Spanish Studies

Courses Offered

SPAN-1001/6 Introductory Spanish
This course is designed for students who have little or no previous knowledge of Spanish and who wish to acquire a solid base in the written and spoken language. An effort is made to place equal emphasis on reading, writing, aural comprehension, and oral expression. To this end, one hour of language laboratory/small-group work supplements classroom work each week. Restrictions: Native speakers of Spanish or students who have standing in Spanish 40S or equivalent are not eligible to take this course.

SPAN-2001/6 Intermediate Spanish
The aim of this course is to enable students to increase their proficiency in the following skills: reading, writing, aural comprehension, and oral expression. Students review and build on grammar essentials, discuss readings and related topics of current interest, write compositions, and practice the spoken language. One-hour of language laboratory / small-group work provides additional practice each week.
Pre-requisites: Introductory Spanish or Spanish 40S or permission of the department.

SPAN-2101/3 Latin American Culture and Civilization
This course offers an introduction to Latin American culture and civilization from pre-Columbian times to the present, with an emphasis on Mexico. Following a review of the region’s history from the Spanish conquest through the colonial period to independence, the course considers contemporary issues such as identity politics, social movements, economic globalization, and cultural expression. Students explore pre-Columbian civilizations and colonial art and architecture through excursions to archeological sites, museums, cathedrals, and historical monuments. This course is offered only in the Study Abroad Program.

SPAN-2109/3 Normative Grammar
This course offers and intensive study of selected grammatical questions and a thorough study of syntax. Grammatical topics include transitive, intransitive and pronominal verbs; tenses and moods; and prepositions. The study of syntax focuses on subordinate clauses. This course includes regular written exercises and a lab component.

SPAN-2110/3 Intermediate Written Expression
This course is designed primarily to improve students' written expression in Spanish; oral expression also receives attention. Students are introduced to the major aspects of the writing process, specific writing techniques (description, narration and argumentation), and grammatical and stylistic editing. Model texts are presented and assignments focus on selected prose genres (e.g. composition, correspondence, summary). Individual work and small-group activities consist of writing sentences, paragraphs, compositions. One hour per week is devoted to the oral expression component (e.g. presentations, debates, reound-table discussions).

SPAN-2115/3 Spanish-English Translation
Taught in Spanish, this course introduces the principles of written translation from Spanish into English. Practical exercises focus on translation difficulties relating to English vocabulary, grammar, and style. Students translate short authentic Spanish-language texts from a variety of sources including newspapers, magazines, and literature.

SPAN-2180/3 Introduction to Literary Analysis
This course gives students the foundational skills required to read and write in Spanish about literature. Students are introduced to terms and tools of analysis necessary for a critical reading of literary texts drawn from different genres and a variety of areas of the Hispanic world (Spain and Latin America). Some class time is devoted to the development of writing skills as well as academic research techniques.

SPAN-2384/3 Modern Peninsular Spanish Literature and Culture
This course offers a critical study of representative works by Spanish novelists, poets and dramatists from the beginning of the twentieth century to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and from the postwar era up to Franco's death in 1975, with particular attention to the influence of Spain's social and political history on its writers and their literary works. Authors studied may include Federico García Lorca, Jorge Guillén, Miguel Hernández, Camilo José Cela, Carmen Laforet Díaz and Antonio Buero Vallejo.

SPAN-2385/3 Literature and Culture of Post-Franco Spain
This course offers a critical study of representative works by Spanish novelists, poets and dramatists since Franco's death in 1975, with particular attention to the dramatic political and socio-cultural changes that Spain has experienced and the role of the country within the European Union today. Authors studied may include Juan Goytisolo, Juan Marsé, Carmen Martín Gaite and José Angel Mañas.

SPAN-2386/3 Contemporary Spanish Cinema
This course traces the evolution of Spanish cinema from the 1960s to the present. The development of the Spanish cinematic canon is explored through the critical analysis of representative films by renowned directors such as Luis Buñuel, Víctor Erice, Pedro Almodóvar, Alejandro Amenábar, Julio Medem and Álex de la Iglesia. Attention is paid to the sociocultural and political context of the films presented. Students acquire the terminology and tools of analysis specific to film studies while being exposed to the social realities of contemporary Spain (e.g. national stereotypes, European integration, racism, immigration, gender identities) as depicted in films.

SPAN-3101/3 Spanish Civilization from the Middle Ages to the Golden Age
This course retraces the evolution of Spanish culture from the Middle Ages to the end of the seventeenth century, a period known as the Golden Age. In addition to a broad overview of Spanish history and geography, topics may include art and architecture (religious, military and domestic), and the customs and traditions of Spain.

SPAN-3102/3 Spanish Civilization from the Enlightenment to the Present
This course traces the evolution of Spanish culture from the eighteenth century to the present day. In addition to a broad overview of Spanish history, topics may include Spanish art (e.g. Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Dalí), architecture (religious, military, and domestic), and cultural institutions (e.g. the Real Academia Española).

SPAN-3113/3 Exploring Language and Society through Texts
This course examines current events, social issues and artistic and intellectual trends in the contemporary Hispanic world through the analysis and discussion of media sources including the Internet, television and the press. The course offers extensive reading practice and is designed for students who wish to develop a high level of oral and written proficiency in Spanish. Emphasis is placed on the acquisition of specialized vocabulary. Course work includes written compositions, oral presentations, debates and round-table discussions.

SPAN-3114/3 English-Spanish Interpretation
Taught in Spanish, this course introduces the basic techniques of consecutive and simultaneous interpretation (spoken translation) from English into Spanish. Attention is given to cross-cultural communication problems. Skills are developed through a variety of practical exercises in summarization, reformulation, note-taking, and content analysis. Students translate short authentic English-language speeches representing a variety of topics, styles, and registers. The skills practiced in this course are applicable to various fields of interpretation (e.g. conference, legal, medical).

SPAN-3181/3 Modern Latin American Literature in Spanish
This course provides a chronological survey of Latin American literature from the Modernismo period (c. 1880) to the present day, including selections from such authors as Rubén Dario (Nicaragua), Gabriela Mistral (Mexico) and Gabriel García Márquez (Columbia). Through the analysis of representative texts of various literary genres, the course examines the literary movements of the period and their social, political and historical context.

SPAN-3182/3 Spanish Literature of the Golden Age
This course examines the main literary genres and movements of the Golden Age in Spain through the study of representative works from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by such authors as Góngora, Cervantes, Calderón de la Barca, Garcilaso de la Vega, Tirso de Molina and Lope de Vega. Special emphasis is placed on the study of Don Quijote de la Mancha, the first modern novel of Western literature.

SPAN-3183/3 Spanish Literature from the Enlightenment to the Generation of 1898

This course examines the evolution of Spanish literature from the 18^th century to the beginning of the 20^th century. The main literary movements (neoclassicism, preromanticism, Romanticism, realism, naturalism, modernism) are studied through selected works of poetry, prose, and drama by such authors as Feijoo, Jovellanos, Cadalso, Larra, Galdós, Valera, and Unamuno. Students are introduced to a variety of methodologies for literary analysis such as narratology, dramatology, and semiotics.

SPAN-3301/3 History of the Spanish Language

This course traces the development of the Spanish language from its Latin origins to its modern-day dialects in Spain and the Americas. It examines both the internal evolution of the Spanish language (its phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics) and the sociocultural and historical factors that influenced its development. Various linguistic documents illustrating the distinct features of Spanish in different eras are studied. Special attention is paid to the appearance of cognate words shared by Spanish and English.