Spring 2004

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

Spanish 110
Elementary Spanish
Staff
(See Timetables for times)

This course is intended for students with no previous study experience in Spanish. It introduces students to the language and to Hispanic culture, while promoting the development of the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Students develop the ability to communicate in Spanish in everyday, practical situations and begin reading and writing short texts in the language.

Spanish 115
Spanish for the Medical Professions I
Staff
MW 6:30-8:45 PM

This course introduces beginning students to the fundamentals of practical Spanish usage in medical situations. The course is two-pronged: linguistic competence in Spanish will be stressed along with a focus on applied medical terminology. Emphasis will be placed on all four skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing, with a specific focus on perfecting speaking and listening skills. Students will be expected to participate actively in classroom activities such as role-playing based on typical office and emergency procedures.

Spanish 120
Elementary Spanish
Staff
(See Timetables for times)
(Prerequisite: SPAN 110 at Penn)

Spanish 120 is the continuation of Spanish 110. Students who place into a second-level Spanish course in the placement test should take Spanish 121.

Spanish 121
Elementary Spanish
Staff
(See Timetables for times)

Spanish 125
Spanish For the Medical Professions II
Staff
MW 6:30-8:45 PM

Spanish 130
Intermediate Spanish
Staff
(See Timetables for times)

Spanish 130 is a third semester content-based language course designed to help students achieve intermediate-mid competency in Spanish. It emphasizes the development of reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in an academic context. Throughout the course, students will explore the history and literature of Spanish-speaking countries. This course emphasizes the linguistic skills necessary to investigate, understand and express cultural themes in Spanish. Prerequisites: Spanish 120 or equivalent score on the placement exam or SATII.

Spanish 134
Accelerated Intermediate Spanish
Staff
MWF 9-10AM, TR 9-10:30 AM

Spanish 135
Spanish for Medical Professionals, Intermediate I
Staff
MW 6:30-8:30 PM

Spanish 140
Intermediate Spanish
Staff
(See Timetables for times)

Spanish 140 is a fourth semester content-based language course designed to help students achieve intermediate-mid competency in Spanish. It emphasizes the development of reading, writing, listening and speaking skills in an academic context. Throughout the course, students will explore the history and literature of Spanish-speaking countries. This course emphasizes the linguistic skills necessary to investigate, understand and express cultural themes in Spanish. Prerequisites: Spanish 130 or equivalent score on the placement exam or SATII.

Spanish 145
Spanish for the Medical Professions, Intermediate II
Staff
MW 6:30-8:30 PM

Spanish 180
Spanish Conversation in Residence
Staff
Time TBA

Students must be residents of the Modern Language College House.

Spanish 202
Advanced Spanish
Staff
(See Timetables for times)

The main goal of this course is to build students' oral proficiency while increasing their awareness of Hispanic culture. Reading, listening, and writing skills are also practiced. Reading and listening materials provide opportunities for students to be exposed to authentic language use and to integrate these forms into their speaking. Some expository writing is done with the goal of perfecting students' command of linguistic structures and cohesive devices.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 140 and/or having passed the proficiency exam.

Spanish 208
Business Spanish I
Staff
(See Timetables for times)

This course is designed to develop students' use of Spanish for business purposes. It is conducted in Spanish. In addition to technical vocabulary, an outline of the geography, demography, forms of government, and current economic issues facing Latin American countries and Spain is presented in lectures, readings, and translations.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 140 and/or having passed the proficiency exam.

Spanish 212
Advanced Spanish Syntax
Staff
(See Timetables for times)

A rigorous advanced grammar course. Emphasis on acquisition of a solid knowledge of all important points of Spanish grammar, plus rules governing colloquial usage. Required of all majors and minors. Also useful for non-majors who wish to improve their language skills before beginning advanced courses on culture, or for those who want a practical working knowledge of Spanish for career work. Class work consists mostly of discussion and correction of assigned exercises.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 202 or equivalent.

Spanish 215
Spanish for the Professions I
Prof. Basaluzzo
TR 1:30-3

Spanish for Professions is designed to provide advanced-level language students (post-proficiency) with a wide technical vocabulary and understanding of key areas in the developing Latin American countries. Emphasis is placed on the enhancement of technical vocabulary and solid communicative skills. A series of topics including Politics, Economy, Society, Health, Environment, Education and Science and Technology will reveal realities and underlying challenges in the Latin American scenario. Through essays, papers, articles, research, discussions, case studies, and videotapes we will take an in-depth look at the dynamics of Latin American societies and future outlook. The course will focus on - but not be restricted to - Mexico, Cuba and Argentina. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 202 or equivalent.

Spanish 219
Contextos de la Civilización Hispánica
Prof. Espòsito
(See Timetables for times)

The primary aim of this course is to develop students' knowledge of the geographical, historical, and cultural contexts in which Spanish is used. At the same time that they are introduced to research techniques and materials available in Spanish, students strengthen their language skills through reading, oral presentations, video viewing, short papers, and a final research project. The course is designed to give students a broad understanding of Hispanic culture that will prepare them for upper-level course work. Required of all majors and minors.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 212.

Spanish 250-601
Major Works in Spanish and Latin American Literature
Prof. Regueiro
MW 5:30-7:00

From the rise of the novel with Cervantes' Don Quixote in early-modern Spain to the Latin American "boom" with García Márquez' One Hundred Years of Solitude, this course will examine these and other major works in Hispanic literature within the cultural, political, and social context of each period.

Spanish 330-301
El Cid: Anatomy of a National Hero
Prof. Willstedt
MWF 11-12

Few historical characters have enjoyed such a long and varied literary afterlife as Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (†1099), more famously known as "El Cid". Starting from the earliest chronicles, poems, and ballads;, through 17th-century dramatic plays, 19th-century scholarly criticism, and into 20th-century Hollywood stardom, the life and exploits of the Castilian knight have acquired a legendary aura and landed him, in the process, the title of Spain's national hero. In this course we will try to disentangle history from myth while exploring the means and motives that made possible such an extraordinary legacy. Our central focus will be the reading of its most symbolic manifestation, the Poema de Mio Cid, considered Spain's "great heroic epic" and the first extant literary text in the Castilian language. We will compare it with its historical context, analyze it against other representations of the Cid, and, more generally, trace its role in the making of Spain's modern national identity. Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

Spanish 350-301
The Crusades in Spanish Culture
Prof. Bautista-Pérez
MWF 10-11

The Crusades, both as a historical process and as a cultural ideology, have been one of the axes for the development of a national identity in Spain throughout its history. This course will explore the varieties and formation of this particular culture, its relation to the process of the Reconquest in the Middle Ages, the conquest of the New World, the isolation of Spain during the reign of Phillip II in the 16th century, and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), when the crusade becomes one of the shaping concepts of the conflict. The persistence of crusade ideology in Spain appears to show itself throughout a striking language of difference, directed to express and maintain an identity founded in religion. According to this perspective, we will examine a selection of cultural products (texts, images), and we will explore their meanings and contexts. Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

Spanish 380-301
Topics in Spanish Cinema: The Nation and Its Image
Prof. Nadal
MW 3-4:30

The destinies of modern Spain seem unavoidable intermingled with filmic expression: The entry-ticket of the Spanish avant-garde to the international stage was a film, Un Chien Andalou; Franco's ideological manifesto for his idiosyncratic blend of fascism took the shape of a movie screenplay, Raza; Spain's transition to democracy was faithfully recorded in films that were a product of those very circumstances -- the Almodovarian movida being the most prominent example.
By examining both films and critical essays, this course will explore the role of cinema as a simultaneous producer and product of the ambivalent identities of modern Spain. Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

Spanish 380-302
Portrait of the Artist as a Self-Declared Genius: Salvador Dalí and Surrealism
Prof. López
MWF 12-1

The Spanish painter Salvador Dalí (1904-1983) is the most recognizable figure in the Surrealist movement. In the public eye he was considered at times the embodiment of the movement itself. Dalí responded with a high dosage of histrionics by cultivating an extravagant public persona. However, this public image often obscures the importance of his seminal contributions to the avant-garde movement. Dalí is arguably one of the most serious and interesting thinkers and theorists of the avant-garde movement during the 1930's and 1940's. He is also one of the most important painters of the movement, and his contributions to contemporary art are irreplaceable. In this course we will read his written work and we will study and analyze his paintings trying to uncover constant topics, motifs, obsessions, etc. Class will be conducted in Spanish. Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

Spanish 381-301
Poetry and the Task of Literature (1975-2000)
Prof. Bautista-Pérez
MWF 12-1

The end of the Francoist dictatorship implies a wide range of cultural transformations in contemporary Spain that take place in a very short period of time. During the so-called "transición" (1976-1982), political and literary contents became intricately mixed. Taking account of the historical basis of this context, this course will examine this process in the fields of cultural production, specially in poetry, according to the literary sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. As a minority genre, poetry shows the deep contradictions involved in the literary production of this particular moment. We will read the poetry and the essays of a representative number of contemporary writers (Aníbal Núñez, Blanca Andreu, Luis García Montero, etc.), and we will discuss their discursive strategies and their places within the "rules of art." Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

Spanish 386-301
Narratives of the Spanish Civil War: Why Now?
Prof. Nadal
MWF 1-2

The recent and unexpected success of two novels dealing with the buried memories of the Spanish civil War in Galicia and Catalonia, Manuel Rivas' El lápiz del carpintero and Javier Cerca's Soldados de Salamina, together with the films they have inspired, has brought this national trauma to the fore with unusual force. To these, one should add the spectacular success of the television drama series (Cuéntame and Temps de silenci) specifically designed to address national memory through the small scale of the everyday life. The question this course will pose is simply: Why now? Why do these successful cultural products contain what remained absent from previous attempts to trigger national memory or record a traumatic past? Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

Spanish 386-302
Gender, Culture, and Ideology in Spanish Contemporary Novel (1975-2000)
Prof. Bruña-Bragado
MWF 2-3

This course aims to study the wide variety of literary strategies shown by Spanish Contemporary Women Novelists in order to subvert the traditional canon composed by a restrictive masculine list (Juan Marsé, Eduardo Mendoza, Julio Llamazares) and to find their own creative space that ranges from the writing of desire or intimacy to the so-called "realismo sucio." The appealing approaches of gender studies (French Irigaray, Cixous; North Butler, Wittig; Spanish Valcárcel, Zavala, Carbonell y Torras) will help us to read a selection of novels and short stories, and to disclose and articulate the particular processes implicated in these writings, both as produced by women authors and as a result of postmodernity. Some of the authors we will read are: Carmen Martín Gaite, Adelaida García Morales, Almudena Grandes and Menchu Gutiérrez. Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

Spanish 386-401
Introduction to Spanish and Latin American Film
Prof. Solomon
TR 10:30-12, T 4-6

This course provides an introduction and overview of narrative and documentary film in Spain and Latin America. Beginning with arrival of cinema in the late 19th century, the course surveys artistic movements and national cinematographic traditions in Spain, Mexico, Cuba, Brazil and Argentina. Please note that the lectures and classroom discussions are in Spanish. All films are in Spanish or in Portuguese with Spanish subtitles. Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

For a more detailed description of the course, including a list of the feature-length films that will be screened during the semester, please see the following course web page:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/romance/spanish/solomon/ugfilm/intro/description.htm

Spanish 396-401
Literature of the Americas
Prof. Knight
MWF 1-2

What makes American literature American? Besides the obvious matter of the author's origin, are there other features--be they formal or thematic--that help us to identify a literary work as distinctly American? Do the literary voices from the North and South enter into dialogue with one another about their American identity? In this course we will attempt to answer these questions by examining important examples of Latin American and U.S. writing in a comparative context. Among the authors we will consider are Bombal, Borges, Bierce, Faulkner, Fuentes, Frank, García Marquez, Morrison, Neruda, Vargas Llosa, and Whitman. As we juxtapose works written in Spanish and English we will ponder problems of cultural identity, historical legacy, and literary influence. To aid us in our exploration we will also consider a number of critical and theoretical contributions that have been made to the growing field of inter-American studies. Readings in Spanish and English. Classroom discussion and all written assignments in Spanish. Written requirements include maintaining a reading journal, frequent oral presentations, three brief papers, and a substantial final paper. Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

Spanish 396-402
Art Nouveau, Eroticism and Fetishism in Modern Latin-American Literature (1890-1910)
Prof. Bruña-Bragado
MWF 11-12

This course aims to approach Latin-American process of Modernity starting from a study of different socio-cultural and economical conditions that made possible a radical ideological change at the beginning of twentieth-century until specifically artistical phenomena and iconoclastic topics in order to provoke and stimulate a cultural atmosphere far away from the "bourgeoisie" postulates and characterized by an emphasis in individual expression and eclectic speeches. In order to obtain a critical and artistic perception of the period we will use some supplementary materials as political or social essays and visual materials as photographs, paintings, videos. However, the main focus is literature so we will analyze the most important short stories and poems produced by Latin American "modernistas" and we will include writers from the considered canonical to the excluded from the traditional canon: José Martí, Julián del Casal, Delmira Agustini, Leopoldo Lugones, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, José Asunción Silva, María Eugenia Vaz Ferreira, Julio Herrera y Reissig.
Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

Spanish 397-401
Childhood and Adolescence in Spanish and Latin American Film
Prof. Solomon
TR 1:30-3, R 4-6

From the sugar-coated child star system that flourished in Francoist Spain to the stark portrayals that emerged from the Novo cinema movement in Brazil, we will explore the social and political motives and consequences of representing children and youth in Spanish and Latin American narrative film. Class discussion will focus on twelve feature length films and various short works, including Manolito Gafotas, Tombola (with Marisol), Marcelino pan y vino, Pixote, El Bola, Guerreros, Birra, Flasa y Pizza, Historias de Kronen, En malas compañias, and El espiritu de la colmena. The lectures and classroom discussions are in Spanish. All films are in Spanish or in Portuguese with Spanish subtitles. Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

For more information, including a complete list and descriptions of the films to be screened, see the introductory page of the course website:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/romance/spanish/solomon/ugfilm/childhood/description.htm

Spanish 397-402
Family Narratives by Hispanic Women Writers
Prof. García-Serrano
MWF 12-1

This course surveys the ways Latin American women authors have departed from stereotypical representations of the Hispanic family to capture and problematize the diversity and complexity of this social institution. Examining literary works published primarily in the 1990s, we will explore developing ideological and aesthetic approaches to issues such as the definition of family, the role of men and women in traditional and modern societies, the relation between patriarchal families and repressive political regimes, and the family narrative as a national or ethnic allegory. We will read the following novels: El cuarto mundo by Diamela Eltit (Chile), Maldito amor by Rosario Ferré (Puerto Rico), El libro de los recuerdos by Ana María Shua (Argentina), Soñar en cubano by Cristina García (Cuba-USA), Mejor desaparece by Carmen Boullosa (Mexico), and So Far From God by Ana Castillo (USA). Prerequisite: Spanish 219.

Spanish 397-403
Female Weaving: Latin American Short Stories Written by Women
Prof. Fradinger
MW 3-4:30

"What if Cinderella had returned to the ball to recover her shoe?" What visions about women, men, sexuality, society, and politics would we find if we delved into the way women tell their stories? In this course we will examine how Latin American women have fictionalized their political and social realities, expressed their experiences of oppression, exile and migration, and contested the myths that envelop their gendered existence, in stories that subvert mainstream constructions of our private and public spaces. We will also investigate how this gendered vision affects the construction of the current political and social situation in the region and how it changes and contests national history, notions of female identity and sexuality in relation to the private and collective spaces, and ultimately construct a different Latin America. We will focus on short stories written in the 20th century, critical essays written by the authors about their own writing processes and theoretical essays on Latin American feminist literary criticism. We will read short stories written by women throughout the Latin American region, including authors Rosario Castellanos (Mexico), Clarice Lispector (Brasil), María Luisa Bombal (Chile), Armonía Sommers (Uruguay), Claribel Alegría (Nicaragua), Anglica Gorodisher (Argentina), Rosario Ferr (Puerto Rico), Maria Teresa Solari (Peru), Helena Araujo (Colombia), Antonia Palacios (Venezuela) and Alicia Yñez Cosso (Ecuador). Prerequisite: Spanish 219.