SPAN101 is the first of a four-semester sequence in the Spanish Language Program. It is designed for students a) with no prior knowledge of Spanish, b) who have studied Spanish for one year or less in high school, and c) who have scored 1 or 2 on the AP Spanish Language exam. Students develop personal forms of expression and basic strategies for reading, listening, writing, and participating in everyday conversations. The course introduces students to the diverse cultures of the Spanish-speaking world through authentic materials (songs, films, poems, short stories, etc.), as well as activities that address a range of personal and immediate-needs topics and socio-cultural situations such as family life and daily routines. By the end of the semester, students can expect to have reached the Intermediate Low level of the ACTFL scale, and proceed to SPAN 102. The course consists of two 80-minute sessions per week with the lecturer and one 50-minute session with the language assistant. This course may not be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Fall and spring semesters. Limited to 15 students per section. Professor Sánchez-Naranjo, Visiting Lecturer Dixon, and Assistants.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025(Offered as SPAN 205 and LLAS 205) Heritage learners of Spanish learn different registers of the Spanish language in their homes and communities from an early age. In this course, students will use this knowledge as a springboard to expand their use and command of Spanish with increasing confidence and in a variety of social and cultural contexts. We will study cultural texts–from the most informal to the most formal, from Hispanic communities both here in the US and in the Spanish-speaking world, in Spanish and Spanglish–and will discuss students’ own experiences growing up as heritage learners of Spanish. Conducted in Spanish and Spanglish.
Admission with consent of the instructor. Fall and Spring Semester. Professor Sánchez-Naranjo.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2023, Spring 2025(Offered as SPAN 301 and LLAS 301) This course provides an introduction to the diverse literatures and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world over the course of six centuries, from the Middle Ages to 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, historical periods and diverse genres such as poetry, narrative, theater and film. The syllabus will include a wide variety of authors of different national, political, and artistic persuasions and an array of linguistic styles. Conducted in Spanish.
Proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish are required. Limited to 15 students per section.
Fall semester: Professor Schroeder Rodríguez. Spring semester: Professor Infante.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025This interdisciplinary course examines how writers, artists, filmmakers, and activists have resisted the censorship, cultural repression and moral authority of dictatorships in Spain and Latin America. Scores of countries in the Spanish-speaking world were ruled by a dictator, autocrat or military junta over the course of the 20th century. In Spain, Francisco Franco ruled unopposed for 39 years, stifling free expression in the country. We will compare the culture of resistance in Spain with films, stories, artwork, and poetry that capture a spirit of protest from throughout Latin America. Possible artists, authors and activists include: Max Aub, Neus Català, Diamela Eltit, Reinaldo Arenas, Rigoberta Menchú, Griselda Gambaro, and Junot Díaz, among many others. This course exposes students to a variety of forms of protest, while also examining the causes and effects of these subversive activities. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 202 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Brenneis.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 330 and FAMS 238) How have Latin Americans represented themselves on the big screen? In this course we will explore this question through close readings of representative films from each of the following major periods: silent cinema (1890s–1930s), studio cinema (1930s–1950s), Neorealism/Art Cinema (1950s), the New Latin American Cinema (1960s–1980s), and contemporary cinema (1990s to today). Throughout the course we will examine evolving representations of modernity and pay special attention to how these representations are linked to different constructions of gender, race, sexuality, and nationality. We will conclude the course with a collective screening of video essays created by students in the course. The course is conducted in English.
Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Schroeder Rodríguez.
2023-24: Not offeredThe food and flavors of a country are a suggestive reflection of part of its identity. This course examines the cultural and literary history of food in Spain and Latin America from the sixteenth century to the present as a means to explore the relationship between what we eat and how we define ourselves. This approach is also a productive lens to examine interconnected topics such as gender, race, religion, and social identity as they relate to foodways in the Spanish-speaking world. Primary sources will include literary texts, historical accounts, films, cookbooks, and paintings and will be supplemented by secondary critical texts. Through diverse readings, class discussions, and varied writing assignments, students will also hone their speaking, listening, reading and writing abilities in Spanish. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 211, SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2019-20. Professor Infante.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2023, Fall 2024Offered as SPAN 240 and FAMS 324) Latin American documentary filmmaking in the twenty-first century has been enjoying a renaissance marked by a shift away from the highly political social documentaries of the second half of the twentieth century towards more reflexive modes of representation that explore the relationship between filmmakers and their subjects in ways that profoundly alter both. In this course, we will first discuss several canonical social documentaries of the 1960s and 1970s, and then proceed to discuss documentaries of the twenty-first century from Argentina (Andrés di Tella, Albertina Carri, María Inés Roque, Mario Oesterheld, and Jorge Prelorán), Brazil (Eduardo Coutinho, João Moreira Salles, Eryk Rocha, and Gabriel Mascaro), Mexico (Roberto Hernández), Colombia (the collective Mujeres al borde), Chile (Patricio Guzmán), and Guatemala (Ana Lucía Cuevas). As part of the class students will have the opportunity to create their own reflexive documentaries using the techniques we will have studied and discussed in class. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 211 or consent of instructor. Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Schroeder Rodríguez.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2014, Fall 2023(Offered as SPAN 342, LLAS 343 and SWAG 343) “Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out,” Chicana feminist theorist Gloria Anzaldúa wrote in the hybrid text Borderlands/La Frontera. She was referring to, what she called, the linguistic imperialism of English in the US Southwest. And yet she also carved out a third space for those subjects at the crossroads of multiple ways of being – the queer and the abject. In this course, we will examine cultural and literary texts that speak to the ways that race, gender, and sexual identity are conditioned by the historical development of geopolitical borders. We will pay particular attention to the US-Mexico Borderlands but we will also examine other places in which “borderlands” of identity exist. Course conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 211, SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Spring Semester. Professor Coráñez Bolton.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course will focus on Holyoke, MA as a case study of Latinx Studies and Puerto Rican Studies. Much of our work in the course will focus on Puerto Rico, but we will also familiarize ourselves with foundational work in the general field of Latinx Studies, taking care to place different migrant communities, cultures, and histories in conversation with one another. Students will also engage in collaborative learning projects with partners in the city of Holyoke and neighboring towns with substantial Latinx populations. The course will include students from Amherst College and Holyoke Community College. Class will be conducted in Spanish, but English may be used depending on work with community partners.
Requisite: SPAN 202, SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor.
Enrollment is limited to eleven Amherst College students. Spring Semester. Professors Coráñez Bolton and Gutiérrez (HCC).
2023-24: Not offeredLatin America produced some of the most socially engaged poetry of the twentieth century. In this course, we will ask ourselves how this poetry can help us imagine a truly liberated life for ourselves and our communities by challenging what Peruvian philosopher Aníbal Quijano calls coloniality of power, or the ongoing practices and legacies of Eurocentric colonialism in social organization and forms of knowledge. Authors will include Vicente Huidobro (Chile), Gabriela Mistral (Chile), Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rico), Pablo Neruda (Chile), César Vallejo (Peru), Roque Dalton (El Salvador), Haroldo de Campos (Brazil), Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua), Octavio Paz (Mexico), and Nancy Morejón (Cuba). Students will have the opportunity to work on their own poetry, on translations, and on a research project. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 202 or consent of instructor. Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Schroeder Rodríguez.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 360, BLST 382 [CLA] and SWAG 248) Historically speaking, discourses of mestizaje or racial mixture in Latin America, the Philippines, and the US-Mexican borderlands have implicitly or explicitly used “blackness” as a monolithic signifier connoting a perversity and backwardness to be rehabilitated by civilizational uplift. Students in this course will explore queer and trans texts that challenge this tradition and problematize the connection of the transracial to the transgender. Some of the theorists and authors we will engage include: Cathy Cohen, Fernando Ortiz, CLR James, Sylvia Wynter, Jessica Hagedorn, and Junot Díaz. While some course materials will be in English, the course will be conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 202 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Coráñez Bolton.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course will explore the literature and culture of the Asian Américas – the diasporic and national literatures in Spanish of those of Asian descent in the Americas. We will explore the historical reasons for Asian migration to the Americas as the political result of liberal abolitionism. Thus “Asian American” identity will not be studied in isolation; we will explore how mestizaje, blackness, and Eurocentrism shaped Asia in the Americas. We will prioritize texts in Spanish. Some secondary materials will be assigned in English. Class and assignments conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 202/SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Fall Semester. Professor Coráñez Bolton.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 243 and SWAG 236) This course explores the political economy of the largely queer and feminized labor that animates capitalism’s global reach. Through close readings of literary and audiovisual texts, we will chart how the migrant laboring body has been produced since the nineteenth century using recurring tropes of queerness, pathology, and dependency. Some of the artists we will discuss include writers Carlos Bulosan, Monique Truong, and Gloria Anzaldúa, and documentary film directors Tomer Heymann (Paper Dolls, 2006), and Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles (Mala Mala, 2014). Conducted in English.
Limited to 18 students. Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Coráñez Bolton.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 371 and ENST 371) In September 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and laid bare the social inequalities that had been growing since the Great Recession of 2008 and before. But the Hurricane has also accelerated efforts to seek alternative sources of food and fuel and avoid a repeat of the post-hurricane shortages linked to an overdependence on food imports and a crumbling energy grid. Students in this course will analyze and evaluate how three such efforts have fared: one small grassroots organization, one large not-for-profit organization, and one government agency. The findings may have far-reaching implications beyond Puerto Rico, as centralized power grids throughout the world enter the end of their useful life, begging replacement with new innovative systems that do not contribute to climate change. Accepted students must commit to travel to Puerto Rico during the second and third weeks of January 2020, to acquaint themselves with the organizations we will be studying in depth during the Spring 2020 semester. At the end of the semester, students will share their findings with a diverse audience of stakeholders and interested parties. Course readings and discussions will be in Spanish and in English.
Limited to 12 students. Admission with consent of the instructor. Spring Semester. Professors Schroeder Rodríguez and Ravikumar.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as AMST 375, LLAS 375, SOCI 375 and SPAN 375) Over the past four decades, the Latinx student population at Amherst has increased more than seven-fold, from about 30 students per class in the 1970s, to over 200 per class in the last several years. As a community, however, we know very little about the subjective experience of Latinxs who live, study, and work at Amherst College. In this course, we will read and discuss different genres of scholarship that focus on the Latinx experience—empirical research, fiction, memoirs, and films—before proceeding to a series of workshops on how to conduct oral history interviews. Students will then apply this theoretical and practical knowledge to an exploration of the experiences of Latinx students, alumni, faculty, and staff in our community. These interviews will form the basis of a collectively-edited documentary designed to encourage cross-cultural dialogues within and outside the Latinx community, and in the process, increase awareness of the diversity of Latinx lives on our campus. Students of all backgrounds are welcome, and knowledge of Spanish or Spanglish is useful but not required.
Admission with the consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Spring Semester. Professors Schroeder Rodríguez and Schmalzbauer.
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 202 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Omitted 2019-2020. 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 202 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Infante.
2023-24: Not offeredBilingualism is very common in homes throughout the United States, yet remains controversial in public discourse and especially in public education. In this interdisciplinary course, we will address the nature of this paradox from the perspective of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics, by asking questions such as how monolinguals and bilinguals differ in their understanding of language, and what roadblocks English-Spanish bilinguals in the United States regularly face as they navigate schools and engage in the civic life of their communities and the nation. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 202 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Sánchez-Naranjo.
2023-24: Not offeredSince the early 2000s many Latin American filmmakers have turned their attention to intimate spaces and situations, avoiding stories that are overtly political. This course will look at films within this tendency, to inquire how they still make an intervention in today’s Latin American political landscape. Some films focus exclusively on the personal emotions of the protagonists. Others pay attention to the social circumstances in which those emotions unfold. Students will reflect on the connections between these two approaches, with the support of theoretical readings. The class will look in particular at films dealing with experiences of loss and mourning, either from personal tragedy or from events that affected a whole nation. Most of the films will come from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Perú, four countries where this tendency is tied to films that tackle critical political events from the late twentieth century. All films will be studied within the broader regional context. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 202, SPAN 301, or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Fall Semester. Visiting Professor Rueda.
2023-24: Not offeredJorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) and Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) are not only the two most influential Latin American poets of the twentieth century. They also represent diametrically opposing views to literature and politics. This course traces their careers in Argentina and Chile respectively, their debut collections, their ascent to fame, and their status as international iconic figures. The author of “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” “Garden of Forking Paths,” “The Library of Babel,” and other classics, Borges is considered the father of postmodernism. His style in Spanish is learned, cerebral, and cosmopolitan. Neruda is the author of Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, Canto General, and 225 odes that are among the most beautiful in any language. A devoted Communist, he campaigned for worker’s rights and opposed the United States-backed coup d’etat of General Augusto Pinochet in 1973. Their distinct weltanschauungs will enable students to appreciate the syncopated ways in which the stoic and hedonistic trends define Latin American culture today. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 202 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Stavans.
(Offered as SPAN 485 and LLAS 485) Arguably the most influential popular form of cultural expression in Latin America, a single episode of any prime-time telenovela is watched by more people than all the accumulated number of Spanish-language readers of One Hundred Years of Solitude over time. The course will explore the historical origin and development of telenovelas as well as various production techniques, the way scripts are shaped and actors are asked to perform, the role of music and other sounds, etc. Each country in the region has its own telenovela tradition. We will look at Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, and the Spanish-language productions of Univisión and Telemundo in the United States, among others. But the main objective of the course will be to analyze the performative nature of emotions in telenovelas and also gender, class, and political tension on the small screen. And we will delve into the strategies various governments have used by means of telenovelas to control the population (“melodrama is the true opium of the masses,” said a prominent Mexican telenovela director), their use as educational devices, and the clash between telenovelas and fútbol in the region’s celebrity ecosystem. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 202, SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Limit 18 students. Spring semester. Professor Stavans.
2023-24: Not offeredThe senior seminar is offered every fall semester and fulfills the capstone requirement. It is designed for Spanish majors to reflect, integrate, and apply what they have learned and accomplished in the major. At the beginning of the semester, students will prepare a portfolio of work created throughout the major, including during their study abroad experience, to share and discuss with classmates. The rest of the semester will be devoted to individual or collaborative projects. Projects can take a variety of forms, including but not limited to a performance, a service learning project, an internship, a thesis, or an exhibit. Students writing a thesis may designate their thesis as their individual project. In all cases, students will report on their projects in writing as well as in person with classmates and in a public forum. Conducted in Spanish.
Open only to senior majors. Fall Semester. Professor Schroeder Rodríguez.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024SPAN 102 is the second of the four-semester sequence in the Spanish Language Program. It is designed for students who a) have successfully completed SPAN 101, b) who have placed into the course via the Spanish Department placement exam, or c) who have scored 3 on the AP Spanish Language exam. Students further develop strategies for reading, listening, writing, and participating in everyday conversations. The course expands students’ ability to engage with the cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking world through authentic materials, and through activities that address a range topics such as travel and environmental issues. By the end of the semester, students can expect to have reached the Intermediate Mid level of the ACTFL scale, and proceed to SPAN 201. 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: SPAN 101 or Spanish Placement Exam. Fall and spring semesters. Lecturer Granda, Visiting Lecturer Dixon, Professor Sánchez-Naranjo and Assistants.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025SPAN 201 is the third of a four-semester sequence in the Spanish Language Program designed for students who a) have successfully completed SPAN102, b) who have placed into the course via the Spanish Department placement exam, or c) who have scored 4 on the AP Spanish Language exam or 3 in the AP Spanish Literature Exam. The course develops students’ ability to narrate across various time frames, follow the main plot of narratives (including longer texts, and feature-length films), and exchange basic descriptions, comparisons, and interpretations about authentic materials from the Spanish-speaking world. By the end of the semester, students can expect to have reached the Intermediate High level of the ACTFL scale, and be ready proceed to SPAN 202. 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: SPAN 102 or Spanish Placement Exam. Fall and spring semesters. Lecturer Granda and Assistants.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025SPAN 202 is the final course of the four-semester sequence in the Spanish Language Program. It is designed for students who a) have successfully completed SPAN 201, b) who have placed into the course via the Spanish Department placement exam, or c) who have scored 5 on the AP Spanish Language exam or 4 on the AP Spanish Literature exam. The course develops students’ ability to interact in culturally appropriate ways with native speakers of Spanish, negotiate situations that require problem solving, and exchange detailed descriptions, comparisons, and interpretations about authentic materials from the Spanish-speaking world. By the end of the semester, students can expect to have reached the Advanced Low level of the ACTFL scale, and be ready to proceed to SPAN 301 (Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies), or to an immersive study abroad experience in any of Amherst College’s pre-approved programs in the Spanish-speaking world. Three hours per week with the lecturer, plus one hour with the language assistant. 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 201 or Spanish Placement Exam. Fall and spring semesters. Visiting Professor Porter and Assistants.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025The 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 both English and Spanish the course will be conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 202 or consent of the instructor. Admission will be based on an application. Limited to 15 Amherst College students. Omitted 2019-2020. Lecturer Granda.
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 211, SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 15 students. Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Infante.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2020As 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 202 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2019-2020. Professor Brenneis.
2023-24: Not offeredA 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 202 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2019-2020. 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 202, SPAN 301 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. The Department.
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