Graduate Course Descriptions

Spanish 7400  Spanish Teaching Methodology

Focuses on the analysis of approaches and techniques for teaching Spanish as well as the effective design and implementation of best instructional practices for developing students’ proficiency. Examines the relationship between theory and research in second language acquisition ( SLA) and language teaching and learning. Analyzes the interrelated perspectives of language teaching and learning contexts, curriculum, instruction, assessment and evaluation, and professional development.

SPA 7410   Special Topics: XX/XXI Centuries Latin American Poetry

This course focuses on the Latin American avant-garde through Vicente Huidobro, César Vallejo, Jorge Luis Borges and Pablo Neruda; the turn to politically committed poetry in Neruda and Vallejo, and contemporary tendencies in Octavio Paz, Nicanor Parra, Rosario Castellanos, Ernesto Cardenal, Gonzalo Rojas, and more.

SPA 7410   Special Topics: Great Voices of Chilean Poetry

This course gives a summary vision of Chilean poetry of the 20th and 21st from the avant-garde continuing through the generations of 1937, 1950 and ending with postmodernist poetry. This course will favor a study of the breaks and innovations that were both a cause and a result of the changes in time periods.

SPA 7440  Spanish Short Narrative

Examines the development of the Spanish short story and short novel from its beginnings to present day against the backdrop of European historical, socio-cultural, theological philosophical and aesthetic currents, with greater emphasis on their fruition as independent genres in Spanish literary tradition of the XX and XXI centuries.

Spanish 7440   Special Topics: Multimedia in Second Language Acquisition

Examines contemporary theories and principles of second language acquisition (SLA) and multimedia learning in relation to the effective integration and assessment of new and emerging technologies for promoting students’ proficiency through authentic collaboration, communication, and creativity.

Spanish 7440   Special Topics: Introduction to Spanish Linguistics

Focuses on the study of Spanish linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, discourse analysis, history of the Spanish language, and sociolinguistics. Examines theoretical perspectives, research, and includes the analysis of data in each discipline.

Spanish 7440   Special Topics: Spanish Sociolinguistics

Examines theoretical foundations of sociolinguistic variation (dialectal, social, historical, dialect/language contact) in Spanish-speaking communities. Analyzes issues related to the use of Spanish in bilingual and multilingual settings. Provides an introduction to theoretical and methodological concepts of sociolinguistic research and to sociolinguistic variation in Spanish.

SPA 7440   A Mask Made of Words. First Person Narratives from Pre-Modern Times

Reading and study of a select group of first person narratives with special attention to subject formation and the relations between historicity and fiction. Texts selected range from Libro de buen amor (13th Century) to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (17th Century). Emphasis will be given to early autobiographies and picaresque novels.

SPA 7440  Spanish Theater of the XVIII/XIX Centuries

Examines the historical, political, socio-cultural, theological, philosophical and aesthetic currents in Europe on Spanish society and consciousness during the XVIII and XIX centuries and their expression through Spain’s foremost Neoclassical and Romantic playwrights.

SPA 7440 Women Voices in Latin America

Students will read and interpret texts written by Latin American women writers focusing in what we called the "Woman Question". Feminist theory as well as other critical approaches will be applied to the analysis of texts of all literary genres.
 

SPA 7440 Literature of the Hispanic Caribbean

A study of the major writers and works of the Hispanic Caribbean with special emphasis on Cuba and Puerto Rico. Readings of texts of all literary genres will be analyzed in depth and in their interrelation with the cultural context.
 

SPA 7450  Cultural Authority in Early Modern Spain

This seminar presents cultural approaches to books and reading. It is designed to familiarize students with key issues regarding the materiality of texts, their production, dissemination, circulation and consumption. Focusing on a wide selection of early modern textual productions, and not exclusively on what has been considered “literary texts,” considerable effort is given to presenting the texts in their original early-modern format, resorting to facsimiles, as well as microfilms from the sixteen and seventeen centuries. The seminar is conceived within a mentoring/teaching philosophy, whereby students acquire general reading and research skills, which they apply to specific topics and issues with my guidance. It is also aimed at introducing students to different approaches of doing research.

SPA 7451  Cervantine Spain

Through the reading to Cervantes’ writings and other cultural artifacts produced in early modern Spain, this seminar teaches how to “read” early modern texts, especially Cervantes’. Special attention is placed on the material culture of early modern Europe. The seminar also will focus on issues related to textual criticism. It discusses a variety of approaches to understanding key issues of early modern Spanish political, social and cultural life, through comprehending and assimilating certain rules --political, cultural, ideological, etc. -- which configure meaning in early modern discourse.
 

SPA 7457  Spanish Comedia and Baroque Social Order

This seminar is designed to familiarize students with key literary early modern issues, especially the social, political and ideological developments of Early Modern Spain, through the study of the social history of texts. It explores in panoramic ways a variety of cultural issues related to the practices of writing and reading such as: the idea of an author, the manuscript culture, print revolutions, editorial genre versus textual genre, graffiti, play texts, chapbooks, emblems and hieroglyphs, organizing knowledge in commonplace books, ceremonial displays of texts, etc. The seminar will enhance students’ critical thinking skills and their abilities to conduct cultural analysis.

SPA 7470  Poetics in Early Modern Spain

Examines the impact of historical, political, socio-cultural, theological, philosophical and aesthetic currents in Europe on Spanish society and consciousness of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and their expression through the works of Spain’s foremost poets.

SPA 7491  Spanish Stage of the XX/XXI Centuries

Examines the impact of historical, political, socio-cultural, theological, philosophical and aesthetic currents in Europe on Spanish society and consciousness from the beginning of the twentieth century to present day and their expression through Spain’s foremost playwrights.

SPA 7492   New Readings in Spanish Modernism

This course examines the artistic and literary movement in its complexity and studies the main modernist authors of Spain: Ganivet, Unamuno, Valle-Inclán, Antonio y Manuel Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Ortega y Gasset, Azorín y Pío Baroja. In the seminar we analyze an early and late work of each author to show their development and the changes that took place during this period, known as the Silver Age of Spain.

SPA 7493   Poetic Voices of Spain of the XX/XXI Centuries

Examines the impact of historical, political, socio-cultural, theological, philosophical and aesthetic currents in Europe on Spanish society and consciousness from the beginning of the twentieth century to present day and their expression through Spain’s foremost poets.

SPA 7494   Spanish Exile and the Arts

Examines internal and external exile in Spain through works of national and international artists against the initial impact of the Spanish Civil war and its evolving impact on Spanish consciousness to present day.

Spanish 7502   Spanish Applied Linguistics

Analyzes contemporary theory, research, and practice surrounding the acquisition and use of Spanish in bilingual and multilingual settings.

SPA 8510   The Dream of Reason: The Romantic Period Revisited

This graduate seminar studies the romantic period in Spain vis a vis Europe to examine how it evolved hand in hand with other European Countries. The major authors of this period are presented, beginning with Cadalso, and ending with Bécquer and Rosalía de Castro, two authors that led the way to modernism.

SPA 8580   Between History and Literature: The Spanish Historical Novel

The contemporary historical novel is analyzed and the many forms in which it presents itself are also studied. We will read novels whose approach to history are totally different and sometimes contradictory to show the complexities that history and literature are dealing with in postmodern times.

SPA 8598   Faces of Modernity

The different artistic movements that shape the XX Century in the Western World are studied, emphasizing primarily works from the Spanish tradition. Literature, Film, and the Arts are examined to show the meaning and scope of modernism, the avant-garde and postmodernism.

SPA 8599    Post-Modernity and the Spanish Novel

This graduate seminar analyzes different types of narrative from Spain to show the variety of forms and styles that compose the rich and exciting world of postmodernism.

SPA 9580  Denunciation & Utopia. Latin American Colonial Historiography in Context

This seminar deals with reading and discussion of Latin American colonial historiography (i.e. Crónicas de Indias). During the semester representative texts of the field will be read and discussed considering their historical, political and cultural contexts of production and reception.

SPA 9582   XX/XXI Centuries Latin American Novel

This course will study a selection of novels by some of the most important Latin American writers from the 1950s to the current days: Los Pasos Perdidos by Alejo Carpentier, Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo, Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez, La Ciudad y los Perros by Mario Vargas Llosa, La Desesperanza by José Donoso, and La Casa de los Espíritus by Isabel Allende, and more. Along with exploring the details of each novel in depth, students will examine and question the critical concepts often applied to this era of literary production: the Boom, the post-Boom, magic realism, testimony, etc.

SPA 9584 Spanish American Short Story

Study ot the origins, development and maturity of the short story in Spanish America. Readings include Edgar Allan Poe, Horacio Quiroga, Julio Cortazar, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Rosario Ferre, Isabel Allende and others.

SPA 9588 Spanish American Theatre

Study of contemporary Spanish American theater through the analysis of the historical, sociological and literary aspects of works from various leading dramatists such as Florencio Sanchez, Conrado Nale-Roxlo, Rodolfo Usigli, Xavier Villaurrutia, Virgilio Pinera, Jorge Diaz, Jose Triana, Rene Marques and others.