Spring 2004

GRADUATE COURSES IN SPANISH
SPRING 2004

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

Spanish 600-301
History of the Spanish Language
Prof. Espòsito
M 2-5

This course will explore three main issues: (1) The external history of the Spanish language: How do linguists read history? What cultural and historical events are important for the development of the Spanish language? As linguistic historians, we shall follow a canonical chronology that will examine pre-Roman influences, Iberian Latinity, the linguistic fragmentation of the Peninsula, medieval attempts at standardization, the rise of the Academy, and the renaissance of the languages of the Autonomías. As critical readers, we shall interpret these linguistic cultures in light of their foundational ideologies. (2) The internal history of the Spanish language: How did Latin become Spanish? Is a sound change innocent and free of ideological meaning? What features make Spanish unique in comparison to the other Iberian languages? To what end do we make such analyses? (3) Reading Old Spanish texts.

Spanish 640-301
Studies in the Early Modern Period
Visiting Professors
F 1-4

This seminar will be taught by three invited scholars, each of whom will address one genre of the Early Modern period--theater, the lyric, and narrative--from their theoretically informed perspective in four consecutive meetings with the graduate students registered for the course. The scholars invited are: Ricardo Padrón (University of Virginia), Georgina Dopico-Black (New York University), and Eric Graf (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign). Students will be therefore exposed to three individual conceptualizations of the period that will provide them a rich and complex understanding of it.

Spanish 684-301
Giraffes Aflame: The Surrealist Imagination in Spain
Prof. López
R 1:30-4:30

Using the work of Salvador Dalí as our textual framework, we will study in this course the development of Surrealism in Spain. We will begin by focussing on the Spanish institutions (e.g., the Residencia de Estudiantes) and figures (e.g., Juan Ramón Jiménez, Ortega) that promoted an interest in European cultural movements. Also, we will explore the complex set of personal experiences that make the Surrealist movement a point of encounter for some of the principal names of Spanish culture in the twentieth century. Dalí lived at the Residencia while he studied in Madrid, and for two years he was Lorca's roommate at this institution; Lorca's interest in Surrealism (as it appears in Poeta en Nueva York) seems to follow Dalí's critical advice. At the Residencia both of them befriended Buñuel, Alberti, Prados, and Hinojosa. Political events, including the Spanish Civil War and the world war that followed, scattered these artists throughout Europe and the Americas. The political division of the 1930s placed them in antagonistic camps. After the war, some of these artists favored a socially committed form of art as represented by Buñuel's films Los olvidados or Nazarín, but also by the poetry of authors like Aleixandre. Social concerns and political commitment were used to preserve the original dream, although the economic prosperity of the post-war period made Surrealist radical ideas less pertinent. Other artists (Dalí among them) explored forms of expression that firmly avoided social or political themes. Like other European artists (e.g., Magritte, Ernst) who had escaped the war in Europe to meet enormous economic fortune in the United States, Dalí became a victim of his own commercial success. As Buñuel's 1970 film Tristana suggests, Dalí's commercialization and subsequent betrayal of the movement can be perceived as an emblem of the final failure of Surrealism.

Spanish 690-301
Modern Spanish American Fiction
Prof. Alonso
W 1-4

This seminar will address the specificity of Spanish America's cultural production -- that is, those elements that make the Spanish American case differ from the paradigmatic postcolonial situation, and which make recent developments in postcolonial studies not fully applicable to it. We will explore these issues in the context of the literary production of the twentieth century in Spanish America from roughly the twenties to the nineties, the epoch encompassing the larger metropolitan cultural phenomena of Modernism and Postmodernism. Among the texts read will be: Gallegos, Guillén, Rulfo, Carpentier, Cortázar, Borges, Vargas Llosa, Fuentes, García Márquez, and Puig. There will also be a set of photocopied critical readings that will supplement the course's primary reading list.

Romance Languages 691-401
Technology and Foreign Languages
Prof. McMahon / Prof. Frei
T 9-10:30; R 4-5:30

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.