Spanish Course Descriptions
SPAN 001 - Basic Spanish I (1st Year)
SPAN 002 - Basic Spanish II (1st Year)
SPAN 003 - Intermediate Spanish I (2nd Year)
SPAN 004 - Intermediate Spanish II (2nd Year)
SPAN 009 - Language, Culture, and Society I (3rd Year)
SPAN 010 - Language, Culture, and Society II (3rd Year)
SPAN 049 - Spanish for Graduate Students
SPAN 108 - Advanced Spanish Grammar and Style (4th Year)
SPAN 109 - Contemporary Spain and Latin America (4th Year)
SPAN 110 - Business and Commercial Spanish (4th Year)
SPAN 030 - General Readings in Spanish Literature
SPAN 053 - Epic and Satire
SPAN 054 - Tragedy and Comedy
SPAN 056 - Topics in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures in Translation
SPAN 090 - Textual Analysis
SPAN 120 - Studies in Medieval Spanish Literature
SPAN 121 - Studies in Golden Age Literature
SPAN 122 - Cervantes' Don Quijote and the Rise of the Novel I
SPAN 123 - Cervantes' Don Quijote and the Rise of the Novel II
SPAN 124 - Reason, Superstition, and Literature in the 18th-Century Spain
SPAN 125 - The Myth of the Two Spains
SPAN 126 - The Literature of Spain's First Century Without Empire
SPAN 130 - Poetry of Spain and Spanish America
SPAN 131 - Topics in the Cinema of the Spanish World
SPAN 132 - Theatre and the Hispanic Experience
SPAN 133 - Special Topics in Spanish and Spanish-American Literature I
SPAN 134 - Special Topics in Spanish and Spanish-American Literature II
SPAN 140 - Latin American Women Writers
SPAN 145 - Modern Spanish-American Poetry
SPAN 146 - Spanish-American Short Fiction
SPAN 147 - Spanish-American Polemics
SPAN 148 - New Narrative in Spanish America
SPAN 149 - Spanish-American Colonial Literature
SPAN 150 - Spanish-American Romanticism and Modernism
SPAN 197 - Independent Study
SPAN 198 - Proseminar I
SPAN 199 - Proseminar II
SPAN 001 - Basic Spanish I (1st Year)
Handling the immediate context of daily experience in spoken and written Spanish: identifying, describing, and characterizing people, objects, places, and events; giving information and instructions; issuing simple commands and requests. There are no prerequisites for this course.
SPAN 002 - Basic Spanish II (1st Year)
Speaking and writing in Spanish about past and future events: telling a story (narrating and describing in the past), promising, predicting, and proposing simple hypotheses and conjectures. Prerequisite: SPAN 001.
SPAN 003 - Intermediate Spanish I (2nd Year)
Increasing active vocabulary, reinforcing mastery of basic grammar, dealing with more complex structures (verbal phrases, subordinate clauses), and using some patterns of indirect speech (repeating or relaying messages, giving reports, summarizing). Prerequisite: SPAN 002.
SPAN 004 - Intermediate Spanish II (2nd Year)
Consolidation and further expansion of the ability to understand as well as produce a more complex level of oral and written discourse emphasizing subjective expression: issuing indirect commands and requests; giving opinions; making proposals, building arguments; defending and criticizing ideas. Prerequisite: SPAN 003.
SPAN 009 - Language, Culture, and Society I (3rd Year)
Development of strong conversational skills and the rudiments of expository writing. The vocabulary and structures necessary to move from handling everyday experience and subjective expression to the exposition of more abstract thought and ideas and discussion of political, social, and cultural issues. Prerequisite: SPAN 004.
SPAN 010 - Language, Culture, and Society II (3rd Year)
Continued expansion of the range and complexity of conversational skills and further development of the writing of effective expository prose on a broad range of subjects. Short literary texts serve as the basis for oral discussion, analytical reading, and writing brief critical essays. Prerequisite: SPAN 009.
SPAN 049 - Spanish for Graduate Students
For graduate students preparing for reading examinations. No academic credit.
SPAN 108 - Advanced Spanish Grammar and Style (4th Year)
Composition, drills, dictations. Translations into Spanish. Study of vocabulary and syntax, with emphasis on stylistic devices. Prerequisite: SPAN 010.
SPAN 109 - Contemporary Spain and Latin America (4th Year)
Emphasis on advanced oral work. Discussion of Hispanic culture and civilization, based on contemporary writings and video documents. Prerequisite: SPAN 010.
SPAN 110 - Business and Commercial Spanish (4th Year)
Structure and language of Latin American and Spanish economic institutions. Discussion of legal, financial, and administrative documents. Oral and written reports. Prerequisite: SPAN 010.
SPAN 030 - Introduction to Spanish Literature
Readings, textual analysis, and writing on a broad selection of texts from different genres and periods. Hispanic literatures in their cultural contexts. Close reading approach and introduction to literary vocabulary. Prerequisite: SPAN 108.
SPAN 053 - Epic and Satire
The historical, cultural, and political ties between Spain and Latin America and their representation in epic and satiric modes of imaginative literature as developed in drama, poetry, and prose. Lecture and discussion in Spanish. Prerequisite: SPAN 030.
SPAN 054 - Tragedy and Comedy
The historical, cultural, and political ties between Spain and Latin America and their representation in tragic and comic modes of imaginative literature as developed in drama, poetry, and prose. Lecture and discussion in Spanish. Prerequisite: SPAN 030.
SPAN 056 - Topics in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures in Translation
Dynamics of Hispanic societies and their cultures studied through literature, art, or film. Topics vary. Readings and lectures in English. The course may be repeated for credit. There are no prerequisites for this course.
SPAN 090 - Textual Analysis
Methodology and vocabulary of literary criticism. Application of various principles of textual analysis and critical approaches to literature. Prerequisite: SPAN 030.
SPAN 120 - Studies in Medieval Spanish Literature
Reading and analysis of the major literary texts from the 11th through the 15th century. Attention paid to linguistic aspects of Old Spanish. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 121 - Studies in Golden Age Literature
Major texts of the 16th and 17th centuries. Topics may include lyric poetry and the “invention” of subjectivity; prose fiction; comedia and the relation between private and public life; humanism and the classical tradition; the invention of the press, the status of writing, and the new culture of the book; the (post)modernity of Golden Age literature. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 122 - Cervantes' Don Quijote and the Rise of the Novel I
Issues raised in the text of Don Quijote: literature and life, words and deed, the fashioning of self, the structures of narrative, the limits and possibilities of representation, and the relation between appearance and reality, knowledge and understanding, fiction and truth. Cervantes’ “invention” of the novel. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 123 - Cervantes' Don Quijote and the Rise of the Novel II
2nd semester. Issues raised in the text of Don Quijote: literature and life, words and deed, the fashioning of self, the structures of narrative, the limits and possibilities of representation, and the relation between appearance and reality, knowledge and understanding, fiction and truth. Cervantes’ “invention” of the novel. Prerequisite: SPAN 122.
SPAN 124 - Reason, Superstition, and Literature in the 18th-Century Spain
The development of neoclassical aesthetics in Spain: the confrontation of reason and superstition; the autonomy of critical thought vis-à-vis the doctrines of the Catholic Church and the absolute powers of the monarchy; culture as state-sponsored spectacle; the split between elites and masses, high and low culture; the conjunction of “good taste” and pedagogy. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 125 - The Myth of the Two Spains
Literature as an expression of the institutionalization of liberalism in 19th-century Spain and of official and popular resistance to this modernizing credo. Topics may include the romanticism of Quintana, Espronceda, Blanco-White and Becquer; the costumbrismo of Castro and Larra; the realism of Galdós; and the naturalism of Pardo Bazán and Clarín. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 126 - The Literature of Spain's First Century Without Empire
Spain’s imperial crisis and its persistence throughout the 20th century as a central theme in Spanish literary and intellectual culture. Topics may include decadence and regeneration; modern Spanish nationalism and cultural imperialism; Hispanicism and pan-nationalism; the Spanish Civil War, fascism and liberalism; the transition from fascism to democracy. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 130 - Poetry of Spain and Spanish America
Study of poetic traditions and genres. Analysis of representative texts from the early modern to the contemporary periods. Authors may include: Garcilaso, Quevedo, Darío, Silva, Lorca, Neruda, Salinas, Jiménez, Gioconda Belli. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 131 - Topics in the Cinema of the Spanish World
Film as a language of cultural and historical testimony in Spanish America and Spain. Topics may include the Silent Era, Surrealism, the Mexican Golden Age of the ’40s, the New Cinema of the ’50s, Peronist cinema in Argentina, socialist film in Cuba, and postmodern production in the Hispanic world. May be repeated for credit. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 132 - Theatre and the Hispanic Experience
Theatrical representation: presence and performance, body, voice, dialogue, and the unfolding of conflict. Theatrical traditions and movements may include Golden Age drama; neo-Classical and Romantic drama of the 19th century; drama of political protest; existentialist drama and the theater of the avant-gardes. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 133 - Special Topics in Spanish and Spanish-American Literature I
Offered in the fall semester. May be repeated if topic differs. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 134 - Special Topics in Spanish and Spanish-American Literature II
Offered in the spring semester. May be repeated if topic differs. Prerequisite: SPAN 133.
SPAN 140 - Latin American Women Writers
Works of well-established women writers (e.g., Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Gabriella Mistral, and Luisa Valenzuela) and of more recent writers (e.g., Elena Poniatowska, Diamela Eltit, Ana Lydia Vega, Cristina Peri-Rossi, and Laura Esquivel) discussed in relation to feminist principles of criticism. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 145 - Modern Spanish-American Poetry
Poetry after modernism; forms and themes that characterize the work of authors such as Agustini, Guillén, Huidobro, Lezama, Mistral, Neruda, and Palés. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 146 - Spanish-American Short Fiction
Short prose narratives as agents of questioning textual meaning and subverting former literary traditions. Writers may include Arenas, Borges, Cortázar, Fuentes, García Márquez, Quiroga, Peri Rossi, Ana Lydia Vega, Zapata Olivella. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 147 - Spanish-American Polemics
Relations between state and nation in post-independence literary and political polemics of 19th century Spanish America. Topics may include the essay as a new genre for a new age; the figure of the public intellectual vis-à-vis the processes of state and nation formation; the post-colonial state and its imagined national, ethnic, racial, and economic communities. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 148 - New Narrative in Spanish America
Experimental fiction in Spanish America, with focus on literature of the mid-1960s through the present. Authors may include Alejo Carpentier, Julio Cortázar, Diamela Eltit, Carlos Fuentes, Cabrera Infante, Lezama Lima, García Márquez, Octavio Paz, Ricardo Piglia, Elena Poniatowska, Mario Vargas Llosa. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 149 - Spanish-American Colonial Literature
Analysis of chronicles, essays, memoirs, epistolary exchanges, and poetry contextualized vis-à-vis the medieval and Renaissance values of Imperial Spain. Authors may include Cabeza de Vaca, Bartolomé de las Casas, Colón, Cortés, Díaz del Castillo, El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Rodríguez Freile, Sepúlveda. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 150 - Spanish-American Romanticism and Modernism
Study of two movements that shaped literary expression of Spanish America at the turn of the century and influenced political and cultural thought throughout the Hispanic world. Authors may include Heredia, Echeverría, Avellaneda, Isaacs, Darío, Martí, Lugones. Prerequisite: SPAN 030 or equivalent.
SPAN 197 - Independent Study
Admission by permission of department chair and instructor. May be repeated for credit.
SPAN 198 - Proseminar I
Required of all majors; preparation for the major field examination. Literature in relation to the other arts and the social sciences. The fall semester covers textual analysis, literary criticism, theory, and methods. Prerequisite: Senior standing.
SPAN 199 - Proseminar II
Required of all majors; preparation for the major field examination. Literature in relation to the other arts and the social sciences. The spring semester covers the concepts of literary history and the history of Spanish literature; periods, authors, genres, topics. Prerequisite: Senior standing and SPAN 198.
