|
Spring 2007
(Course information subject to change)
(Cross-reference with Department roster)
Spanish 110
Elementary Spanish
Staff
MTWRF 9:00-10:00
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 6:30-8:30 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
(See Timetables for times)
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.
Prerequisite(s): SPAN 110 at Penn
Spanish 121
Elementary Spanish
(See Timetables for times)
Spanish 125
Spanish For the Medical Professions II
Staff
MW 6:30-8:45 PM
Spanish 130
Intermediate Spanish
(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 9:00-10:00, TR 9:00-10:30
Spanish 135
Spanish for Medical Professionals, Intermediate I
Staff
MW 6:30-8:30 PM
Spanish 140
Intermediate Spanish
(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 SAT II.
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
(See Timetables for times)
The purpose of this course is twofold: (a) to develop students’ communicative abilities (that is, speaking, listening, reading and writing) in Spanish and (b) to increase their awareness and understanding of Hispanic cultures and societies. Homework and classroom activities are designed to help students build their oral proficiency, expand and perfect their knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical structures, improve their reading and writing skills, and develop their critical thinking abilities. The readings for this class include short stories, newspaper articles, poems, songs, cartoons, and the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, Crónica de una muerte anunciada. Three Hispanic films (with English or Spanish subtitles) are seen outside of class during the semester. At the completion of this course students will feel confident discussing and debating a variety of contemporary issues (cultural and religious practices, family relationships, gender stereotypes, political events, immigration to USA, etc.).
Prerequisite: successful completion of Spanish 140 or its equivalent
Spanish 208
Business Spanish I
(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
(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. Lebaudy
TR 1:30-3:00
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
The Contexts of Hispanic Civilization
(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, and essays. The course is designed to give students a broad understanding of Hispanic culture that will prepare them for upper-level course work.
Pre-requisite(s): Spanish 212.
Spanish 223
Brazilian Culture and History through Film
Prof. Flores
TR 10:30-12:00
This seminar will explore Brazilian film production, both documentary and full-feature, in order to point out essential aspects of the history and culture of Brazil. The films will be used as an overture for the discussion of topics such as the colonization of Brazil (Desmundo, Hans Staden, Carlota Joaquina a Princesa do Brasil), the complex relations between Indigenous peoples, Africans and Europeans in Brazil (Quilombo, Xica da Silva, Brava Gente Brasileira), the struggles during the establishment of the Brazilian nation (A Guerra de Canudos, Netto Perde Sua Alma), and the relation between Brazil and its Hispanic neighbors (Anahy de las Misiones, A Guerra do Brasil). This class will be conducted in Spanish and will count toward the Hispanic Studies major and minor, as well as the certificate in Portuguese.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
Spanish 250
Major Works in Spanish and Latin American Literature
Prof. Regueiro
MW 5:00-6:30
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 350
Inside and Out: The Body in Early Modern Spanish Literature
Prof. Burk
TR 12:00-1:30
At the turn of the twenty-first century, we tend to view our bodies as machines, made up of self-regulating systems that work in consort. This mechanized understanding of the body, however, is a modern phenomenon. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries at the beginnings of empirical science, Europeans confronted competing ideas about the make-up of the body, how it functioned, and its significance outside the realms of health and medicine. In this course, we will investigate understandings of the physical body, physiology as a metaphor for collective bodies like the Church and State, and bodily norms (why some bodies are better than others and what one can do to improve ones body). An overarching concern of the class will be to consider how the emerging Spanish nation sought to define the bodies of its subjects. Readings include works by Rojas, Cervantes, Tirso de Molina, Calderón, Zayas, and Gracián.
Pre-requisite(s): Spanish 219.
Spanish 373
Romantic Drama of Spain
Prof. Fernández
TR 3:00-4:30
A study of the canonical authors of Romantic drama in Spain. In this course we will read the main titles in nineteenth-century drama, we will pay attention how these works witness the sensibility of the period. Other topics: connection between literary works and the social and political movements, the position of the writer, and the evolution of the artistic taste. Two exams, class participation, and a final paper will decide final grade.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219
Spanish 386
The Evolution of the Don Juan Myth in the Western Literary Tradition
Prof. Fernández
MWF 1:00-2:00
In this course, we will study the appearance and evolution of the Don Juan myth in the Western literary tradition. We will start by analyzing Tirso de Molina’s Don Juan in his El burlador de Sevilla and move from the Baroque and Romantic periods to today’s depictions of not only a male Don Juan, but also of a female Don Juan. Moreover, we will study how filmmakers have interpreted and deviated from the original myth. We will read works by María de Zayas, Molière, Lord Byron, José de Espronceda, José Zorrilla, Emilia Pardo Bazán, Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Miguel de Unamuno, and Carmen Riera, and we will watch such films as Shampoo and Broken Flowers. In addition to situating the myth in its social and historical contexts, we will also study the different dramatic and literary strategies used by authors and filmmakers in their construction of Don Juan.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
Romance Languages 390
Critical Issues in Global and Transnational Studies
Prof. de la Campa
TR 1:30-3:00
This course will focus on critical issues pertaining to global and transnational studies in the humanities. We will clarify conceptual paradigms as much as possible, outlining their historical evolvement in the 20th century, as well as their spheres of dissemination and contradiction, particularly in the Americas. We will then test these notions in literary and cultural texts (short stories, novels, poems, films, videos, music or other forms).
The course will be specifically organized around the following questions and themes:
Postmodern, Postcolonial, Cosmopolitan and Subaltern proposals of the past twenty years. Do they offer new points of departure for literary and cultural studies? How do they situate notions of modernity in various parts of the world? What role do notions such as hybridity and multiculturalism play in our understanding of transnational spheres? Are historical differences between the English and Hispanic legacies of colonialism in the Americas highlighted or erased through these discourses? What are the claims of diasporic, post-nationalist and post-humanist forms of writing and reading? What role does feminism play in them?
Culture, Multitudes, New Citizenry. Are contemporary subjects susceptible to a powerful aesthetic pull cultural studies attempt to address? Is there such a thing as an aesthetic of globalization? Can it be studied critically? Is it mostly visual? Does literature or critical thinking play a role in it?
Performativity and Immanence. A look at various notions surrounding these new tropes; specifically their modes of reshaping intellectual subjects and the notions of creativity, autobiography and culture brokering prevalent in the pull towards techno-mediatic globalization.
The final list of writers, critics and theorists is still in progress. It will constitute a world-wide representation of authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Spivak, Octavio Paz, Roland Barthes, Walter Benjamin, Stuart Hall, Lisa Lowe, Rey Chow, Clarice Lispector, Stephen Greenblatt, Theodor Adorno, Gilles Deleuze, Paolo Virno, Allan Badiou, and others.
This course will taught in English.
Spanish 390-401
Latin American Literature of the 20th Century
Prof. Salessi
TR 12:00-1:30
The course will examine narratives, novels and short stories, published by Latin American writers between 1945 and 1975. While looking at some of the texts that brought Latin American literature to world attention, we will explore themes such as the Spanish American baroque legacy and cultural identity, revolution, democracy and authoritarianism; gender, genre, and scientific discourse; the reader as writer and the writer as reader; literary production, and national and continental politics. Authors include: Gabriel García Márquez, Juan Rulfo, Jorge Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Manuel Puig, Julio Cortázar, and others.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
Spanish 394-401
The Individual and Society in Latin American Fiction of the 20th Century
Prof. Laddaga
TR 10:30-12:00
The main objective of the class is to provide the students with a knowledge of the main lines of development in Latin American narrative in the second half of the XX century. We will study texts by some of the crucial writers of the region, paying attention at the same time at the way these writers attempted to root their works in the tradition of literature in the Spanish language, continuing it and renovating it, and allude to the historical circumstances in which they lived and worked. We will read narratives by Jorge Luis Borges, Juan Rulfo, Virgilio Piñera, Manuel Puig and others.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
Spanish 394-402
Biografía de Buenos Aires
Prof. Salessi
TR 1:30-3:00
The course will explore the rich history of representations of the city of Buenos Aires in documents, short stories, novels and films. While looking at depictions of the "Great Hamlet" of the XVIII century, the slaughterhouse of the 1800s, the "París del Plata" at the turn-of-the-century, the battleground and dungeon of the Dirty War, or the space for the grand opening to the flows and riots of neoliberalism; we will examine representations of the city as the focus of civilization and enlightenment, the metropolis as the entry port to the immigrant adventure, the modern city as the labyrinth for the search of identity and the self, or the great capital of developing neoliberalism as a social, cultural and economic trench in the conflicts of the twenty-first century. Authors include Esteban Echeverría, Lucio Mansilla, Macedonio Fernández, Roberto Arlt, Jorge Luis Borges, Alejandra Pizarnik, César Aira, and others.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
Spanish 394-403
Hispanic Fiction and Postmodern Theory
Prof. García Serrano
MWF 11:00-12:00
Within the framework of postmodern theory we will study the literary production of contemporary Hispanic authors who, using a wide range of discursive strategies, question the traditional dichotomies between reason/madness, masculinity/femininity, civilization /barbarism, reality/fiction, orality/writing, and high culture/popular culture, among others. The narratives selected for this course will allow us to explore literature both as a venue for aesthetic experimentation and as an arena for challenging received ideas. Students will get familiarized with the works of such influential thinkers as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes. Readings by Jorge Luis Borges, Clarice Lispector, Julio Cortázar, Diamela Eltit, and Ana María Shua.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
Spanish 394-404
Major Works of the “Boom” in Contemporary Latin American Literature
Prof. Knight
MWF 10:00-11:00
Why has Latin American narrative of the 1960s and 70s enjoyed such popular and critical success? What distinguishes this literature from that which was written earlier or later or outside Latin America? Who were the major writers of the boom generation, and what unites or separates them? In this course we will answer these questions as we read important works of fiction by Donoso, Fuentes, García Márquez, and Vargas Llosa as well as criticism that sheds light on the phenomenon of the boom.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
Spanish 396-401
Views From the Top of the World: A Survey of 19th- and 20th-Century Andean
Prof. Knight
MWF 12:00-1:00
This course offers an exploration of important works of literature from the Andean region of South America. The syllabus is comprised of a variety of texts including novels, essays, poetry, testimonials, and short stories. As we progress through the readings we will examine how key components of the Latin American experience are manifest in the Andean context. These elements include the indigenous population, mestizaje, machismo, women’s roles, the Church, revolution, and the struggle for social justice. Among the longer works covered are Matto de Turner’s Aves sin nido, Icaza’s Huasipungo, Vargas Llosa’s Historia de Mayta, and Adoum’s Ciudad sin ángel.
Pre-requisite(s): Spanish 219.
Spanish 396-402
“Las vanguardias latinoamericanas”/The Latin American Avant-Garde
Prof. Austin
MWF 11:00-12:00
After the devastation of the First World War, artists all over the world responded to the new era’s changing political and social geography with rebellious and shocking artistic movements that embraced the idea of “arte por el arte”: art for art’s sake. During this period the arts flourished as a political and social force, and many of Latin America’s most renowned writers and poets—including Vicente Huidobro, César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, and many more—brought and sought inspiration to and from Europe as they contributed to movements that utterly rejected traditional artistic ideals and modes of production. In this course we will study Latin America’s participation in such “avant-garde” movements as Futurism, Expressionism, Dada, and Surrealism, as well as other movements particular to Latin America like Creationism and Ultraism. This course will examine films, works of art, and especially the poetry and political and artistic manifestos of an era that marks the beginning of modern Spanish America’s involvement and influence within the international artistic scene.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
Spanish 397-401
“Mujer al borde”: The Femme Fatale in Spanish American Literature
Prof. Austin
MWF 1-2
Although Latin American society is commonly renowned for its “machismo,” or the predominance of the masculine in its culture, one can also find consistent representations of strong female roles that support, as well as question and critique, the hegemonic power of masculinity in Latin America. This course traces the figure of the femme fatale—the beautiful but dangerous woman—through 19th- and 20th-century Latin American literature. Readings will include psychoanalytic and feminist theories of gender, sexuality, and social power that will help us analyze the various permutations of gender roles and social transgression represented within texts by José Martí, Rómulo Gallegos, José Donoso, Carlos Fuentes, and Manuel Puig. We will also view several films over the course of the semester.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
Spanish 397-402
Cuban Detective Novel: From the Revolutionary Hero to the Disenchanted Policeman
Prof. Montoya
TR 10:30-12
A popular genre from its birth in the 19 th century, the detective novel expresses contemporary anxieties about Law and crime. Before the 1970s the genre was marginal in Latin America. However, in the last decades it has become one of the most appreciated and successful fiction narratives. In Cuba, after the Revolution, its boom was supported by the official cultural agencies, for it was considered a way to gain a massive number of readers, and, simultaneously, to educate them in the values and principles of the revolutionary moral. In the 1990s though –during the years of the “special period”, with the crisis of socialism, shortage, and ideological disenchantment–, the detective novel was transformed in a radical way and has become a tool for social criticism. Since then it has been used by some writers to explore the contradictions, failures and double standards that characterize daily life in the island. At the same time, writers interrogate its aesthetic principles, trying to undermine them, and using the detective novel as a field of literary experimentation. We will read a wide selection of short stories from the beginnings of the 1970s to the 1990s, focusing in the novels of Leonardo Padura Fuentes, the most acknowledged writer of detective fiction in the contemporary Cuban literature.
Prerequisite(s): Spanish 219.
|
