Current Courses
The Spanish Department offers a variety of courses in the Spanish language at all levels, and in Hispanic literature and culture, visual arts, cinema, politics, history, and religion. Language courses combine the development of oral, grammar and writing skills with discussion of films, theatre, short stories, poetry, art, and newspapers.
Advanced courses are taught in both Spanish and English. Those taught in English are cross-listed as Spanish (SPAN) and Literature (LIT) and offer the opportunity to read and discuss the materials in Spanish for those taking the class for Spanish credit. Below you will find the list of current courses Fall 2023/Spring 2024.
Fall 2023
SPAN 111 Beginning Spanish 1
One unit semester course. In this language course, students will develop essential listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Spanish. Spanish grammar instruction is supplemented with study of cultural materials from Spanish-speaking countries. Conference.
SPAN 211 Intermediate Spanish 1
One unit semester course. In this language course, students will develop essential listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Spanish. Spanish grammar instruction is supplemented with study of cultural materials from Spanish-speaking countries. Conference.
SPAN 312 Advanced Language and Culture: Speculative Fiction
One-unit semester course. The category of speculative fiction refers to a diverse set of nonrealist approaches to narrative, including science fiction, horror, fantasy and the fantastical, utopia and dystopia. In this course, we will discuss how speculative fiction in the Spanish-speaking Americas draws from and hybridizes a number of robust regional genres (e.g., magical realism, the Latin American fantastic, horror and cyberpunk). We’ll consider how authors and filmmakers use these genres to critique and reimagine many facets of modernity, including repressive political regimes, digital technologies, neoliberalism and ecological catastrophe. Alongside this thematic focus, this course is designed to refine and enhance language skills. It includes a focused consideration of problem areas of Spanish language and an introduction to various rhetorical forms. In addition to oral practice in class, students will write numerous short essays. Prerequisite: Spanish 212 or placement by examination. Conference.
SPAN 321 Theory and Practice of Hispanic Literature
One unit semester course. This course is designed to give students a theoretical, historical, and cultural framework for the more advanced study of Spanish and Spanish American literature. It will include considerations of genre, reception, and critical theory. Students will be responsible for undertaking close readings of the texts as well as research projects. Prerequisite: Spanish 212 or placement by examination. Conference.
SPAN 343 Don Quixote and Narrative Theory
One unit semester course. This course will consist of a close reading of Cervantes’s masterpiece in conjunction with the works of theorists such as Michel Foucault, Gyorgy Lukács, Anthony Cascardi, and Mary Malcolm Gaylord, who have written about Don Quixote in the development and exploration of their various “theories of the novel.” To better understand the context of Don Quixote, we will begin with a careful consideration of political, cultural, and historical aspects of the Spanish Golden Age. During the final weeks of the semester, we will read texts by Jorge Luis Borges and Paul Auster that exploit narrative conventions found in Don Quixote. We will end the semester with student presentations that focus on adaptations and appropriations of Don Quixote in modern narrative. Prerequisite for Spanish credit: Spanish 321 or consent of the instructor. Conference. cross-listed as Literature 343.
SPAN 380 Drugs, Gangs & Aliens
One unit semester course. In this course, we will address and think critically about the interrelated nature of irregular immigration to the U.S., the drug trade and the “War on Drugs,” and the expansion and criminalization of gangs throughout the Americas. We will examine how cornerstones of state sovereignty such as the rule of law, the care and control of space and population, and the monopoly on violence are being challenged by these phenomena, as well as analyze, question and discuss their representation and problematization in Latin and North American literary works, essays, chronicles and films in relation to theoretical concepts and processes such as sovereignty, violence, neoliberalism, border, immunity/community and globalization. Prerequisite: Spanish 321 or consent of the instructor. Conference.
SPAN 470 - Thesis
Two-unit yearlong course; one unit per semester.
SPAN 481 - Independent Reading
Variable (one-half or one)-unit semester course. Prerequisite: approval of instructor and division.
Spring 2023
SPAN 112 Beginning Spanish II
One unit semester course. This language course continues the development of essential listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills begun in Spanish 111. Students will learn enough language to handle a meaningful conversation, read short literary texts, and speak and write about their experiences, thoughts, and opinions. Spanish grammar instruction is supplemented with study of cultural materials from Spanish-speaking countries Pre-requisite: Spanish 111 or placement by examination. Conference.
SPAN 212 Intermediate Spanish II
One unit semester course. The primary goal for this course is to increase students’ fluency in both spoken and written Spanish. The course continues the systematic review of Spanish grammar begun in Spanish 211, yet places more emphasis on the spoken and written analysis of literary and cultural texts from the Spanish-speaking world. Students who complete Spanish 212 will acquire the necessary fluency to take advanced literature or film classes in Spanish, or to study abroad in a Spanish-speaking country. Pre-requisite: Spanish 211 or placement by examination. Conference.
SPAN 361: Decentering the Human
One unit semester course. This course provides an introduction to what has been called the nonhuman turn, an umbrella term that refers to various schools of thought (such as posthumanism, critical race theory, animal studies, new and vital materialism, object-oriented ontology, and affect theory) that call for an integral redefinition of the human and thus question, critique, and/or move beyond human exceptionalism and the ontological dualities (nature/culture, human/nonhuman, mind/body, self/other, subject/object, etc.) that constitute it. The course combines interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives with a focus on how the relation between humans, nonhumans, and the environment has been represented, questioned, and problematized in cultural productions from the Hispanic world. The course ultimately asks students to think critically about what it means to be human today, if, that is, we have indeed ever been human. Conducted in English. Students taking the course for literature credit will read cultural texts in translation and write in English. Students taking the course for Spanish credit will read cultural texts and write essays in Spanish. Prerequisite for Spanish credit: Spanish 321 or consent of the instructor. Conference. Cross-listed as Literature 361
SPAN 366 Federico García Lorca: Theater and Poetry
One unit semester course. When Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) was assassinated by Nationalist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, he was already, at age 38, an internationally recognized author, highly admired within Spain and abroad. This course examines Lorca’s creative output, focusing mainly on his theater and poetry but also considering his visual art and work as director of “La Barraca,” a travelling theater company whose mission was to bring theater to rural areas. In our study of the author’s work, from Andalusian “folklore” poetry and early dramatic farces, to avant-garde works influenced by surrealism and cubism, to his trilogy of tragedies focusing on existential problems confronting women in rural Spain, we will examine how Lorca engages with artists like Salvador Dalí, film director Luis Buñuel, composer Manuel de Falla, and the critical debates of the early twentieth century. We will also consider theories of artistic practice like “duende” (in this context, artistic emotion) or the “cante jondo” (Andalusian “deep song” that is incorporated into flamenco music) that Lorca presents in published lectures and essays. Readings may include selected poems from the Romancero gitano, Poeta en Nueva York, and Divan de Tamarit, and the dramas Mariana Pineda, La zapatera prodigiosa, Bodas de sangre, Yerma, La casa de Bernarda Alba, El público. Prerequisite: Spanish 321 or consent of the instructor. Conference.
SPAN 372 Documentary Resistance in Latin America and Spain
One unit semester course. What makes a documentary a form of resistance? What defines this genre or mode? What elements and techniques characterize these documentary films? The course focuses on documentary films from Latin America and Spain that represent struggles for social justice and function as a cultural form of protest and resistance. By discussing the films in their historical and political contexts, the course examines the strategies, genres, and techniques that filmmakers use to address and participate in social change, as well as ethical and aesthetic questions about representation and production. We will watch and discuss films by Patricio Guzmán (Chile), Fernando Solanas (Argentina), Mario Handler (Uruguay), Lourdes Portillo (Mexico), Claudia Llosa (Peru), and Xapo Ortega and Xavier Artigas (Spain), among others. Prerequisite for Spanish credit: Spanish 321 or consent of the instructor. Conference. Cross-listed as Literature 372.
Spanish 470 - Thesis
Two-unit yearlong course; one unit per semester.
Spanish 481 - Independent Reading
Variable (one-half or one)-unit semester course. Prerequisite: approval of instructor and division.