Spanish (SPAN) Courses – Taught in Spanish
SPAN 5800 – MA Survey of Colonial Literature with Allison Bigelow
Thursday, 3:30 - 6:00pm
Este curso proporciona un panorama de la literatura latinoamericana en el periodo que abarca el examen de maestría del área colonial: 1492-1700. Los textos primarios nos ayudarán a entender la complejidad cultural del periodo colonial, mientras las fuentes secundarias nos orientarán a varias preguntas abiertas y polémicas historiográficas. Al final del curso, la alumna o el alumno será capaz de analizar los textos de la lista del examen de maestría, situar varios temas claves dentro del contexto histórico-intelectual de la época y mostrar su conocimiento a través de una presentación oral, examen parcial y un proyecto final. Conforme al interés de la alumna o el alumno, el proyecto puede ser orientado a las investigaciones o a la enseñanza. Aprovechando el rol del examen en el programa de maestría, también leeremos textos que tratan de la profesionalización, abordando temas como la organización, el examen, el estrés y la vida académica.
SPAN 7850 – Caribbean Environmental Humanities with Charlotte Rogers
Wednesdays, 3:30 - 6:00pm
Why have outsiders depicted the Caribbean as a hellish site of malaria and hurricanes and also as a tourist Eden? How do peoples of the Caribbean define their own relationship to the islands’ ecologies? This graduate level seminar considers these questions through the lens of the environmental humanities, an emerging method of study that unites humanistic inquiry with environmental science. We will survey the intertwined ecological and human histories of the archipelago from the colonial era to the twenty-first century. Topics include deforestation, the plantation system, natural resource extraction, scientific experimentation on Caribbean peoples and landscapes, and the social and ecological ramifications of tourism. The course will emphasize how artists and writers recognize and resist the legacies of environmental depredation and human exploitation in the region. Our areas of inquiry will range over literature, art, tropical medicine, the history of science, environmental activism, social justice movements and cultural studies. This class counts towards the Graduate Certificate in Environmental Humanities. Class discussions will be in English. Readings will be in Spanish, French, and English with optional translations.
SPAN 7850 – Space and Place in Hispanic Literature with Ricardo Pardon
Writing of all kinds is often used to map spaces and describe places, facilitating all sorts of and imaginative relationships between readers and locales both near and far. We might think of the way travel narrative facilitates virtual journeys, or the way a novel is said to evoke the place in which the story is set. The current moment is a propitious time to explore these issues, thanks to the so-called “spatial turn” in the human sciences, the renewed attention to space and place that has marked any number of disciplines over the course of the last few decades. In this course, we will review some of the major theoretical statements of humanistic geography and of critical geography, and consider the opportunities created by juxtaposing writing with cartography. We will also apply what we have learned to a repertoire of texts from a variety of periods in the literary and cultural history of Spain and Latin America. Registered students will be given the opportunity to provide input regarding which texts we will use.
This course is primarily intended for graduate students in the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, but is open to all students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Students from outside the department will be able to read in English or other languages, and the language of instruction will be English
SPAN 8540 – Seminars: Modern Spanish Literature with Sam Amago
Tuesdays, 3:30 - 6:00pm
Drawing key examples from Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Portugal and Spain, this viewing-intensive course will explore the close connection between aesthetics and politics in Spanish- and Portuguese-language movies produced from 1950 to the present. Through film viewings, critical readings, and class discussion, we will consider how contemporary Iberian and American films have critically and creatively re-imagined the interrelated concepts of modernity, memory, and migration.