Undergraduate Spanish Course Descriptions

Spanish Language Placement Exam
Current Schedule of Courses

Fall 2007

SPANISH 101: Elementary Spanish I

SPANISH 201: Intermediate Spanish I

SPANISH 212: Advanced Practice in Spanish

SPANISH 215: Reading & Writing Strategies in Spanish

SPANISH 300WR: Reading in Spanish: Texts and Contexts

SPANISH 301WR: Early Spanish and Spanish American Culture

SPANISH 302WR: Modern Spanish and Spanish American Culture

SPANISH 312WR: Theories and Histories of Hispanic Theater, Film, and Performance

SPANISH 314: Internship in Spanish

SPANISH 410S.000: The Sounds of Spanish: Phonetics, Phonology, and Variation

SPANISH 450S.000: Living With Scarcity: Culture and Environment in Modern Spain

SPANISH 450S.001: Terror of Tolerance: Muslims, Jews and Christians in Imperial Spain

SPANISH 460S: Havana and San Juan, Tales of Two Cities

SPANISH 460S: Literature and Mass Media in Latin America

SPANISH 460S: Drawing the Line: The Mexico-U.S. frontera and its Stories

 

SPANISH 101: Elementary Spanish I (top)
Faculty MTWTF (multiple sections) Max: 18

CONTENT: This course helps students develop a basic ability to communicate in Spanish. Class time is dedicated to interactive activities which allow students to acquire skills in speaking, listening, reading and writing. Through activities and readings, students are introduced to many aspects of Hispanic culture. Class meets five times per week and is conducted exclusively in Spanish in order to maximize exposure to the language. Workbook and language Lab activities are also incorporated in order to develop students' listening skills and pronunciation.

TEXTS:
1. Caycedo Garner, Rusch and Domínguez. 2008. ¡Claro que sí! 6th Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
2. Caycedo Garner, Rusch and Domínguez. 2008. ¡Claro que sí! : Activities Manual. 6th Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

PARTICULARS: Evaluation will be based on participation, homework, workbook, Language Laboratory work, quizzes, exams, and compositions.

PREREQUISITES: None, but students must take the Spanish Placement Exam and receive an Official Placement for SP101 from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

SPANISH 201: Intermediate Spanish I (top)
Faculty MWF (multiple sections) Max: 15

CONTENT: This course develops students' communicative abilities in Spanish as well as understanding of the cultural context in which the language is used. Students learn to communicate through activities in speaking, listening, reading and writing; review and learning of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation; and study of Hispanic cultures and societies. Classroom activities are highly interactive and focus on speaking and listening. Reading about Hispanic cultures is emphasized, as are informal writing (to develop fluency) and brief compositions (to develop accuracy). Language Lab activities are also used to improve listening skill and pronunciation.

TEXTS:
1. Rusch, Domínguez and Caycedo Garner. 2005. Fuentes: Conversación y gramática , 3rd. edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
2. Tuten, Esterrich and Caycedo Garner. 2005. Fuentes: Lectura y redacción . Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
3. Rusch, Domínguez and Caycedo Garner. 2005. Fuentes: Activities Manual . Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

PARTICULARS: Evaluations are based on participation, homework and Language Laboratory work, quizzes, exams, formal compositions, informal writing, and an oral interview.

PREREQUISITES: Spanish 102 or equivalent. Students must take the Spanish Placement Exam and receive an Official Placement for SP201 from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

SPANISH 212: Advanced Practice in Spanish (top)
Faculty MWF (multiple sections) Max: 15 TPL Theory Practice Learning Class

CONTENT: This course reviews and expands knowledge of many areas of Spanish vocabulary and grammar and develops the student's ability in listening, speaking, reading and writing, though the development of oral proficiency is emphasized in this course. Discussion centers on short texts, films, and community activities that deal with various aspects of contemporary Hispanic culture (tradition and change, cultural diversity, politics and human rights, sexual stereotypes and gender roles).

TEXTS:
1. García Serrano, Cash, and de la Torre. 2004. ¡A que sí! 3rd Ed. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
2. García Serrano, Cash, and de la Torre. 2004. ¡A que sí!: Workbook . 3rd Ed. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.

PARTICULARS: Evaluation is based on participation, homework, quizzes, exams and oral interviews.

PREREQUISITES: Spanish 202 or equivalent, or students must take the Spanish Placement Exam and receive an Official Placement for SP212 from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

SPANISH 215: Reading & Writing Strategies in Spanish (top)
Faculty MWF (multiple sections) Max: 10

CONTENT: This is an advanced course designed to improve students' writing and reading skills in Spanish. Students are introduced to a variety of Spanish texts and are required to recognize their formal characteristics and to practice them in formal writing. Special emphasis is placed on critical reading as well as accurate use of grammar and vocabulary in translation and creative writing.

TEXTS:
1. Schmitt, Schaum's Outline of Spanish Grammar, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill, 1998
2. Harper Collins Spanish Dictionary (Unabridged Edition) or Oxford Spanish Dictionary. Also suggested: the Pequeño Larousse Spanish-to-Spanish dictionary that is required for Spanish 300.
3. Mendoza, Eduardo. Sin noticias de Gurb. Seix Barral, 1991.
4. Additinal text to be announced
5. Readings available on e-reserves.

PARTICULARS: Valuable for students who wish to perfect their writing and reading skills in Spanish. May be taken before or with Spanish 300. Evaluation will be based on participation, two midterm exams, quizzes on the readings, daily informal writing, two oral presentations, four formal compositions and a final exam.

PREREQUISITES: SPANISH 212 or equivalent.

SPANISH 300WR: Reading in Spanish: Texts and Contexts (top)
Faculty MWF (multiple sections) Max: 10

CONTENT: A course in Hispanic cultural literacy and critical skills that also develops students' reading ability, vocabulary, and ability to express ideas in writing. The course is designed to give students a broad understanding of Hispanic culture that will prepare them for upper level course work. The primary reading text is Carlos Fuentes' El espejo enterrado. As students read this text, they will learn about the history, geography, values, art, and literature of the Hispanic world. Supplementary texts are also used.

TEXTS:
Fuentes, Carlos. 1992. El espejo enterrado .

PARTICULARS: Required for the Major.

PREREQUISITES: Spanish 212 or equivalent (5-6 years of high school study and permission of Director of the Language Program).

SPANISH 301WR: Early Spanish and Spanish American Culture (top)
Faculty MWF (multiple sections) Max: 12

CONTENT: This course engages in an in-depth study of Spanish and Colonial Spanish American culture(s) from the Pre Roman Period through the seventeenth century. Among the topics included are: Islamic Spain, the Spanish Reconquest, the Inquisition, the Origins of the Spanish Language, Sephardic Culture in Spain, the Pilgrimage Route to St. James, Picaresque Literature, Golden Age Spanish Drama, pre-Columbian civilizations, the Conquest of the New World, and the establishment of colonial rule in Spanish America.

TEXTS: Primary and secondary readings accompany each topic.

PARTICULARS: Required for the Major. The final grade is based on three papers (4-5 pp.), oral presentations and a final exam.

SPANISH 302WR: Modern Spanish and Spanish American Culture (top)
Faculty MWF (multiple sections) Max: 12

CONTENT: This course engages in an in-depth study of certain key moments and texts in Spanish and Spanish American culture from the eighteenth century to the present. Among the topics dealt with are: the "failed" Enlightenment of Spain and Spanish America, the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the revolt against Spanish rule and the creation of new nations in Spanish America, Modernism and the politics of avant-garde, the Mexican and Cuban revolutions, The Spanish Civil War and Franco dictatorship, the Latin American "boom" narrative, postmodernism and globalization in contemporary Spain and Spanish America.

TEXTS: Primary and Secondary readings accompany each topic. The course also incorporates painting and film.

PARTICULARS: Required for the Major. The final grade is based on three papers (4-5 pp.), oral presentations and discussion, and two exams.

SPANISH 312WR: Theories and Histories of Hispanic Theater, Film, and Performance (top)
Faculty Max: 10
MWF (multiple sections)

CONTENT: This course seeks to introduce students to a working vocabulary for the study of Hispanic theater, film, and performance, underscoring their theoretical and historical dimensions. Discussions will include, but will not be limited to, the concepts of Hispanic teatro, cine, and performance; “teoría” and “historia;” la mirada; el público; el cuerpo; la escena; la raza; la función; el metateatro; el melodrama; la tragedia, la comedia and la Comedia; el entremés, el auto, la loa, and la zarzuela; el documental; el travestismo. A comparative perspective on theater, film, and performance will be articulated whenever possible, devoting discrete classes to different media. The course will prepare students for work at the 400 level in Hispanic film, theater, and performance, providing them with an introduction to both the theoretical framework guiding the study of texts, and a "hands-on" feel for theatrical, film, video, and performance work. The close textual analysis of Hispanic theater, film, and performance will be done in a seminar-type discussion group. Students will be expected to write weekly reaction compositions to the texts discussed in class, three 5-page reviews, and to present a final project on theater / film / performance media; on all verbal and written assignments students will be expected to show command of the materials covered in this class.

TEXTS:
A) Print: Cervantes, Entremés de El juez de los divorcios ; Lope, Arte nuevo de hacer comedias , El perro del hortelano and El castigo sin venganza ; Zorrilla, Don Juan Tenorio ; García Lorca, Bodas de sangre ; Usigli, El gesticulador ; Díaz, L a orgástula ; Sánchez, Quíntuples . Alina Troyano, I, Carmelita Tropicana ; Sánchez Noriega, Historia del cine: Teoría y géneros cinematográficos ; Schechner, Performance Theory ; Vidal, Nuevas tendencias teatrales: la Performance ; Scott, Domination and the Arts of Resistance ; Quiroga, Tropics of Desire.

B) Films: Gutiérrez Alea, Memorias del subdesarrollo and Fresa y chocolate ; Saura, Bodas de sangre , and Carmen ; Miró, El perro del hortelano ; Amaral, La hora de la estrella ; Pedrero, Locas de amar ; Barroso, Extasis ; Almodóvar, ¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? , La ley del deseo, Tacones lejanos and La flor de mi secreto ; Vega, Retrato de Teresa ; Balletbò-Coll, Costa Brava ; video clips of John Leguizamo, Ricky Martin, Shakira, and other performers.

PARTICULARS: Attendance and class participation; two exams; three reviews (of a play, a film, and a performance art piece) theater/film/performance project; presentation of the project

SPANISH 314: Internship in Spanish (top)
Vialla Hartfield-Méndez Max: None

CONTENT: Applied learning in a supervised Spanish speaking work or volunteer environment. Students will be expected to complete a certain number of hours on site (to be determined in consultation with the on-site supervisor and the instructor) and to fulfill all academic requirements for the course, to be determined in consultation with the instructor (readings, journal, paper, etc.)

PARTICULARS: Spanish 300 (or its equivalent) is a prerequisite for this course. Written permission of Professor Vialla Hartfield-Méndez required prior to preregistration. May be counted towards the major for 2 credit hours but not repeated for credit.

SP410S.000: The Sounds of Spanish: Phonetics, Phonology, and Variation (cross-list LING385S) (top)
Don Tuten TT 1:00-2:15 Max: 15

CONTENT: This course studies the pronunciation of Spanish. During the first part of the course, the focus will be on articulatory phonetics (how sounds are pronounced) and phonology (how sounds are organized or pattern in the minds of Spanish-speakers). Throughout this part of the course, students will be asked to compare and contrast English and Spanish phonology (this component of the course will also include exercises aimed at improving non-native students' pronunciation). The second part of the course will focus on how pronunciation varies across the Spanish-speaking world, with attention to how pronunciation reflects and projects social identity (particularly with regard to region, social class, ethnicity, gender/sexuality, and age) and how pronunciation links to stylistic differences (variation which shapes and is shaped by the situation or context of communication).

NOTE: Taught in Spanish. The course is open to both native and non-native speakers of Spanish (since the course is focused on a conceptual understanding of Spanish phonetics and phonology, and how these vary in social context, native speakers will also profit from it). 4 CREDIT HOURS

TEXTS: Will be provided via Blackboard, Learnlink or hand-outs.

PRE-REQUISITES: Spanish 300 or permission of instructor

SPAN 450S.000: Living With Scarcity: Culture and Environment in Modern Spain (top)
Tatjana Gajic TuTh 10:00-11:15 Max: 15

CONTENT: “Agua, mi amo, agua”, a dying monkey utters this poignant sentence at the end of “Yzur”, a Leopoldo Lugones' story that chronicles an experiment undertaken by a scientist who is determined to teach a monkey to speak. Lugones' text seems to be posing the following question: Can it be that what ties animals and humans is not so much our will to dominate or their lack of language, but our common acute distancing from nature and natural resources? With the images of two recent ecological crises still fresh in the Spanish public memory (raging forest fires in Galicia, and the oil-spill caused by the break-up of the tanker “Prestige”), this course aims to study modern Spanish culture from the standpoint of the contrast between the country's galloping socio-political development and the increasingly precarious state of the geographical and physical environment in which it takes place. In order to provide a historical context for the current problems, the course will tackle the issue of how the Spanish culture of the past two centuries has grappled with the problem of scarcity of natural resources, primarily water, land and food. The idea is to think about nature—Spanish nature, but also nature more generally—as a changing and dynamic counterpart of culture, while examining a variety of issues and phenomena such as: construction of landscape, water and land-distribution, scientific expeditions, tourism, environmental crises and demise of natural environment. Through the literary and visual materials used in class, we will reexamine some familiar images of Spain (a tourist paradise, or a desert-like setting for spaghetti Westerns), and encounter some less familiar ones (the country of rural exodus, flooded villages, and agricultural hyper-production).

TEXTS: Works by J. Senador, M. Delibes, M. Rivas, J. Valverde, J. Llamazares, C.J. Cela and others. Films will include works by S. Leone, Alex de la Iglesia, J. Jordá, television series “Verano azul,” and video documents about recent environmental crises in Spain.

EVALUATION: Based on class participation, one oral presentation and two papers (a short mid-term paper and a final paper).

SPANISH 450S.001: Terror of Tolerance: Muslims, Jews and Christians in Imperial Spain (top)
María Rosa-Rodriguez TuTh 2:30-3:45 Max: 15

CONTENT: Whereas the ideas of “limpieza de sangre”, “pureza lingüística”, and strict Catholicism are used to define Imperial Spain (16th-17th Century), popular culture and the artistic/literary production of the Golden Age argue otherwise. This course will examine everything that constitutes an “otherwise” Spain, in terms of language, literature, architecture, and religion. Students will study the impact of 7 centuries of multiculturalism on the construction of the Spanish sense of Nation, the interplay of Muslims, Jews and Christians after 1492 in spite of the Inquisition, the hybridity of the religious buildings of Andalusia, and the novelty of Aljamiado and Judeo-Spanish writings during the time. Through the works of known and unknown subjects, students will unveil a Spain full of diversity and transit, of rivalry and exchange that will inform the understanding of today's controversies and the continuous terror of real tolerance.

TEXTS: Selections of readings in a booklet that will be given the first day of class for students to copy. Lazarillo de Tormes (anonimo) (ed. Catedra). Don Gil de las Calzas Verdes by Tirso de Molina, (ed. CATEDRA)

FILMS: "Control Room" directed by Jehane Noujaim, "Stage Beauty" directed Richard Eyre, "Dogma" directed by Kevin Smith, "Las Picaras" by Enrique Llovet

PARTICULARS: Passionate participation required!

SPANISH 460S: Havana and San Juan, Tales of Two Cities
(cross/list with Women's Studies 475) (top)
María Carrión MWF 11:45-11:35 Max: 15

CONTENT: Students in this course will learn to read and discuss foundational structures, planning, and articulations of the cities of Havana and San Juan, underscoring the major transition steps from colonial spaces to high-capitalist / communist, post-modern metropolitan centers. The goal is to familiarize students with critical issues of private and public spaces in these two Caribbean urban environments, and with how the placement, re-placement, or displacement of race, gender, and class in these spaces relate to subject-formation in Cuba and Puerto Rico. To that end, we will
perform readings of political, cultural, literary, musical, and theoretical texts that represent these two cities and / or issues pertaining to their development as urban spaces: narratives in print (novels, pamphlets, catalogues, short stories), virtual spaces (websites, models, plans, installations, exhibits), and performing events (films, music, videos).

TEXTS AND FILMS: By Alejo Carpentier, Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá, Carmelita Tropicana, María Elena Rodríguez Castro, Roberto Segre, Giannina Braschi, Reina María Rodríguez, Coco Fusco, Ricky Martin, Wilfredo Féliz, David Syrett, Nicolás Guillén, Ana Lyidia Vega, Emma Á lvarez-Tabío, Mayra Santos Febre, Antonio José Ponte, Luis Rafael Sánchez, Fidel Castro, Celia Cruz, Senel Paz, Frances Negrón, Rafael Lam, Orishas, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Jacobo Morales, Eusebio Leal Spengler, John Loomis, Carlos Garaicoa, Residente Calle 13, Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, and Marcos Zúriñaga, among others.

PARTICULARS: Attendance and class participation (35%); leading of class discussion at least once during the semester (10%); two research
papers or projects reflecting class readings and discussions (55%).

SPAN 460S: Literature and Mass Media in Latin America (top)
José Quiroga TuTh 11:30-12:45

CONTENT: In La asesina de Lady Di (2001), the Argentine novelist Alejandro Lopez portrays the story of a woman who wants to escape the dreary life of her small town and bear the child of Ricky Martin, only to find that Lady Diana Spencer is preventing her from achieving her goal.

Breaking the bounds of national culture on the one hand, and patriarchal societies on the other, mass media allow for new ways of understanding the “ popular” and the “mass” discourses of Latin American societies. These changes are also accompanied by economic and political factors (the re-democratization of authoritarian societies, globalization, populism) as well as by changes in the context of production and consumption of the cultural artifact called the “ book.”

AUTHORS INCLUDE: Jaime Bayly, Mayra Santos, Clarice Lispector, Manuel Puig, Dani Umpi, Washington Cucurto, and others... 

REQUIREMENTS: Four papers (aprox 7 pages each) on topics to be agreed upon in advance with the professor. One oral report on one of the authors or figures discussed in the class. 

SPAN 460S: Drawing the Line: The Mexico-U.S. frontera and its Stories (cross-list with LAS 490) (top)
Vialla Hartfield-Méndez MWF 10:40-11:30

CONTENT: This course explores the history of the Mexico-U.S. border from colonial notions of boundaries in New Spain through the Mexican-American War and the Mexican Revolution to the twentieth-century concept of "borderlands" and the present cultural and political tangle of migration, fence building, globalization, and multiple borderland spaces, not all of them located at the official dividing line. Through reading (or viewing) and discussing various kinds of texts (crónicas, treaties and other government documents, fiction, poetry, music, visuals arts and film), students will gain a critical understanding of the ideological, political and cultural constructions of la frontera.

TEXTS AND FILMS: By Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Francisco I Madero, Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Gloria Anzaldúa, Carlos Fuentes, Rubén Martínez, Daniel Sada, José Manuel Valenzuela Arce, Humberto Crosthwaite, John Sayles, Larry Baza, Rosario Sanmiguel, Alejandro González Iñárritu. Other sources: Treaties such as the Tratado de Guadalupe, dispatches from Henry Lane Wilson, cartography, official correspondence and other political documents, photography, visual art, and corridos.

PARTICULARS: Attendance and class participation (20%), written reading / viewing responses (20%), two research/writing projects (50%), and a final portfolio (10%).

SPANISH 460S: TBA
Instructor TBA TuTh 2:30-3:45

Click here for Course Descriptions from Spring 2007.