Spring 2003

GRADUATE COURSES IN SPANISH
SPRING 2003

(Course information subject to change)
(Cross-reference with Department Roster)

Spanish 640-401
Imagining the Mediterranean in Early Modern Europe
Prof. Fuchs
R 2-4

This course will examine representations of the Mediterranean--that place in between Europe and Africa, Christianity and Islam, East and West--in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. We will read a wide range of texts, from classical precedents (Aeneid) to captivity narratives to romance representations of Muslim-Christian relations (El Abencerraje). Central questions include: how are "European" identities negotiated in relation to Africa; what is the relationship between literary representation and imperial expansion; how do early modern notions of "race" emerge in an Old World context; what is the place of gender in representations of the exotic, on the one hand, and the domestic, on the other.

Spanish 680-301
The Hispanic Caribbean: The Nation and Its Others
Prof. Cruz-Malavé
M 1-4

This course will examine the emergence of the Nation's Others, or of subjectivities previously repressed or contained by the hegemonic discourses of national identity, in the literature and film of the Hispanic Caribbean (Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico) of the past two decades, the Hispanic Caribbean's "postmodern" period. It will explore the possibilities and limits of such an emergence within the economically and politically diverse context of the Hispanic Caribbean: Cuba's contemporary transition to a mixed capitalist economy, the Dominican Republic's problematic, postdictatorship transition to a neoliberal democracy, and Puerto Rico's development into a "light colonial" consumer society. It will also discuss this emergence of alternative subjectivities within the broader transnational context of mass migration and globalization. The course will focus on questions of gender, sexuality, and race as they impact issues of literary genre. It will include theoretical readings on gender, sexuality, postmodernism, and globalization. Authors to be considered include Arenas, Padura Fuentes, Valdés, Gutiérrez, Prestol Castillo, Rueda, Vergés, Hernández, Díaz, Sánchez, Ramos Otero, García Ramis, and Santos Febres.

Spanish 690-301
Gauchos, indios, y negros
Prof. Salessi
T 2-4

Through reading the texts of major Latin American authors of the 19th century, we will explore the four major fields of critical inquiry into the literature of the period: the articulation of a formative period of national literatures; writing, literature, and a national imaginary as an instrument for the legitimation and hegemony of a national bourgeoisie and an instrument for the construction of counter cultural discourses; the problems of the literary canon and the system of exclusions and hierarchies of neopositivist historiography; and the dialogic tension between cultural production and reception in the complex process of nation formation. Authors will include A. Bello, S. Bolívar, E. Echeverría, D. F. Sarmiento, J. Isaac, J. Hernández, G. Gómez de Avellaneda and others.

Spanish 700-301
Fables of Identity: The Spanish American Essay
Prof. Alonso
W 1-4

The purpose of this course is to study the essay of cultural self-definition in Spanish America in the context of the continent's problematic relationship with Modernity. We will consider the source of the relentless drive for cultural definition while undertaking a close deconstructive reading of a number of significant texts of that long-standing textual tradition. Theoretical readings will be assigned throughout the semester as well. Readings on Bolívar, Bello, Sarmiento, Martí, Vasconcelos, Pedreira, Mariátegui, Reyes, Picón Salas, Henríquez Ureña, Paz, Borges, and others.

Romance Languages 691-401
Technology and Foreign Languages
Prof. McMahon / Prof. Frei
T 9-10:30; R 4-5:30
(Crosslisted with German 517)

This course will introduce participants to the field of technology and foreign language teaching and learning. It will review the pertinent theoretical underpinnings for the pedagogically-sound use of technology in the teaching of languages starting with a brief overview of the historical development of the field. Students will learn to evaluate existing programs and applications with a critical eye through a systematic examination of projects that have been implemented both here at Penn and elsewhere. The course will also have weekly hands-on workshops to introduce participants to the design and development of multimedia materials, including image, video, and sound editing. The focus will be primarily on Web-based design and delivery. All participants will select a project to work on during the course of the semester; in addition they will develop an on-line teaching portfolio.