SPA: Spanish

SPA 510. Spanish Phonetics and Applied Linguistics. 3 Credits.

A study of Spanish morphology, phonology, and syntax (sound, word, sentence formation). The structure of the language will be studied from a theoretical and practical perspective.
Typically offered in Spring.

SPA 511. Spanish Through Time and Space. 3 Credits.

A study of the history of the Spanish language and the factors leading to the dialectal diversity that Spanish exhibits in the present. The course allows students to familiarize themselves with the main internal processes that have shaped the evolution of the language and to expose them to the basics of research in the history of a language, by making use of primary sources and other objects of interest to diachronic linguistics.

SPA 512. Advanced Spanish Grammar and Stylistics. 3 Credits.

An informal, rapid review of Spanish grammar, with emphasis on problems fundamental to the American classroom. Exercises include idiomatic expression, various levels of style, and translation.
Distance education offering may be available.
Typically offered in Fall & Spring.

SPA 513. Living in Two Languages. 3 Credits.

This course examines the diversity of historical, social and cultural issues related to the use of Spanish in the United States alongside other languages, mainly English. The goals of the course are to allow students to familiarize themselves with the main sociolinguistic facts of Spanish language use in the United States, encourage students to establish connections between facts and social perceptions, and to expose students to the fundamentals of research in language sociology, by making use of primary sources and applying fundamental theoretical concepts to their analysis.

SPA 514. Contemporary Latin America. 3 Credits.

An interdisciplinary exploration of contemporary Latin America: geography, history, economy, politics, social institutions, religion, cultures, and the arts.

SPA 530. Spanish Comedia of the Golden Age. 3 Credits.

Survey of the comedia before Lope de Vega; the contributions of Lope de Vega; Tirso de Molina and Ruiz de Alarcon; the Baroque theatre of Calderon de la Barca.

SPA 542. Shaping National Identity in Latin America. 3 Credits.

An examination of the coming to maturity of Latin American nationalism from independence to 1950. The ways in which political and intellectual leadership were intertwined will be at the center of inquiry. Ideas, texts, and other cultural forms that contributed to this process will be studied. Representative authors include: Andrés Bello, José Martí, Eugenio Hostos, Rubén Darío, César Vallejo, and Clorinda Matto de Turner.

SPA 545. Mapping Latin America: From Jungle to City. 3 Credits.

Historically, the geography and climate of Latin America have exerted a strong influence on its cultures. This course discusses how this phenomenon affects its literary development. We will read short stories by Horacio Quiroga and the work of Alejo Carpentier, among other authors who have written of the jungle -- the biggest expression of "nature" in the Latin American literary tradition -- with the objective of thinking about the opposition between "civilization" and "barbarism," a recurrent topic. Also, we will read the work of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, José Eustasio Rivera, and Rómulo Gallegos. Finally, we will discuss the city, as one of the central foci of Latin American narrative throughout the greater part of the 20th century, and which it is explained by migration movements from the countryside to the city because of industrialization. This last part of the course will be presented in novels by Nicomedes Guzmán, Isabel Allende, and Diamela Eltit.

SPA 547. Hispanic Women Writers. 3 Credits.

Contact department for more information about this course.

SPA 549. Art and Culture of Spain. 3 Credits.

This course provides a critical analysis of 20th and 21st century Spanish visual and literary arts in relationship to global debates. Lecture and discussion topics integrate national and social history, culture, literature, theory and visual techniques into an analysis of the cultural texts. This course is taught in Spanish.
Pre / Co requisites: SPA 549 requires a prerequisite of majors only or department consent.
Distance education offering may be available.
Typically offered in Spring.

SPA 556. Graduate Seminar in Hispanic Literary, Film, and Cultural Studies. 3 Credits.

Graduate seminars provide in-depth study of current topics in literary, film, and cultural studies related to the Spanish-speaking world. Topics will be drawn from the professor's area of specialization. See departmental website for a listing of recent and upcoming topics.
Distance education offering may be available.
Typically offered in Fall, Spring & Summer.
Repeatable for Credit.

SPA 558. Violence in Latin American Cinema. 3 Credits.

This seminar explores contemporary Latin American film production in order to understand how Latin American cinema portrays and responds to violence. We explore how Latin American peoples have experienced violence historically and in modern times. Students examine how violence is perpetrated through words, images, physical harm, and exclusion. The course provides a theoretical framework, grounded in violence studies and critical discourse studies, as well as media literacy skills to analyze how films construct meaning in the wake of direct and indirect acts of violence. In films chosen from across the Americas, we focus on the ways in which invisible structures of violence can produce visible acts of violence.
Distance education offering may be available.
Typically offered in Fall, Spring & Summer.

SPA 559. Adaptation: Literature to Film in Latin America. 3 Credits.

This seminar explores the mechanisms and discourses of film adaptations of Latin American literary texts. We examine the intertextual relationship between writing and filmmaking by focusing on Latin American film adaptations of different literary genres such as the colonial chronicle, novel, travelogue, nonfiction narrative, short story, and poetry. We consider the contentious issue of whether films must remain "faithful" to a printed original and ask what it takes for a filmmaker to preserve the aesthetic value of an admired literary text when adapting it to the screen. The seminar also explores the role and particularities of adaptation in Latin American cinema to understand what makes Latin American adaptations unique. We investigate different theoretical approaches to adaptation in order to analyze the mechanisms of adaptation of literature to film. Students will acquire the critical discourse analysis and media literacy skills to evaluate narrative elements and discursive strategies used in both literary and filmic texts in Spanish. We also study the mutual influence of Latin American literature and film and examine the technical, artistic, and ethical problems that arise when adapting literary texts to film. Conducted in Spanish.
Distance education offering may be available.
Typically offered in Fall, Spring & Summer.

SPA 560. Nobel Laureates in Hispanic Letters. 3 Credits.

A course devoted to study those Spanish-language writers from Spain and Spanish America who won the Nobel Prize in Literature during the 20th and 21st centuries for their literary achievements; to analyze their works and the sociopolitical context of their writings; and to examine the politics of literary awards and the significance of their recognition.