caribbean Basin, identifying aesthetic trends and historical periods such as the Renaissance, the Golden Age, the Romantic era, realism and modernism. The syllabus will include a wide variety of authors of different national, political, and artistic persuasions and an array of linguistic styles.
Limited to 15 students per section. This course may be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN-199 or consent of the instructor. A medium to high level knowledge of the Spanish language and reasonable proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish are required.
Fall semester: Professor Infante. Spring semester: Professor Brenneis.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 228 and EUST 228.) Readings of plays by Spanish, English and French playwrights of what has been, in the modern world, the great century of the stage. Works of Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, Shakespeare, Molière, Racine, Webster and Wycherly. Conducted in English. Students will read plays in the original languages whenever possible.
Limited to 40 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Maraniss.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 235 and SOCI 235.) This course will explore how pop cultural phenomena by and about Latinos creatively texture four decades of social and historical change that inform the U.S. Latino experience: from TV shows, films, performance art, food, music, comic books, web and digital media. We will read, view, hear, and smell—critically consume—all variety of popular cultural phenomena as it interfaces with everyday lives, unique traditions, and representations of the very varied ethnic make-up of Latinos residing in the U.S. We will contextualize and assess key critical interpretations, perspectives, development and debates in Latino popular cultural studies. We will also consider the importance of historical period and region in the making and consuming of Latino culture, specific techniques used in giving shape to the respective pop cultural forms, and offer accessible content analysis. Core themes and topics that will be addressed include: Industry vs. art, globalization, representation, identity, reception and production. Through our shared inquiry we will sharpen our critical thinking about the challenges and the prospects reflected by Latino popular culture. The course will cover ongoing theories, discussions and debates. We will also learn to examine Latino pop culture within the broader perspectives of the study of global popular culture. We will learn a variety of approaches and methods for studying a vast array of Latino pop cultural artifacts, and we will develop our own approach and method in response to the primary materials critically consumed. In acquiring the tools for analyzing popular culture by and about Latinos students we will learn of the social, historical, and cultural significance of Latinos in the U.S. Among materials covered will be episodes of TV shows such as LA Ink, Cristela, and Jane the Virgin. We will likely view films such as Cheech Marin’s Born in East L.A. (1987), Allison Anders’ Mi Vida Loca (1993), Darnelle Martin’s I Like It Like That (1994), Gregory Nava’s Mi Familia (1995), Karyn Kusama’s Girlfight (2000), Patricia Cardoso’s Real Women Have Curves (2002), Sergio Arau’s A Day Without a Mexican (2004), Robert Rodriguez’s Machete (2010), and Aurora Guerrero’s Mosquita y Mari (2012). We will likely read comics by Los Bros Hernandez, Rhode Montijo, and Jules Rivera. We will likely view performances by La Pocha Nostra, Culture Clash, and Carmelita Tropicana. We will likely listen to music by Ozomotl and Nortec. Among the secondary readings will be chapters from Aldama’s Latinos and Narrative Media: Participation and Portrayal, Your Brain on Latino Comics, and The Cinema of Robert Rodriguez. We will read sections from Aldama’s and Stavans’s ¡Muy Pop! Conversations on Latino Popular Culture. Finally, we will read sections form Gustavo Arellano’s Taco Nation. Conducted in English.
Fall semester. Professor Aldama.
2023-24: Not offered
(Offered as SPAN 240 and SWAG 241) From La Malinche (sixteenth century) to J. Lo, Latin American and Latina women have been sexualized, demonized, objectified, and even erased by narrative and visual representations. Lately, feminist texts have interrogated and challenged sexist and stereotypical master narratives; yet, a tension remains that repeatedly places women of color on a complex stage. Throughout this course, we will think critically about representations of women in Latin America and the U.S. Through select examples of major screen stars from Hollywood and Latin America, we will engage a politically informed historical analysis of the way Latino/a images have been constructed. Our study will begin with black and white films from the 1930s, depicting the role of the United States government and the needs of Latin American politics in the construction of Latina identity. We will then examine the intersections between literature, film, and history, studying, for example, the role of the Good Neighbor Policy in effecting the construction of Latin American images via a Hollywood lens. This is a bilingual class. Much of Latino/a literature is available in English only. However, our discussions and written assignments will be in Spanish. We will produce advanced-level writing assignments.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Suárez.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 374 and EUST 344) In this blended-learning course, 25 students will study four literary classics (Cervantes's Don Quixote, Flaubert's Madame Bovary, Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, and Kafka's The Metamorphosis), exploring their history of literary translation across time as well as across languages. Students will think about how translations contribute to the comprehension, interpretation, circulation, survival, and new possibilities of literary texts, especially regarding the classics. Students will also engage in the practice of literary translation by producing enhanced digital texts that combine a new translation made by students with visual, audio, and virtual data. Overall, this course will encourage students to look at translation through a historical lens by accessing translations done in different periods as statements of their time and place as well as introduce them to the profession of literary translation in the digital age. All students should be native speakers of or fluent in English, and will translate into this language for their final project. Students should also have advanced reading knowledge in any one or more of these four languages: Spanish, French, German, and Russian.
Consent of the instructor is required. Limited to 25 students. Spring semester. Professor Stavans and Professor Galasso (University of Massachusetts).
2023-24: Not offeredTaught at the Hampshire County Jail, this Inside/Out course is designed as a journey across Hispanic civilization through the prism of the tension between reality and the surreal, the physical world and the world of dreams. Topics like Magical Realism will be explored in depth. Material includes portions of Don Quixote, the play Life Is a Dream by Calderón de la Barca, poems by Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz and Pablo Neruda, stories by Horacio Quiroga, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Juan Rulfo, and Gabriel García Márquez, and movies such as Amores Perros and Pan’s Labyrinth. Students will engage in creative efforts (stories, nonfiction, theater, movies) displaying some of the strategies discussed in class. Conducted in English.
Limited to 15 students from Amherst and the Five Colleges and 15 students from the Hampshire County Jail. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Stavans.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 391 and FAMS 359.) In this seminar we will explore how Robert Rodriguez’s films—from his earliest short “Bedhead” in 1990 to the Machete in 2010—creatively texture three decades of social and historical change that inform the U.S. Latino experience. We will explore issues of content (race, sexuality, ethnicity, gender, and class) as well as how Rodriguez uses formal devices (lighting, camera angle and lens, sound, editing, and mise-en-scène) to give various shapes to his many filmic stories. We will consider, for instance, how his comic-book approach to filmmaking allows him to create films that push at the boundaries of social and natural norms. We will also explore questions of production and consumption, including how his films trigger different thoughts of and feelings toward Latinos in new and innovative ways. Finally, by analyzing his film repertoire, we will identify a coherence and consistency in Rodriguez’s approach and worldview that opens audience eyes to new ways of seeing Latinos in the world. Students will acquire the tools developed in film theory and concepts from Latino Studies to analyze the films of Robert Rodriguez within the broader perspectives of the study of U.S. popular culture. We will learn a variety of approaches and methods for studying Rodriguez’s films—as well as develop our own approach and method in response to critically consuming his films. In our analysis of Rodriguez’s films we will learn of the social, historical, and cultural significance of Latinos in the U.S. Primary viewing materials will include “Bedhead” (1991); El Mariachi (1992); Roadracers (1994); Desperado (1995); “The Misbehavers” (in Four Rooms) (1995); From Dusk Till Dawn (1996); The Faculty (1998); Spy Kids (2001); Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003); Sin City (2005); Planet Terror (2007); Machete (2010); Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D (2011); Machete Kills(2013); Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). For secondary readings students will study chapters from Aldama’s The Cinema of Robert Rodriguez along with the work of Chon Noriega, Charles Ramírez Berg, and Rosa Linda Fregoso. Conducted in English.
Fall semester. Professor Aldama.
2023-24: Not offered
[RC] A cultural study of language in the Hispanic world (Spain, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States), this course spans almost 500 years, from the arrival of Spanish to the Americas with Columbus' first voyage, to present-day "pocho lingo" in Los Angeles. It focuses on the verbal interactions between the missionaries to Florida and the Southwest and the indigenous populations, the linguistic repercussions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, the age of acculturation in the early half of the twentieth century, the political agitation of the Chicano Movement as manifested in word games, and the hip-hop age of agitprop. Students will analyze works by Junot Díaz, Ana Lydia Vega, Giannina Braschi, Susana Chávez-Silverman, Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, and others. Topics like translation, bilingual education, lexicography, advertising, sports, and the impact of mass and social media will be contemplated. Emphasis will be made on the various modalities of Spanglish, such as Dominicanish, Cubonics, and Nuyorican. Plus, the development of Spanglish as a street jargon will be compared to Yiddish, Black English, and other minority tongues. Research Course. Conducted in Spanish.
Omitted 2015-16. Professor Stavans.
2023-24: Not offeredSPAN 110 is an introduction to Spanish and Spanish-American cultures. This course is recommended for students who have either no previous training in Spanish or no more than two years of high school Spanish. It gives the student a basic understanding of and ability to use the language. Grammar is used as a point of departure for development of oral and written skills.
This course strives to teach students to understand sentences and common expressions and to communicate in simple terms simple aspects of their background (e.g., very basic personal and family information), the immediate environment (shopping, local geography, employment), and matters of immediate need.
This course prepares students for Spanish II (SPAN-120). Three hours per week with the lecturer, plus two hours with the language assistant. Limited to 15 students per section. This course may not be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Fall and Spring semester: Lecturer Granda and Assistants.
2023-24: Not offeredSPAN 120 is an intermediate-level Spanish course. It is recommended for students who have had the equivalent of three-to-four years of high school Spanish. This course seeks to expand Spanish language skills with exercises in conversation, oral comprehension and composition, based on cultural readings.
This course teaches students to understand key conversation points at work, school, and beyond; how to deal with situations that may arise while traveling in a Spanish-speaking country; and how to compose simple, connected texts regarding personal matters and typical, familiar topics. Students will learn how to describe experiences, events, dreams, hopes and ambitions and explain the rationale behind their opinions and future plans.
This course prepares students for Spanish III (SPAN-125). Three hours per week with the lecturer, plus one hour with the language assistant. Limited to 15 students per section. This course may not be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Requisite: Spanish I (SPAN-110) or Spanish Placement Exam.
Fall semester: Lecturer Granda and Assistants. Spring Semester: Lecturer Bel and Assistants.
2023-24: Not offeredSPAN 125 is a continuation of SPAN 120. 120 and 125 are a two-semester sequence. Students who take SPAN 120 will need to complete SPAN 125 before moving on to SPAN 130. This course will expand Spanish language skills with exercises in conversation, oral comprehension and composition, based on cultural readings.
Students will gain command of expressing plans, doubts, and probability, and feelings (wishes, happiness, anger, surprise, fear, etc.). Reciprocal verbs, various subjunctive phrases using quizás, tal vez, probablemente, ojalá, etc., as well as subjunctive formations using subordinate noun clauses will be introduced. Finally, students will begin to learn how to express and justify their opinions and to argue them appropriately. This course focuses on the development of oral fluency and vocabulary.
This course prepares students for Spanish IV (SPAN-130). Three hours per week with the lecturer, plus one hour with the language assistant. Limited to 15 students per section. This course may not be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Requisite: Spanish II (SPAN-120) or Spanish Placement Exam.
Fall and Spring semester: Lecturer Bel and Assistants.
2023-24: Not offeredWhile expanding on the grammar essentials covered in SPAN 125, this course helps the student further develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Spanish. It is directed toward students who already have a good linguistic-communicative competency, broadening their contact with different kinds of texts, deepening their grammatical understanding, and enabling them to communicate through a variety of forms and registers.
Upon completing the course, students should be able to make themselves understood with accuracy and fluency and participate easily in a wide range of formal and informal communicative situations. An array of literary texts and films not ordinarily considered in language classes will be used.
This course prepares students for Spanish Writing Workshop (SPAN-199). Three hours per week with the lecturer, plus one hour with the language assistant. Limited to15 students per section. This course may be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Requisite: Spanish III (SPAN-125) or Spanish Placement Exam.
Fall and Spring semester: Lecturer Bel and Assistants.
2023-24: Not offeredIn this course students will learn how to approach writing as a process. The emphasis is on writing as a communicative act rather than as a mere language exercise. As such, emphasis is given to the interaction between the author and the text, the target audience, and the purpose and message of the final product. In order to develop the necessary skills that good writers should have, the course will focus on expanding vocabulary, exploring rhetorical techniques for organizing information, developing strategies for writing, and characterizing the target audience(s). At the same time we will insist upon critical readings, and the processes of revising and editing. In addition, this course includes the study of written texts (narrative, description, poems, reports, essays, letters, etc.), and of literature’s many genres and subgenres (prose, poetry, drama, etc.).
This course prepares students for advanced-level courses offered by the Spanish Department. Three hours per week with the lecturer. Limited to 15 students per section. This course may be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Requisite: Spanish IV (SPAN-130) or Spanish Placement Exam.
Fall and Spring semester: Lecturer Granda.
2023-24: Not offeredThe Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, is a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. This interdisciplinary course will explore the origins of the Camino de Santiago through the Middle Ages, and its recent transformation into a cultural phenomenon. It will be divided into several units that focus on art and architecture, religion, gastronomy, music, history, literature, philosophy, pop culture, and tourism. Major cities along the camino francés will act as cultural “stops” to complement these topics. Primary sources will include historical documents, excerpts from medieval literary texts, poetry, and contemporary travel narratives. Secondary critical readings, films, music, maps, and interviews with pilgrim-scholars will supplement primary sources. Other significant pilgrimage traditions beyond Spain will also be considered. The course will culminate in a one-day hike on a local trail. Evaluation will be based on student discussion, research writing, and oral presentations. Although readings and films will be in English and Spanish. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Lecturer Granda.
2023-24: Not offeredA survey course that provides an understanding and appreciation of the Spanish-speaking world (including both North and South America and Spain) through language, geography, history, economics, sociopolitical issues, folklore, literature and art. The different units in this course are geographically oriented, and they will focus on individual countries or particular Hispanic groups. Writing skills will be refined by the completion of research papers, and communication skills will be developed further by class discussions and oral presentations. Comprehension will be enhanced by presenting students with literary texts, movies, documentaries and periodicals.
Limited to 15 students per section. This course may be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN-199 or SPAN-211, or consent of the instructor. A medium to high level knowledge of the Spanish language and reasonable proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish are required.
Fall semester: Lecturer Bel.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course will introduce students to some of the major intellectual texts of the Spanish Caribbean from the twentieth century to the present. Through these readings, which include essays, novels and poetry, we will examine the legacy of colonial and post-colonial prejudices and the struggles the people of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico engage as they create a unique sense of nationhood within a global context and interlace their stories into a more complicated context often called Pan-Caribbean. We will explore the ways in which the Hispanic Caribbean countries are similar, while coming to a nuanced understanding of how recent politics and migratory histories have also rendered them vastly different. Our analyses will cover issues of language, gender, violence, traumatic memory, dictatorship, and human resilience. This course will be conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Suárez.
Part of the Global Classroom Project. The Global Classroom Project uses videoconferencing technology to connect Amherst classes with courses/students outside the United States.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course will explore the art of storytelling through the genre of the short story in Spain and Latin America. After a brief introduction to short fiction in medieval and early modern Spain, we will focus principally on the development of the short story from the nineteenth century to the present. Works studied may include short stories by authors such as Pardo Bazán, Valle Inclán, Matute, Gaite, Palma, Borges, Rulfo, Cortázar, Quiroga, and Valenzuela. Films and other visual materials will supplement the literary texts. Some of the themes examined throughout the course will include gender relations, love, power, justice, political resistance, the fantastic, and popular culture. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Infante.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 232 and SWAG 232) Although at times derided as abnormal "chicas raras," Spanish women have carved out a particular niche in the history of Spanish literature. These novelists, poets, essayists and short story authors have distinguished themselves by tackling issues of sexuality, subjectivity, isolation, sexism and feminism head-on. But how do we define an escritura femenina in Spain and what, if anything, differentiates it as a gendered space from canonical "masculine" writing? This course examines the social, historical and cultural transformations women have undergone in Spain from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. We will explore a variety of texts and literary genres by authors such as Rosalia de Castro, Carmen Laforet, Carmen Martín Gaite, Ana Rosetti and Dulce Chacón. In addition, students will create their own canon by becoming the editors of an Anthology of Spanish Women's Writing. This course is conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Brenneis.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 317, EUST 317, and SWAG 317.) This course will examine the diverse and often contradictory representations of women in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain as seen through the eyes of both male and female writers. This approach will allow us to inquire into how women represented themselves versus how they were understood by men. In our analysis of this topic, we will also take into consideration some scientific, legal, and moral discourses that attempted to define the nature and value of women in early modern Spain. Works by authors such as Cervantes, María de Zayas, Calderón de la Barca, and Catalina de Erauso, among others, will offer us fascinating examples and different approaches to the subject. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Infante.
2023-24: Not offeredIn this course, we will explore the relationship of Spain, as a newly created nation, to the world of the “other,” in this case Islam, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Inside the Peninsula, the Muslim community is perceived as dangerously linked to the Mediterranean world, which both fascinates Spain and threatens it at the same time because of the growing power of the Ottoman Empire. We will examine changing representations of the Muslim “other,” from the idealized Moor in the Moorish novel to contradictory portrayals of Moriscos—those Muslims forced to convert to Christianity in sixteenth-century Spain. In addition, we will look at how questions of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender were treated by writers such as Cervantes, María de Zayas, and Calderón de la Barca. The class discussions will also include a significant visual component (e.g. paintings and engravings of the time on both sides of the Mediterranean that represent the “other,” maps, cityscapes, as well as films). Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Infante.
2023-24: Not offeredReadings from major writers of the Spanish generations of 1898 and 1927: Baroja, Machado, Valle-Inclán, Miró, García Lorca, Salinas, Alberti, Guillén, Cernuda. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Maraniss.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 340 and EUST 340.) The Spanish Civil War lasted only three years, from 1936 to 1939, yet the conflict cast a long shadow over Spain's twentieth-century history, culture and identity. Indeed, the war's effects were felt worldwide, and it became the inspiration for works of art and literature as varied as Pablo Picasso's Guernica, Pablo Neruda's España en el corazón, Guillermo del Toro's El laberinto del fauno and Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. This course will provide an introduction to the discord and violence of the war as well as to the anguish and catharsis of the stories, poems and films it inspired. Through primary sources and historical accounts, we will understand the causes of this fraternal war. By studying texts and films that track the reverberations of the Spanish Civil War in the United States, Latin America and Continental Europe, we will seek to understand how and why this historical moment has captivated artists and writers. In addition, we will grapple with the diverse ways that lingering memories of the war have affected modern-day Spanish politics and culture. Although readings will be in English and Spanish, this course will be conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211, 212 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Brenneis.
(Offered as SPAN 345 and SWAG 245) When political movements advocating for civil and human rights took full force in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, women from different Latin American and Caribbean origins discovered they could enter the national imagination through their writing and thereby defy historical erasure. In the last 50 years, the political literary production of Latina women has been vertiginous, important, and consistently understudied within the academy. Within a socio-historical context, we will study the making of Latina identities, the myths of unity in this label, and the distinctive nature of Latina stories from different countries and from different economic backgrounds. What is the role of Latina voices in the arduous and slow processes of nation building, democracy, and diversity formation? How have Latina lives and stories re-shaped concepts of community, introduced activism for LGBT rights, changed the parameters by which motherhood, race, and ethnicity are understood? How have Latinas tackled issues of domestic violence and rape? How has their work transformed national and transnational meta-narratives of citizenship? We will read manifestos, poetry, and fiction to understand this complex and critical condition. Conducted in English.
Omitted 2015-16. Professor Suárez.
2023-24: Not offeredIn 1989 the Berlin Wall was chiseled away, changing global culture and politics forever. In Eastern Europe, the rhetoric and divisions necessitated to fuel the cold war were transformed into new discourses of democracy and capitalist opportunities. In contrast, Cuba, remaining an iron-clad communist state, fell into a deep “periódo especial,” which ushered in a two-tiered economy greatly dependent on the European tourist industry. The revolutionary dream, many would argue, was then voided. Arguably, “fin-de-siglo” Cuba is a state in crisis. And a new, rich, often hypnotic, production of culture, film, and literature is available to give us a sensational glimpse of the latest of Cuban conditions. In this class we will be reading and screening some of the most outstanding materials from this period. Authors will include Abilio Estévez, Zoe Valdés, Pedro Juan Guttiérez, and Daína Chaviano. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Suárez.
2023-24: Not offered[RC] As a global city with a local identity, Barcelona resides both literally and figuratively at the border between Spain and the rest of the world. This interdisciplinary course will explore the in-between space this vibrant city inhabits in the twenty-first century, at once imagined as a tourist's playground in films and popular novels, while also actively guarding its particular Catalan cultural roots. Students will study architectural, literary, cinematic, linguistic and political movements set amid the urban cityscape of Barcelona, focusing on the city's role in the exportation of a unique Spanish and Catalan identity beyond Spain's borders. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Professor Brenneis.
2023-24: Not offered
An exploration of the life and work of the prolific Chilean poet (1904-1973) and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. His work will be read chronologically, starting with Twenty Love Poems and a Song Of Despair and ending with his five posthumous collections. Special attention will be paid to Residence On Earth and Canto General. The counterpoint of politics and literature will define the classroom discussion. Neruda’s role as witness of, and sometimes participant in, the Spanish Civil War, the Cuban Revolution, the workers’ and students’ upheaval in Latin America in the sixties, and the failed presidency of Salvador Allende in Chile will serve as background. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Stavans.
2023-24: Not offered[RC] A patient, detailed, Talmudic reading of Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece, Cien años de soledad, known as “the Bible of Latin America.” The course sets it in biographical, historical, and aesthetic context. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Fall semester. Professor Stavans.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 364 and EUST 264.) A patient, careful reading of Cervantes' masterpiece (published in 1605 and 1615), taking into consideration the biographical, historical, social, religious, and literary context from which it emerged during the Renaissance. The discussion will center on the novel's structure, style, and durability as a classic and its impact on our understanding of ideas and emotions connected with the Enlightenment and its aftermath. Authors discussed in connection to the material include Erasmus of Rotterdam, Montaigne, Emerson, Tobias Smollett, Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, Unamuno, Nabokov, Borges, García Márquez, and Rushdie. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Stavans.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 375 and EUST 270.) An exploration on humor from a theoretical and multidisciplinary perspective, taking into consideration psychological, biological, political, social, racial, religious, national, and economic factors. The central questions leading the analysis are: What is humor? How does one understand its various types? What is culturally restrictive about humor? What makes Hispanic humor unique? Distinctions between satire, parody, and hyperbole will be explored in the context of Spain, Latin America, and the United States, from the Middle Ages to contemporary popular culture. Samples analyzed come from myth (from Don Juan to Pedro de Urdemalas), literature (from Quevedo to Cabrera Infante), comics (from Mafalda to La Cucaracha), TV (from Chespirito to El Hormiguero), movies (from Cantinflas to Tin Tan), standup comedy (from George Lopez to Carlos Mencia), and language (from double entendres to Freudian slips.) This course will be conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or with consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Stavans.
(Offered as SPAN 384 and EUST 233.) This panoramic, interdisciplinary course will explore the concept of love as it changes epoch to epoch and culture to culture. Poetry, novels, paintings, sculptures, movies, TV, and music will be featured. Starting with the Song of Songs, it will include discussions of Plato, Aristotle, Catullus, and other Greek classics, move on to Dante and Petrarch, contemplate Chinese, Arabic, African, and Mesoamerican literatures, devote a central unit to Shakespeare, continue with the Metaphysical poets, and move on to American literature. Special attention will be paid to the difference between love, eroticism, and pornography. Multilingual students will be encouraged to delve into various linguistic traditions, in tongues like French, Russian, German, Yiddish, and Spanish. Conducted in English.
Limited to 20 students. Omitted 2015-16. Professor Stavans.
2023-24: Not offeredA vital question in today’s multicultural societies is how individuals with different identities—religious, racial, ethnic, etc.—can live and prosper together. This course will explore the literature, culture, and history of medieval and early modern Spain, paying special attention to how people with diverse backgrounds coexisted and interacted with each other. Examining the context of Spain during this time period will also serve as a means to help us think through issues of diversity in our world today. First we will look at the situation of medieval Spain where Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived side-by-side for centuries. Then we’ll turn to Spain’s exploration of the New World and how the diverse encounters that took place influenced Spanish culture. Finally, we will consider representations of other cultural minorities, such as gypsies, in Spain during the early modern period. Primary sources will include literary texts, historical accounts, legal documents, and maps and will be supplemented by secondary critical texts. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Fall semester. Professor Infante.
2023-24: Not offeredFrom journeys of lovers to religious pilgrimages, voyages of conquest and exploration to imaginary excursions, journeys of war and slavery to picaresque adventures, among other types of travel, the theme of the “journey” is replete in Spanish literature. With a particular emphasis on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this course will explore historical and fictional accounts of journeys to, from, and in Spain. Taking into consideration a variety of genres and authors, we will examine different motives that spurred real individuals and fictional characters to leave their homes in Spain and travel to new lands and in other cases we will look at what caused them to return to their homeland. Some of the works studied in class will include narratives of conquest and exploration in the New World, sea voyages in the Mediterranean (for example, Cervantes), spiritual journeys (such as the Spanish mystics), trips to the other world (including some of Quevedo’s Sueños), tales of homeless wanderers (the picaresque novel), female travelers, and perspectives from visitors to Spain from other countries such as France (d’Aulnoy) and Morocco (al-Ghassani). Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 199, 211 or 212 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Spring semester. Professor Infante.
2023-24: Not offeredThe Department calls attention to the fact that Special Topics courses may be offered to students on either an individual or group basis.
Students interested in forming a group course on some aspect of Hispanic life and culture are invited to talk over possibilities with a representative of the Department. When possible, this should be done several weeks in advance of the semester in which the course is to be taken.
Fall and spring semesters.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024One single course.
Fall semester. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025