Courses

Undergraduate Information

For more detailed information including course description, requirements�and�meeting times, please visit the Registrar's Office.

Courses for Spanish

SPA 102Beginner's Spanish IIThe development of Spanish communication skills in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, writing and Hispanic culture appreciation. Language instruction complemented with audiovisual materials.

SPA 107Intermediate/Advanced SpanishDesigned for students who have successfully completed SPA 102 or SPA 103. An integrated approach to increase comprehension, oral and writing expression. Class activities reinforce language skills through aural/oral practice, grammar review, vocabulary acquisition, reading, editing compositions, oral presentations, and discussion of contemporary Spanish short stories, music and films.

SPA 108Advanced SpanishAn intensive course designed to prepare students to enter 200 level courses, with an emphasis on reading, oral and written proficiency. The course is aimed at developing advanced syntactical and lexical competence which it addresses through frequent rewrites of compositions, oral presentations, discussions of contemporary Spanish literary texts, music and film. (Please see note under "Other Information.")

SPA 207Studies in Spanish Language and StyleAn advanced course in Spanish composition and conversation. Its main purpose is to increase the student's fluency and accuracy in spoken and written Spanish. Importance is also given to understanding elements of Hispanic literature and culture through literary texts, Hispanic periodicals, and films. (Please see note under "Other Information.")

SPA 209Spanish Lang and Culture Through CinemaA course designed to improve oral and writing skills, while significantly increasing students' knowledge of cultural affairs in an ever changing Hispanic world. A significant amount of time will be dedicated to intensive debate on a wide variety of topics presented in films. Students interested in contemporary cinema may find this course especially enlightening. The grammar component of the course aims to ease the path to a more fluent communication in Spanish. The diversity of Hispanic culture is presented from the standpoint of a selected number of film directors.

SPA 211Cultures & Economies/Spain & Latin Am.An advanced Spanish course for those students who have completed the language requirement and want to explore current events with respect to politics, markets and socio-cultural aspects of the Hispanic world. Readings, audiovisual materials, and intense debate will shape a course in which specific aspects of Spanish grammar will also be reinforced. The ultimate goal is to expand students' knowledge of the socio-economic situation in Spain and Latin America, while developing the necessary grammar and vocabulary to express opinions about them in more fluent Spanish.

SPA 227Contemporary Issues in Spain/Latin Am.(LA)This course will address some of the hot issues in current Spain: violence against women, euthanasia, immigration, historical memory, debates about civil rights, real estate speculation, etc. The starting point for discussion will be a film or a documentary, which will be complemented with various materials--newspaper articles, op-ed pieces, images, reports, etc. The goal will be not only to learn what the conflicts are but also to understand the ways in which they are addressed and discussed. Under the instructor's guidance, groups of students will be responsible for searching materials about two of the issues to be discussed in class.

SPA 305Topics in Spanish Civ of the Golden Age(LA)Cuisine is always more than nutrition; it functions as an agent of identity at both the regional and the national level. Moreover, gastronomy intersects with other manifestations of culture such as painting, literature, medicine, and religion. Readings, in addition to cookbooks, handbooks of table manners, and medical treatises, will include literary texts ranging from medieval to Golden Age to modern.

SPA 307Advanced Spanish Language and Style(LA)For advanced students of Spanish who want to expand their writing skills and improve their knowledge of grammatical structures which continue to pose challenges. Along with the study of grammar, this course aims at reaching higher levels of accuracy while expressing ideas and opinions in writing. Inspiration for written assignments to be drawn from literary works, journalistic writings and audiovisual materials. Combination of fairly intensive writing, reading and grammar based assignments.

SPA 309Translation: Cultures in Context(LA)This course offers an introduction to the study and practice of translation and aims to provide students with an awareness of the complex tasks involved in translating written materials from one cultural context to another, in this case between the Hispanic to the Anglo-Saxon worlds. The cultural encounter and exchange between these two worlds will be explored through the students' translations of increasingly difficult texts, as well as art and moving images seen as textual work worth interpreting in Spanish.

SPA 321Intellectual Hist/Mod&Contemp Spain(LA)An examination of the narrative, poetry, film, songs, photography and graphic art generated by Spaniards and foreigners about the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) in the seventy years since the war was fought. This cultural production will be examined in the context of the political and ideological reasons that explain the international attraction the war generated. Among the works examined: poems by Neruda; Picasso's Guernica (it was the first war in which aviation played a significant role); documentaries (The Spanish Earth, Mourir � Madrid); and photographs by Robert Capa (the Spanish Civil War consecrated the nascent art of photojournalism).

SPA 323Federico Garc�a Lorca's Works(LA)This course focuses on one of the most renowned and influential Spanish poets of the 20th century--Federico Garc�a Lorca. We will examine Lorca's vast corpus of poems and plays to see how they combine experimental aesthetics and popular traditions. We will also study the readings and re-readings of "Lorca" as both an author and a mythical figure, standing for freedom, the defeated Spanish Republic, the historical avant-garde poetry, and gender politics.

SPA 350/LAS 349Topics in Latin Am. Cultural Studies(LA)If "magical realism" was a familiar trademark of Latin American literary and filmic exports in the 1960s and 1970s, this course studies a counter-movement which sprang up in the 1990s. Rather than the narratives of exile and mourning that predominated after the military dictatorships, the new texts and films are "political" only insofar as they deal with the intimate effects of political processes. Focusing on the Southern Cone, the course explores the ways in which the very status of literature and film, and their take on "the real," has fundamentally changed over the last quarter-century.

SPA 352/AAS 363/LAS 356Politics of Writing and Difference(LA)A course on the relationship between Cuban literature and slavery. Explicitly "Cuban" literature emerged from the literary salon of Domingo del Monte, a 19th century reformist with ties to British abolitionism, and early works focused on the island's massive slave industry. We will read several anti-slavery novels, emphasizing ties to transatlantic Romanticism and sentimental literature, and generic conventions more generally. Also: the only known Spanish-language slave autobiography; an oral history from an ex-slave; the diary of a bounty-hunter; psychoanalysis, and modern Cuban representations of slavery, including films.

LAS 403/COM 420/SPA 407Latin American Studies Seminar(LA)This seminar will offer an updated view of the Latin American literary field with particular attention to recent developments in novel and short story writing. Subjects analyzed will include the impact of globalization and post modernity on Latin American literature; publishing sector changes; the rise of a new generation of writers; and the outstanding international reputation of Roberto Bola�o (1953-2003). The study of the works of Guatemalan Rodrigo Rey Rosa (b. 1958), Cuban Antonio Jos� Ponte (b.1964) and Mexican �lvaro Enrigue (b. 1969) will give us a more precise understanding of the present literary scene in Latin America.

LAS 404/POR 409/SPA 409Latin American Studies SeminarAs both historical and legendary figures, Vargas and Per�n shaped the imaginaries of the modern nation in Brazil and Argentina. This course selectively addresses their legacies by exploring how notions of the future, the nation, and modernity were constructed in the 1930's-50's and how these imaginaries are reinterpreted as cultural memories in contemporary Brazil and Argentina. The course will focus on the Vargas Era and the Per�n governments and on how these memories are being recast in artistic productions, the media, and forms of consumption.

Courses for Portuguese

POR 108Intro Portuguese for Spanish SpeakersNormally open to students already proficient in Spanish, this course uses that knowledge as a basis for the accelerated learning of Portuguese. Emphasis on the concurrent development of understanding, speaking, reading, and writing skills. The two-semester sequence POR 108-109 is designed to provide in only one year of study a command of the language sufficient for travel and research in Brazil and Portugal.Megwen M. Loveless

POR 109Intermed Portuguese for Spanish SpeakersStudents will further develop their language skills, especially those of comprehension and oral proficiency, through grammar review, readings, film and other activities. The two-semester sequence POR 108-109 is designed to give in only one year of study a command of the Portuguese language sufficient for travel in Brazil, Portugal and beyond.Megwen M. Loveless

POR 110Intensive PortugueseAn intensive course designed for students who have fulfilled the language requirement in Spanish or another Romance language. Knowledge of one of these languages provides the basis for the accelerated learning of Portuguese. This one-semester 'crash' course teaches fundamental communication skills--comprehension, speaking, reading and writing--and some exposure to cultural aspects of the Portuguese-speaking world, but does not offer an in-depth study of grammar.Nicola T. Cooney

POR 208Portuguese Studies: Language and StyleDesigned as a journey through the Lusophone world this course seeks to present the Portuguese language in context by exploring historical, social, political and cultural aspects of Brasil, Portugal, and Lusophone Africa through the media, literature, film, music and other realia. Students will increase their fluency and accuracy in both written and spoken Portuguese, broadening their vocabulary and mastery of syntax through textual analysis, discussions, oral presentations and grammar review. An advanced language course and overview of the Lusophone world, POR 208 seeks to prepare students for further study of literature and culture.Nicola T. Cooney

POR 304/LAS 311Topics Brazilian Cultural/Social History(LA)This course will focus on selected works of the Brazilian modernist literary tradition, such as S�rgio Buarque de Holanda's Ra�zes do Brasil, Gilberto Freyre's Casa-grande & Senzala and M�rio de Andrade's O Turista Aprendiz. Essays and poetry will be read, as well as some correspondence exchanged between modernist writers. Through these and other works, we will study the blooming of new perspectives on Brazilian social and political history. Special attention will be paid to the exciting debates on race in the 1930s and how they have shaped the way Brazilians think of themselves.Pedro Meira Monteiro

POR 306/LAS 360Urban Modernism and Its Discontents(LA)An overview of the cultures and histories of major cities in the Portuguese-speaking world, including Rio de Janeiro, S�o Paulo, Bras�lia, Lisbon and Luanda. This course will explore some of the tensions between modernization projects and cultural production during the late 19th and 20th centuries, examining representations of the city in literature (poetry and prose), maps, film, painting, photography, and music.Bruno M. Carvalho

POR 351/LAS 361Brazilian Cinema in a Global Context(LA)Brazilian cinema has experienced a major resurgence since the late 1990s, exhibiting a wide array of thematic concerns and formal approaches: from critically acclaimed documentaries to the commercial success of "City of God." After an introduction to the Cinema Novo of the 1960s in the context of other contemporary movements, this course will focus on how more recent filmmakers have engaged questions of Brazilian cinema's relationship to the state, to social conditions, and to the international marketplace. Recurrent and emerging trends will also be discussed (e.g. a preoccupation with the Amazon, urban violence, literature, and music).Bruno M. Carvalho

LAS 402/HIS 402/POR 410Latin American Studies Seminar(HA)A critical interpretation of the historical process by which Brazil was built, with special consideration to historical continuity and ruptures. We will discuss how the country developed a unique history, supporting a popular monarchy in the middle of the Americas until almost the end of the 19th century, and was viewed as a laboratory of races, despite of having a deep model of social exclusion and the longest experience with the slave system. The course starts with the conquest of the coast and the introduction of slave labor and ends with the contemporary building of democracy.Lilia K. Moritz Schwarcz