SPAN501: Advanced Studies in the Spanish Language (3 hours lecture)

This course provides students with the opportunity to explore various linguistic-oriented topics and theories in order to expand their knowledge of the structure, usage and variation of the Spanish language both in the Spanish-speaking world and in the United States. The study of these topics will be done in connection with the analysis of various literary texts. Topics to be explored will change with each offering of this course. 3 sh.

SPAN504: Introduction to Literary Theory (3 hours lecture)

This course gives students a comprehensive view of different critical and theoretical approaches to literary studies, among them Russian Formalism, Structuralism, Feminist Theory, Postmodern and Postcolonial Studies, and gender and queer theory. Major articles of such theorists as Jacobson, Genette, Levi-Strauss, Barthes, Moi, Kristeva, Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, Sidonie Smith, Benedict Anderson, Said, and Butler will be applied to specific literary texts from Latin America and Spain. 3 sh.

SPAN505: History of Spanish Language (3 hours lecture)

The aim of this course is to examine the evolution of the Spanish language from its origins to the present. It focuses on the phono-phonetic, morphological, syntactical, and semantic changes that characterized the evolution from Latin to modern Spanish from a political, sociological, and historical point of view. Topics include a structural and textual analysis of ancient documents and literary pieces. 3 sh.

SPAN516: Medieval Spanish Literature to the Fifteenth Century (3 hours lecture)

This course examines main philosphical concerns of the Middle Ages and the connections and dialogue that exist between works of this period and the contemporary world. Through close analyses of representative works, the course explores the roles played by identity, representation, and desire in the construction and reconstruction of the aesthetic of the self as well as the representation of the human in relation with the divine. 3 sh.

SPAN522: Theatre of the Golden Age (3 hours lecture)

Focusing on the Baroque chiaroscuro as a metaphor for the scission of the 17th century Spanish subjectivity, this course draws from Lacanian theory to articulate and analytical framework that allows a postmodern reading of comedias by both leading and peripheral playwrights. Recurring topoi, such as gender confusion, honor, uxoricide, rape, order and chaos, are contextualized and deconstructed in light of psychoanalysis and performativity. 3 sh.

SPAN523: Prose and Poetry of the Golden Age (3 hours lecture)

This course examines the works of major authors of the Spanish Golden-Age and concentrates on the subtextual dialogues established by these authors in reaction both against their time and space and themselves. Readings include canonical prose and poetry of the period as well as peripheral writings. Literary texts of the period are analyzed in the context of different currents in literary theory and genre studies. 3 sh.

SPAN524: Cervantes (3 hours lecture)

This course takes a closer look at the fragmented discourses intertwined in the texts of Cervantes. By drawing from different critiques and theories about Cervantes, among them those dealing with paradox, madness and sanity, nationhood and the satire of a monolithic Spanish identity, and the function of dialogue and intertextuality, this course delves into the many layers of Cervantes's writings. It also examines the narrative complexity of Cervantes's masterpiece and the ways in which Don Quijote anticipates many aspects of postmodern fiction. 3 sh.

SPAN525: Enlightenment and Romanticism (3 hours lecture)

This course exposes students to two of the literary manifestations of 18th and 19th century Spain. It explores the concept of the "Enlightenment" in the painting of Goya and the writings of Feijoo and Cadalso as well as the socioeconomic context of this period. It also examines European Romanticism in art and literature; selected Spanish Romantic poetry, drama, and essays, including the writings of Larra, Becquer, Rosalia de Castro, Duque de Rivas, and Zorrilla are analyzed in light of literary theories of the 18th and 19th centuries. 3 sh.

SPAN526: Spanish Novel of the 19th Century (3 hours lecture)

The focus of this course is the study of the so-called "novela realista" or the Spanish novel of the 19th century. It explores cultural, literary and socioeconomic influences on the novel as well as the theory and the practice of this genre in the 19th century. Texts of 19th century Spanish authors are accompanied by selected theoretical readings on the novel written by twentieth-century critics Miguel de Unamuno, Jose Ortega y Gasset, M. Bakhtin, Doritt Cohn, and Gerard Genette, among others. 3 sh.

SPAN527: The Generation of 98 (3 hours lecture)

This course examines major works of the generation of writers whose intellectual development coincides with the defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Attitudes toward national identity, literature, culture, politics, gender, and philosophy will be explored as well as the concept of literary generations and their inclusions and exclusions. Readings will include selections from canonical writers - Unamuno, A. Machado, Valle-Inclan, Azorin, and Baroja - as well as texts from women writers - Caterina Albert and Carmen Burgos, among others - historically excluded from this generation. 3 sh.

SPAN528: Spanish Fiction and Film (3 hours lecture)

This course analyzes works of Spanish literature from the late 19th century to the present and films that are either based on specific texts or reflect their major themes. It discusses film and fiction as distinct modes of artistic expression and the process by which complex narrative strategies are rendered into visual images and cinematographic techniques. A variety of film genres, novelistic techniques, idological concerns, and gender roles are studied in the works of writers like Galdos, Tusquets, Rodoreda, Riera, and Munoz Molina and film directors, Bunuel, Bollain, Almodovar, Betriu and Miro, among others. 3 sh.

SPAN530: Spanish Cultural History (3 hours lecture)

A study of the formation and the nature of Spanish civilization through an investigation of the political, social and cultural trends and influences on the Iberian Peninsula from prehistoric times to the present. 3 sh.

SPAN533: Contemporary Spanish Theater (3 hours lecture)

This course examines selected works of Spanish theater from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. It explores the relationship between ideology and dramatic technique during the Franco regime and the Post Civil War and Post Franco periods, and the Spanish theater's appropriation and adaptation of theories of Artaud, Brecht, and the theater of the absurd, among others. The theater as a vehicle for social and political critique, subversion of gender norms, exploration of the complexities of identity formation, and challenge to historical values will be explored through selections of Valle-Inclan, Lorca, Arrabal, Buero Vallejo, Diosdado, Pedrero, and Romero, among others. 3 sh.

SPAN534: Contemporary Spanish Novel (3 hours lecture)

This course examines the evolution of the Spanish novel from the 20th century to the present and the relationship between the evolution of narrative techniques and strategies and changes in Spanish social and political structure. Theories of the novel offered by diverse European and American critics will be combined with the study of various novel forms from social realist to psychological realist and the postmodern and their respective debt to Cervantes's masterpiece, Don Quijote. The role of the novel in circumventing censorship, challenging official norms and myths, and dismantling traditional literary and political authority will be examined in the works of Cela, Delibes, Martin Santos, Falcon, Martin Gaite, Diaz-Mas, and Juan Goytisolo, among others. 3 sh.

SPAN535: Contemporary Spanish Poetry (3 hours lecture)

This course examines Spanish poetry from the beginning of the 20th century (Juan Ramon Jimenez, A. Machado) to the poetic expressions that emerged after Spanish Civil War (Miguel Hernandez and Gloria Fuertes, among others). Different trends, topics, influences and movements will be examined, among them Symbolist and post Romantic poetry at the beginning of the 20th century; European Ultraism and Futurism; Surrealist poetry; painting and cinema in Spain; the notion of "Avant-Garde"; art as a game; humor and irony in poetry; homoerotic expressions of love in the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Cernuda; and social poetry and the poetics of protest. Students will be exposed to classical notions of Rhetoric as part of the process of analysis of poetry. 3 sh.

SPAN540: Colonial Spanish American Literature (3 hours lecture)

This course examines Colonial Latin American texts such as Hernan Cortes's Cartas de relacion, Cristobal Colon's Cartas del descubrimiento, Sor Juan Ines del la Cruz's writings, Dabeza de Vaca's Naufragio and Bartolome de las Casas's Brevisima relacion del la destruccion de las Indias, among others, in light of postmodern and post colonial interpretations. Semiotic and anthropological readings are also applied to the course selections. 3 sh.

SPAN541: Latin American Literature of the 19th Century (3 hours lecture)

This course provides an in-depth study of the aesthetics of Romanticism in Europe and its subsequent adaptation by Latin American writers. Special emphisis is given to Argentine Romantic writers of the period. Texts will be analyzed in the context of Romantic aesthetics and political, historical and social change in the Latin American continent. Realistic and Naturalist aesthetics will also be discussed as will such aspects of economic and social change as the growth of the city, the influx of immigrants, social exploitation, and racial strife. 3 sh.

SPAN542: Contemporary Latin American Novel (3 hours lecture)

This course is divided into three main components. The first one studies in depth the novels of the Mexican Revolution from Azuela to Carlos Fuentes. A sociological approach will be applied to the novels of this period and students will trace the changes that the novel of the Revolution reveals as it moves from one generation to another. The second component examines the novels of the land and of social reform from J.E. Rivera to the indigenous novel. Attention will be given to the Andean novel and the reappearance and adaptation of neo-realistic aesthetics. The third component deals with novels of the city, mainly in the southern tip of the continent. Argentine and Uruguayan novels will be studied carefully to reveal such aspects as the growth of the city, the relationship with European novels, the need for a new language, and the birth of the psychological novel. 3 sh.

SPAN543: Contemporary Latin American Theater (3 hours lecture)

Designed to offer a critical introduction to contemporary dramatic writings in Latin America. Students examine a corpus of works by playwrights from a variety of Latin American nations, movements, and decades, up to the present. Taking as point of departure The Tempest, William Shakespeare's drama of conquest and resistance, students will examine themes of social justice, identity, the power of language and the role of art in theater's trajectory over the course of the twentieth century and into the present century. Major playwrights such as Rodolfo Usigli, Griselda Gambaro, and Luis Rafael Sanchez are studied within the framework of contemporary theories of performance and reception in Latin America. 3 sh.

SPAN546: Modernismo in Latin America (3 hours lecture)

This course provides an in-depth study of the aesthetics of French Parnassian and Symbolist poetics and how these in turn lead directly to the Modernist aesthetics in Latin America. Special consideration is given to Decadentism and its rejection of the social and economic values represented by the European bourgeoisie. Works by Marti, Najera, Casals, Silva, Dario, and Lugones wil be approached stylistically and thematically for the purpose of identifying the radical changes in the literary text from the perspectives of language, versification, forms, themes, and the unique poetics of each member of this movement. Special attention will be given to the works of Ruben Dario in tracing the development of Modernist poetics from the pre-Modernist period through the post-Modernist period. 3 sh.

SPAN548: Contemporary Spanish American Novel (3 hours lecture)

A critical examination of representative examples of the Spanish American novel from the "boom" to the "post-boom". 3 sh.

SPAN549: Contemporary Spanish American Short Story (3 hours lecture)

The contemporary short story from the end of the "Modernista" period to the present time. Critical evaluation and analysis of representative works. 3 sh.

SPAN551: Contemporary Latin American Poetry (3 hours lecture)

This course offers an overview of significant trends in Latin American poetry from the Avant-Garde to the Postmodern, with particular attention given to the most contemporary expressions of Latin American poetry. The course will focus on authors such as Borges, Lange, Ocampo, Huidobro, Neruda, Vallejo, Lezama Lima, Pizarnik, German Belli, Gonzalo Rojas and Zurita. 3 sh.

SPAN560: Topics in Spanish, Latin American and Caribbean Literature (3 hours lecture)

This course explores contemporary narrative fiction from the Spanish Antilles (Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic). It examines foundational themes of Caribbean letters such as the plantation structure, the maroons, the repercussions of the French Revolution and the Age of the Enlightenment in the works of Alejo Carpentier, Miguel Barnett, Reinaldo Arenas and others. The works of Emilio Diaz Varcarcel, Ana Lydia Vega and Julia Alvarez highlight the problematic relationship of island and diaspora in the context of neocolonialism and identity. May be repeated once for a total of 6.0 credits. 3 sh.

Prerequisites: Majors only.

SPAN562: Autobiographical Acts in Spain and in Latin America (3 hours lecture)

This course examines autobiographical texts from Spain and Latin America in light of general theories of the genre. Autobiography will be studied in the broadest sense and will encompass the study of testimony, letters, diaries, and autobiographical poetry. Readings will include texts written by Julia de Burgos, Garcia Marquez, Jorge Guillen, Lorca, Rigoberta Menchu, Renee Mendez-Capote, and Pedro Salinas, among others. 3 sh.