Graduate Spanish Course Descriptions

Fall 2007

SPANISH 550: Ghosts of the Century: Liberalism and Totalitarianism in the Spanish Twentieth Century Thought and Literature
Tatjana Gajic W 1:00-4:00pm
Maximum Enrollment: 15

CONTENT: Spanish literary history, shackled by an artificial periodization based on the criteria of literary generations, has not managed to address nor explain the following questions: how is it that many emblematic figures of the “Generation of 98” or the “Generation of 1914” (Ortega, Ayala, Azorín) known for their critique of Spain's conservativism, ended up supporting (or at least not actively opposing) Franco's regime? By the same token, how is it that many intellectuals from the so called “Generation of 1936” who considered themselves fascists started, in the aftermath of the Civil War, to reclaim emblematic liberals such as Antonio Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez or Ortega as their predecessors and “maestros”? This class begins with the idea that a critical interrogation of categories such as “liberalism” or “totalitarianism” is necessary to account for the apparent incongruency of liberal intellectuals who supported an anti-liberal regime in 20th-century Spain, while others, who defended a totalitarian ideology, recuperated those same liberal intellectuals as their models. While the exploration of the intellectual roots of totalitarianism has figured prominently in German or French intellectual production, in Spain the combination of the unprocessed trauma of the Civil War with 35 years of Francoism resulted in an attempt to overcome past divisions and locate, above and beyond irreconcilable ideological rifts, a common ground for democratic “convivencia”. This led to the paradoxical situation that liberalism, which in the 1930s was unable to resist or oppose the assault of anti-liberalism, is presented today as the path of moderation, dialogue and rational persuasion, necessary to heal past wounds and capture the lost continuity of Spanish history. In order to examine this paradox, this class will place Spanish liberalism in its political, intellectual and literary context, unearth and analyze its contradictory relationship with totalitarianism, and rethink the past in the light of the current situation in which the basic liberal idea—individual freedom—is used as a battle cry for a variety of different causes.

Note: Depending on the interests of the enrolled students, a Latin American component can be incorporated into the course.

TEXTS:
Manuel Azaña. Jardín de los frailes.
Francisco Ayala. Los usurpadores. Razón del mundo.
Juan Donoso Cortes. "Sobre la dictadura" and other essays.
Jordi Gracia. Resistencia silenciosa.
Samuel Ros. Hombre de los medios abrazos.
Suso de Toro. Hombre sin nombre.
Ramón María Valle Inclán. Romance de lobos.
María Zambrano. Delirio y destino.

Sellected stories, essays and poems by Dionisio Ridruejo, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, Pilar Primo de Rivera, Clara Campoamor. Theoretical works by Leo Strauss, Issaiah Berlin, Ernst Nolte, François Furet, Hannah Arendt, Carl Schmitt and others.

SPANISH 560: "Hosts, Hostages, and Pariahs: the Theme of Hospitality in Latin American Literature"
Ricardo Gutiérrez-Mouat Th 1:00-4:00pm
Maximum Enrollment: 15

CONTENT: Hospitality is an ethical question in contemporary philosophy and a central issue in the debate on human rights and immigration (as well as a rhetorical device in the tourism industry). In this course, we will use hospitality as a thematic perspective to bring together an array of otherwise disparate narratives (from the 19th to the 21st centuries) built around scenes of hospitality and its "others" (vagrancy, prisons, shelters). We will link issues concerning hosts, strangers, and vagrants to broader topics such as nationalism, postcolonialism, exile, otherness, dictatorship, and the nature of art.

TEXT: The readings will come from the following list:
Manuel Puig. Maldición eterna.
José Donoso. El jardín de al lado.
Gabriel García Márquez. Doce cuentos peregrinos.
Rodrigo Fresán. Jardines de Kensington.
Rodrigo Rey Rosa. La orilla africana.
Juan José Saer. El entenado.
____________. Las nubes.
Sylvia Iparaguirre. La tierra del fuego.
Carmen Boullosa. Llanto, novelas imposibles.
Ignacio Padilla. Amphitryon.
César Aira. Un episodio en la vida del pintor viajero.
Flora Tristán. Peregrinaciones de una paria.

PARTICULARS: The course will be in Spanish and students will be responsible for an oral presentation and a final paper.

SPANISH 560: TBA
José Quiroga T 1:00-4:00pm
Maximum Enrollment: 15

SPANISH 620: Seminar on Pedagogy
Donald Tuten F 1:00-4:00 pm
Maximum Enrollment: 15

CONTENT: This course is designed to introduce graduate students to the practice and theory of teaching foreign languages and cultures, with particular attention to the issues of teaching Spanish language and Hispanic cultures in US academic contexts. The course begins with a short orientation which focuses on practical issues such as classroom management and teaching techniques in lower-division courses. Subsequently, readings and assignments focus on broader issues: implications of SLA research for language pedagogy, history of foreign language pedagogy in the US, teaching and testing of linguistic knowledge and skills, teaching of culture and literature, and current debates on the goals of language and culture study at all levels of the curriculum. All students are required to teach a lower-division Spanish course concurrently in order to help them relate pedagogical theory and practice. This link is also reinforced through class discussion and micro-teachings, video self-recording/analysis, observations and analyses of other classes, observations and feedback sessions on their own teaching, as well as a textbook analysis and a final philosophy of teaching. Students are also encouraged to familiarize themselves with relevant journals and publications through preparation of a journal review.

TEXTS: Alice Omaggio Hadley, Teaching Languages in Context; Claire Kramsch, Context and Culture in Language Teaching. Richard Kern, Literacy and Language Teaching.

PARTICULARS: Graduate student status in Spanish or permission of instructor.