Introduction to spoken and written Spanish; stress on interactive approach. Extensive and varied activities, including oral presentations, cultural readings and recordings, and video program.

Intensive review of all language skills and introduction to the art, literature, and cultures of Spain and Latin America. Emphasis on oral and written expression and critical analysis.

Intensive review of all language skills and introduction to the art, literature, and cultures of Spain and Latin America. Emphasis on oral and written expression and critical analysis.

Intensive review of all language skills and introduction to the art, literature, and cultures of Spain and Latin America. Emphasis on oral and written expression and critical analysis.

Practice in oral and written Spanish at the advanced level. Designed to enhance communicative competence, this course will provide an intensive review of advanced grammatical structures within cultural contexts of the Spanish-speaking world. Each section will explore a specific theme through the examination of Hispanic literary texts and the arts, as well as other cultural phenomena. Varied oral interactions, technological applications, and critical writing will be stressed.

Topics: The Marvelous in Latin American Literature and Culture

This course explores the intersections between fantasy and reality in literary texts, art, film, cultural events, and digital content from various Spanish-speaking countries (Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia, Argentina, and Spain). Texts and materials to be studied range from pre-Hispanic indigenous myth and art, to works from colonial and contemporary periods. We will study how societies and individual authors have explored fantasy and imagination in their various forms including myth, fable, magic, superstition, miracle, hallucination, magic realism, and the fantastic. Course materials will include readings, works of art, film, and music. Focus on class discussions, public speaking, and student writing, both critical and creative. Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

Practice in oral and written Spanish at the advanced level. Designed to enhance communicative competence, this course will provide an intensive review of advanced grammatical structures within cultural contexts of the Spanish-speaking world. Each section will explore a specific theme through the examination of Hispanic literary texts and the arts, as well as other cultural phenomena. Varied oral interactions, technological applications, and critical writing will be stressed.

Topic: Literature, Society and Politics

Close readings of brief, groundbreaking fiction and essays that explore various forms of social injustice. We will study various authors from Spain, Argentina, Cuba, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico who wrote during different historical periods, from the XVII century to the present. The selected texts and films feature young protagonists and/ or narrators facing formidable obstacles while dreaming of a better society for themselves and others. Class discussions focus on the readings as well as current events from around the Spanish-speaking world.

This class integrates the reading, studying and performing of some of the most important plays in Spanish Theatre. Students will learn about the Spanish theatrical tradition while developing their language and critical skills. Taught in Spanish.

A study of selected works, creators and historical events that shaped Spain's multiethnic and linguistically diverse identity from the 10th to the 17th centuries. Authors and topics explored in this class include El Cantar de Mío Cid, Alfonso X el Sabio and the Spain of the "three cultures", the poetry of Hebrew and Arabic Spain, the Reconquista, and the writing of American Chronicles, as well as some examples of the work of Garcilaso de la Vega, Fray Luis de León, Santa Teresa, San Juan de la Cruz, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, and Calderón de la Barca.

A close reading of the Quixote with particular emphasis on Cervantes' invention of the novel form: creation of character, comic genius, hero versus anti-hero, levels of reality and fantasy, and history versus fiction.

This seminar examines Cuban literature and culture from the nineteenth century to the present. As a tropical island in the Caribbean ruled by numerous imperial powers and domestic tyrants, Cuba has often been perceived as a paradise and/or a prison. We will study both the literal and metaphorical meanings of these two symbols through various modes of cultural expression, including prose, poetry, art, music, and film. We will discuss such topics as colonialism, slavery, the independence movement, the Cuban Revolution, socialism, race and gender, immigration, and the changing relationship between Cuba and the United States. Readings may include texts by Juan Franciscano Manzano, José Martí, Cristina García, Fidel Castro, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, José Lezama Lima, Reinaldo Arenas, Yoani Sanchéz, and Sonia Rivera-Valdés.

Introduction to spoken and written Spanish; stress on interactive approach. Extensive and varied activities, including oral presentations, cultural readings and recordings, and video program.

Intensive review of all language skills and introduction to the art, literature, and cultures of Spain and Latin America. Emphasis on oral and written expression and critical analysis.

Intensive review of all language skills and introduction to the art, literature, and cultures of Spain and Latin America. Emphasis on oral and written expression and critical analysis.

Intensive review of all language skills and introduction to the art, literature, and cultures of Spain and Latin America. Emphasis on oral and written expression and critical analysis.

Intensive review of all language skills and introduction to the art, literature, and cultures of Spain and Latin America. Emphasis on oral and written expression and critical analysis.

Topic: Repression, Revolution and the Arts

In this course, short selections in prose and poetry manifest popular revolutionary responses to repressive regimes throughout the ages, in Hispanic nations. We will examine issues of race and ethnicity, gender identity, and socio-political/ economic, and environmental conditions that have resulted in social change. Cinematographic, musical and artistic creations complement and corroborate themes of dictatorial governments, military violence, religious self-righteousness, and families fragmented by civil war. Particular focus will highlight discrimination based on class, race, and gender; including Indigenous peoples, the African diaspora, women, and queer identities.

Practice in oral and written Spanish at the advanced level. Designed to enhance communicative competence, this course will provide an intensive review of advanced grammatical structures within cultural contexts of the Spanish-speaking world. Each section will explore a specific theme through the examination of Hispanic literary texts and the arts, as well as other cultural phenomena. Varied oral interactions, technological applications, and critical writing will be stressed.

Topics for Spring 2025:

The Marvelous in Latin American Literature and Culture

This course explores the intersections between fantasy and reality in literary texts, art, film, cultural events, and digital content from various Spanish-speaking countries (Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay, Colombia, Argentina, and Spain). Texts and materials to be studied range from pre-Hispanic indigenous myth and art, to works from colonial and contemporary periods. We will study how societies and individual authors have explored fantasy and imagination in their various forms including myth, fable, magic, superstition, miracle, hallucination, magic realism, and the fantastic. Course materials will include readings, works of art, film, and music. Focus on class discussions, public speaking, and student writing, both critical and creative. Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course.

An introduction to the major literary, historical, artistic and cultural traditions of the Caribbean. Attention will focus on the Spanish-speaking island countries: Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. We will discuss such topics as slavery, independence, nation-building, race, gender, dictatorship, and immigration. We will use a variety of texts, films and artworks. Authors may include Juan Francisco Manzano, José Martí, Julia de Burgos, Alejo Carpentier, Nicolás Guillén, Nancy Morejón, Luis Palés Matos, Mayra Santos Febres and Junot Díaz.

The course focuses on women’s literary expression and the roles women played in the societies of pre-Hispanic and colonial Latin America, ranging from serving as concubines and slaves to being recognized as key figures of leadership and prominent literary voices. The course will integrate writing by women with the ways in which women are depicted in visual and material culture, historical sources, and film. Authors to be studied may include Anacaona, la Malinche, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, Gertrudis Gomez de Avellaneda, among others. In Spanish.

This course focuses on fundamental films by prominent contemporary Argentine women filmmakers. We examine these directors’ influence on the New Argentine Cinema (NAC) and explore their diverse aesthetic contributions to the country’s film industry. Interdisciplinary readings about the country’s socio-political and cultural changes from 1995 onwards guide our discussions, explorations, and analyses. Films by Albertina Carri, Lucrecia Martel, Julia Solomonoff, Paula Markovitch, María Victoria Menis, Gabriela David, and Lucía Puenzo.

Using a gender-aware perspective and a wide variety of literary texts,, documents, films, and architectural and artistic examples, this course will explore various forms of Modernity and Modernization in Spain. The analysis will go beyond aesthetic modernity to consider social change and cultural transformation. Main figures will include Federico García Lorca, Maruja Mallo, Vicente Huidobro, Antonio Gaudí, Luis Buñuel, Concha Méndez and “las sinsombrero”, José Ortega y Gasset, Clara Campoamor, Victoria Kent, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso. The connections between modernity and postmodernity will also be explored, as well as a comparison of the attitudes towards change and innovation at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries.