Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures

Chair

Angel G. Loureiro

Director of Graduate Studies

Gabriela Nouzeilles

Professor

Marina S. Brownlee, also Comparative Literature

Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones

Angel G. Loureiro

Ricardo Piglia

Ronald E. Surtz

Associate Professor

Gabriela Nouzeilles

Assistant Professor

Paul Firbas

Rubén Gallo

Ricardo Krauel

Pedro Meira Monteiro

Jussara Menezes Quadros

Senior Lecturer

TBA

Associated Faculty

Jeremy I. Adelman, History

João Biehl, Anthropology

Michael G. Wood, English

 

The aim of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures is to train students to become effective teachers and scholars of Spanish language and culture. Instruction and supervision are so arranged as to ensure that students acquire a broad understanding of the whole field of Spanish studies as well as a specialized grasp of one of its sub-fields, and are well-prepared to develop independently as scholars. (The department does not currently offer a graduate program in Portuguese; it does, however, teach graduate-level courses in Portuguese literature for suitably qualified students.)

General Requirements

To qualify for graduate work in the department, the candidate must show evidence of a comprehensive knowledge of Spanish literature and basic competence, written and oral, in the language. A broad training in the humanities is an advantage.

By the end of the second year of graduate study, all students must demonstrate the ability to read simple Latin prose, and must also demonstrate the ability to read French, German, or Italian. Students are urged to fulfill these requirements in the first year of residence. All language requirements must be satisfied in order for the student to be authorized to take the general examination.

Graduate students are eligible to apply for the Master of Arts (M.A.) degree if they have completed the oral presentation in the first year; all required course work, with no incompletes, including the language pedagogy seminar, with an average grade of B or better; and have taken and passed one of the two parts of the general examination.

Course of Study

Programs are arranged on an individual basis, in consultation with the director of graduate studies, according to the needs, preparation, and interests of the student.

The normal Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) program takes five years, the first two being devoted to preparing for the general examination; the third through fifth to conceptualizing and writing the dissertation. Readmission each year is contingent upon continued satisfactory performance. Courses may be broad and basic, designed to prepare students for more specialized and original work, or they may be seminars intended to prepare students to work independently and intensively on particular projects. Students are encouraged to take courses in allied subjects, such as art history, comparative literature, history, etc., when such work is of demonstrable importance to their field.

Fields of Concentration

As early as the end of the second term, but no later than the end of the fourth, students select a field of concentration from among those listed below. A program of study is established in consultation with the director of graduate studies. The fields are as follows:

• Medieval/Golden Age
• Modern Peninsular
• Latin American: Colonial
• Latin American: Modern
• Luso-Brazilian

The department expects students to enroll in courses or seminars in all the fields of the department. Normally, by the end of their fifth term of study, they should have taken a total of 15 courses or seminars, including one in literary theory. In the general examination, which is based on the reading lists, students are examined both on their field of concentration and their general knowledge of the other fields. The dissertation is in the chosen field. Students may, however, choose to bridge fields in selecting a dissertation topic.

Schedule of Exercises and Examinations

Oral Presentation. The oral presentation, required of all first-year students at the end of the first term, consists of a brief, critical reading of a literary text in Spanish, followed by questioning on the subject.

General Examination. The general examination is usually taken at the end of the second year. It consists of two written parts, consisting of three hours each—the first directly related to the field of specialization, the second to the other fields. Students who fail to sustain the general examination may present themselves on one further occasion, within one year of the first examination.

Oral Examination on the Dissertation Proposal. Taken no later than December of the fifth term, the oral examination on the dissertation proposal consists of a 60-minute exercise comprising (1) a 20-minute presentation in Spanish of the student’s dissertation proposal and (2) a comprehensive interrogation dealing with the implications of the proposal and the student’s general program of study. The questions focus on matters such as literary history and bibliography as well as critical methods. In order to be admitted to this oral examination, students are required to submit, no later than one week prior to the exercise, a written text of the proposal (approved by the thesis adviser), outlining the issues they propose to explore, the methods of analysis they propose to adopt, and the bibliography of the topic. The faculty will then make suggestions concerning the proposal, and can approve it, recommend that it be revised and resubmitted, or, in accordance with University regulations, recommend that the candidate be proposed for a terminal M.A.

In the event of failure to sustain the oral examination on the dissertation proposal, students may be reexamined on one further occasion, within a time period determined by the director of graduate studies. Departmental recommendation of graduate students for a fourth year of study is contingent upon their having sustained the oral examination on the dissertation proposal.

Especially well-qualified students who have completed the language prerequisites may, upon successful application to the department’s committee on graduate studies, be authorized to present themselves early for the general examination and the oral examination on the dissertation proposal.

Final Public Oral Examination. After the completed dissertation has been recommended for acceptance by the two appointed readers, the examination is set for a date convenient to the candidate and the department. The examination consists of a formal public lecture of 30 minutes describing the work undertaken and achieved in the writing of the dissertation. The lecture may be delivered in English or Spanish. The candidate’s examining committee then initiates a question period, taking the doctoral dissertation and related areas as the point of departure. No grade is given for this examination other than a pass or fail.

Teaching Requirement and Assistantships

As a matter of policy, the department requires its graduate students to gain experience in undergraduate teaching. Students do not teach during their first or fourth term of residence. In the other terms, students normally teach three hours per week in elementary or advanced language classes. Opportunities to teach in literature courses sometimes arise. This teaching is guided and supervised by a faculty member, who confers with the student and reports to the department chair on the student’s classroom performance.

Financial Assistance

Financial support comes in the form of fellowships of varying stipend levels and teaching assistantships.

The Fulton McMahon Research Fund, established by Alfred Foulet, Graduate School Class of 1927, in honor of Fulton McMahon, Class of 1884, provides funding for summer study and thesis research projects to graduate students in good standing.

The department also enjoys the exclusive disposition of funds allocated specifically to graduate fellowships and stipend increments. Among these may be counted the Behrman, Bergen, Boudinot, Green and Schultz fellowships, awarded to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding scholarly promise. The Edward C. Armstrong Fund, established in perpetuity by Alfred Foulet, Graduate School Class of 1927, through a generous testamentary bequest made at his death in 1987 in memory of his Princeton teacher and colleague, provides for fellowship stipends and increments, as well as grants for thesis research and summer study projects both abroad and at Princeton to graduate students in good standing.

Research Facilities

The department conducts its graduate work in Firestone Library, where it shares B Floor with the Departments of Comparative Literature, English, French and Italian, German, and Slavic Languages and Literatures. It has two large rooms at its disposal, one for study, the other for classes and seminars. Books cataloged as belonging to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Cultures are located on B Floor so that graduate students in the department may have easy access to them.

Spanish and Portuguese Colloquia

The department hosts many public lectures, colloquia, film series, and related events throughout the year.

Courses

Spanish Courses

SPA 500 Pedagogy Seminar

Celia Pérez-Ventura

Practical and theoretical preparation for teachers of the Spanish language.

SPA 532 Medieval Epic Literature

Ronald E. Surtz

The epic tradition from the primitive cantares de gesta to the romancero. The relationship between this current and other important forms of medieval literature, including the mester de clerecía, the prose chronicles, and the chivalric romances are explored.

SPA 534 Seminar in Medieval Spanish Literature

Marina S. Brownlee, Ronald E. Surtz

Intensive study of special topics in the period, such as the representation of women, changing concepts of the hero, and first-person narratives.

SPA 535 Golden-Age Prose

Marina S. Brownlee, Ronald E. Surtz

The main works of the Renaissance and baroque periods, comprising the novel in its various forms (romance of chivalry, picaresque, pastoral, and Cervantes), the short story, religious literature, and moral and historical writings.

SPA 536 Golden-Age Poetry

Marina S. Brownlee, Ronald E. Surtz

The development of Spanish poetry from Garcilaso to Quevedo. Particular attention is given to Italian influences, mysticism, the aesthetics of the baroque, and the persistence of traditional forms.

SPA 537 Golden-Age Drama

Marina S. Brownlee, Ronald E. Surtz

The creation of national theater by Lope de Vega and his followers. Attention is given to the development of preceding forms of religious and secular drama, Italian influences, and the crystallization of the spirit of the Spanish Counter-Reformation.

SPA 538 Seminar in Golden-Age Literature

Marina S. Brownlee, Ronald E. Surtz

To suit the particular interests of the students and the instructor, intensive study of special topics, such as the Celestina, the mystics, Don Quixote, Renaissance, and baroque.

SPA 539 Enlightenment and Romanticism in Spain

Ricardo Krauel, Angel G. Loureiro

Representative writers from the 18th century to the middle of the 19th (Jovellanos, Meléndez, Blanco, Larra, Rivas, Espronceda, and others). Particular stress is placed on literary trends and critical approaches.

SPA 540 Main Currents of Spanish Thought, 1848 to the Present

Ricardo Krauel, Angel G. Loureiro

Krausismo and its countercurrents (traditionalism, neo-Catholicism, and positivism), and the doctrines emerging from the Institución Libre de Enseñanza; the Generation of ’98 and the “problem of Spain;” and falangismo, new historicism, and post-Civil War liberalism.

SPA 541 The Modern Spanish Novel

Ricardo Krauel, Angel G. Loureiro

A study of the main formal procedures employed by the major novelists from Galdós to Cela, around a unifying topic such as first-person narrative or the character as reader.

SPA 542 Modern Spanish Poetry

Ricardo Krauel, Angel G. Loureiro

The crisis in modern poetics, starting with Bécquer and resolving into modernismo and the poetry of the Generation of ’98; Juan Ramón Jiménez, his disciples and his opponents; and pure poetry and the poetry of social commitment. The emphasis is on textual and intertextual analysis.

SPA 543 Seminar in Modern Spanish Literature

Ricardo Krauel, Angel G. Loureiro

To suit the particular interests of the students and the instructor, an intensive study of selected special topics, such as an individual author (Galdós, Unamuno, Lorca, and others); a literary movement (naturalism, the Generation of ’98, and others); and theories of literary criticism.

SPA 545 The 17th Century in Europe (also COM 551)

Marina S. Brownlee

A study of important writers in the context of conservative ideas of the older humanism and religion, and of radical ideas of the state, philosophical systems, and vernacular criticism. Writers selected exemplify the kinds of achievement possible in the genres of lyric, dramatic, narrative prose, or critical writing.

SPA 546 Trends in Modern Latin American Poetry

Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones, Rubén Gallo, Pedro Meira Monteiro

Beginning with the transformation in sensibility initiated by Rubén Darío, a study of a limited number of major poets who exemplify significant modes of poetic expression up to the present time: Lugones, Huidobro, Vallejo, Borges, Neruda, Lezama Lima, and Paz.

SPA 547 Narrative Prose in Latin America

Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones, Rubén Gallo

Literary and extraliterary contexts of prose fiction in Latin America over the past hundred years, through a study of representative writers, including Machado de Assis, Cambaceres, Borges, Onetti, García Márquez, Felisberto Hernández, Rulfo, and Cabrera Infante.

SPA 548 Seminar in Modern Spanish-American Literature

Arcadio Díaz-Quiñones, Rubén Gallo

An intensive study of intellectuals and nationalism in Latin America and the Caribbean; the Spanish American essay from Rodó to Paz; autobiography and first-person narrative, Martí, and the generation of 1880 in Argentina; the crónica modernista, poesía gauchesca.

SPA 549 Prose and Poetry of Early Colonial Spanish America

Paul Firbas

Texts from the period of 1492–1700, as seen in relation to colonial society and metropolitan Spanish culture. Authors such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Alonso de Ercilla, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega may be included. Textual traditions such as Colonial historiography, epic and lyric poetry, satire, and polemical writing are examined in light of theoretical and historical considerations.

SPA 550 Seminar in Colonial Spanish American Literature

Paul Firbas

Intensive study of topics such as Bartolomé de las Casas and the conquest of the Indies; Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; Neoplatonism and history in El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega; criollo letters and culture (1690–1824); and research methods and literary criticism pertinent to colonial literary studies.

SPA 581 History of the Spanish Language

Ronald E. Surtz

An introduction to the linguistic analysis of Spanish, concentrating on the development of the Spanish language within its cultural context.

SPA 583 Seminar in Literary Theory

Angel G. Loureiro

An examination of the theoretical foundations of literary study, using selected literary and critical texts.

Portuguese Courses

SPA 561 Modern Brazilian Literature

Pedro Meira Monteiro, Jussara Menezes Quadros

The principal phases of modern Brazilian poetry and narrative prose, from romanticism through modernism. Special analysis of certain unique figures (such as Machado de Assis) and works (such as Os Sertões) that have deeply modified the national literary tradition as a whole.

SPA 562 Luso-Brazilian Seminar

Pedro Meira Monteiro, Jussara Menezes Quadros

Intensive study of a subject chosen from either Portuguese or Brazilian literature, such as the Cancioneiros and the origins of lyric poetry in Galicia and Portugal, the theater of Gil Vicente, Camões and Os Lusiadas, the fiction of Eça de Queiroz, the poetry of Fernando Pessoa, the novel of the Brazilian Northeast, or recent trends in Brazilian poetry, culminating in the concretistas of São Paulo.

Pertinent Courses in Allied Departments

Attention also should be given to courses offered by the Programs in Latin American Studies, Linguistics, and Women’s Studies and the Departments of Anthropology, Art and Archeology, Classics, Comparative Literature, English, French and Italian, German, History, Near Eastern Studies, Politics, and Slavic Languages and Literatures.