Courses in
Latin(o), Latin American, Hispanic, and Caribbean Studies
[Under Construction]
Offered in 2004-05 academic year
General Course List
I. Language Courses (Offered Every Year)
101. Elementary Spanish 5 hours
5HU, CD
First and Second Semester. Taught in Spanish. Strong emphasis on communicative
tasks to show students how Spanish is used across the Spanish-speaking world
in real-life situations. Culture is an important thread that is tightly woven
throughout the course. Basic grammar and vocabulary will be introduced and practiced
through intensive oral and written practice. Weekly compositions and meetings
with language tutors. Enrollment Limit: 20.
Ms. Faber, Staff
102. Elementary Spanish 5 hours
5HU, CD
First and Second Semester. Taught in Spanish, this course is a continuation
of SPAN 101, complemented by additional readings to enhance written and oral
skills. Grammar will continue to be introduced through more intensive oral and
written practice. Students with any previous knowledge of Spanish other than
from Oberlin College must first take the placement exam before enrolling in
this course. Enrollment Limit: 20.
Ms. Martínez-Tapia
202. Intermediate Spanish I 4 hours
4HU, CD
First and Second Semester. Taught in Spanish. This course is a continuation
of SPAN 102. It adopts a format integrating grammar, oral and written practice
in exercises, conversation and readings which evolve within a cultural context.
Students have to attend two mandatory conversation classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays
which meet 9:00-9:50 Semester 1 and 10:00-10:50 or 11:00-11:50 Semester 2. Prerequisite:
SPAN 102 or consent of instructor. Enrollment Limit: 20.
Mr. Faber
203. Intermediate Spanish II 4 hours
4HU, CD
First and Second Semester. This course is a continuation of SPAN 202. It adopts
a format integrating grammar, oral and written practice in
exercises, conversation and readings which evolve within a cultural context.
Students planning to take this course have to attend two mandatory review and
lab classes Tuesdays and Thursdays. Review and lab classes meet the following
hours: (T. and Th.) 9:00- 9:50, 10:00-10:50 and 11:00-11:50. Prerequisites:
SPAN 202 or consent of instructor. Enrollment Limit: 20.
Mr. Pérez de León
204. Intensive Intermediate Spanish 5 hours
5HU, CD
First Semester. Taught in Spanish. This course is a continuation of SPAN 102
or 103 that covers all of the material of SPAN 202 and 203 in a single semester,
and presumes a greater commitment from the student. Meeting five times a week,
the course adopts a format integrating grammar, oral and written practice in
exercises, conversations, and readings which evolve within a cultural context.
Students will have to attend two mandatory conversation classes, meeting [etc.]
Mr. O'Connor
304. Advanced Grammar and Composition 3 hours
3HU, CD
First and Second Semester. It is strongly recommended that students complete
SPAN 203 or equivalent before taking this course which offers an in-depth review
of Spanish grammar and the opportunity to study closely the different steps
involved in the writing process. Students will develop and improve their writing
skills by practicing descriptive, narrative, argumentative and expository writing
in Spanish. Enrollment Limit: 18.
Ms. Martínez-Marco
305. Spanish for Oral Communication 3 hours
3HU, CD
Second semester. This course's target is the development of speaking skills
in Spanish through the study of Spanish/Hispanic culture, and Spanish and Spanish-American
current affairs. The materials used in the course will include contemporary
articles, short texts, TV news, documentaries, and Web materials. Special attention
will be given to different registers of spoken Spanish, and the development
of effective strategies for oral communication. Prerequisite: 203 or appropriate
placement test score. Enrollment Limit: 18
Ms. Matínez-Marco
311. Linguistics for Language Students 3 hours
3HU, CD
Second Semester. This course addresses the questions of what human language
is and what it means to know a language. Of central concern is how the scientific
study of language helps to reveal the unconscious knowledge that enables speakers
to understand their language and use it creatively. The class will touch briefly
on each of the primary linguistic fields while covering in detail the theory
and practice of Second Language Acquisition (SLA). Taught in English. Enrollment
Limit: 25.
Ms. Faber
334. Spanish for Heritage Speakers 3 hours
3HU, CD
First Semester. Were you raised speaking Spanish but never studied it formally?
This course is designed for students of Hispanic background, who speak Spanish
at home and want to improve their formal knowledge of the language. The course
addresses all four skills - understanding, speaking, reading and writing - but
aims especially to expand vocabulary, correct common grammatical mistakes, and
give students writing proficiency. No instructor consent required but you must
be a "heritage" speaker. Conducted in Spanish. Enrollment Limit: 12.
Ms. Cara
II. Survey Courses
309. Survey of Spanish Literature I: Humor and Horror 3 hours
3HU, CD
First semester. This course is a survey of some of the most representative works
that have shaped the canon of Early Modern Literature in Spanish. Special attention
will be paid to Humor and Horror as two topics that are part of Hispanic literature
from its origins. Novels and short stories to be read include Lazarillo de Tormes,
Don Quijote, Cervantes and Zayas´ Exemplary Novels, La Celestina and Noches
Lúgubres. The frame of the course will be established through different
theoretical approaches to humor and laughter, and a study
in-depth study of horror - a generic term that will include fantasy, witchcraft,
necrophilia, etc. Offered every year. Enrollment Limit: 20.
Mr. Pérez de León
310. Survey of Spanish Literature II: The Struggle for Modernity 3 hours
3HU, CD
Second Semester. Progressive Spanish writers and intellectuals have consistently
felt out of place in Spain, whose traditional power structures for centuries
resisted the advent of modernity. Still, Spaniards managed to produce texts,
images and films of astounding quality and innovation. This course studies a
selection of outstanding Spanish plays, novels, poems, and short stories from
the late eighteenth century to the present. Authors studied include García
Lorca, Sender, Bécquer, Moratín, Pérez Galdós, Rosalía
de Castro, Gómez de Avellaneda, Unamuno, Larra, García Morales,
and others. Taught in Spanish. Enrollment Limit: 20.
Mr. Faber
317. Survey of Latin American Literature I: Defining Latin America 3 hours
3HU, CD
Second Semester. After Columbus' discovery of America a "new world"
emerged. This course looks at the early writings from the colonies by both Spaniards
and "Americans" and traces through the following centuries the emergence
of new regional and national literatures. Although broad in scope, the course
focuses on three key questions: How did Latin America differentiate itself culturally
from Europe? What characterizes a New World criollo tradition? How are national
literary canons constructed during the period of independence? Conducted in
Spanish. Offered every year. Enrollment Limit: 20.
Ms. Cara
318. Survey of Latin American Literature II: Nature vs. Culture 3 hours
3HU, CD
First Semester. This course reviews the key literary and cultural movements
of Latin America from 19th C. Modernismo to present-day poetry, essay, narrative
and drama. Texts are selected to focus on natural environments that are considered
"typical" or "national" in a given period (e.g. the tropical
forest, the pampa, the island, etc.), and also on the cultural discourses that
are developed to represent them. Authors include Darío, Quiroga, Vallejo,
Guillén, Paz, Neruda, Ferré, Paz. Taught in Spanish. Enrollment
Limit: 20.
Mr. Scholz.
III. Freshman/Sophomore Colloquia and 300-level
306. Colloquium: Literary Commentary of Hispanic Texts 3 hours
3HU, CD
First Semester. This course is about the main ideas and literary currents that
have contributed to create the field of Hispanic Studies. Students will closely
read Hispanic poems, short stories, essays, and plays and watch films by authors
like Almodóvar, Neruda, Borges, Cervantes, etc. Learning different research
techniques and current literary theories is central to the course as well as
learning how to write literary essays in Spanish. This colloquium is designed
particularly for freshmen and sophomores and serves as a bridge to the upper
level courses of the Hispanic Studies Department.Offered every year. Enrollment
Limit: 15.
Mr. Pérez de León
312. Latino and Latin American Folklore 3 hours
3HU
First Semester. Conducted in English, this course examines the traditional,
expressive dimensions of culture to gain a greater understanding of Latin America.
Folklore methods and theories are employed in the study of, for example, folk
music, dance, drama, foodways, carnival, belief systems, art and dress. Examples
are drawn from various regions, including the Caribbean and the United States.
Slides, videotapes, and recordings support the readings. Knowledge of Spanish
is desirable but not required. Identical to ANTH 253. Enrollment Limit: 25
Ms. Cara
322. Visions of Mexican Women 3 hours
3HU, CD
Second semester. Mexico's colorful twentieth century of Revolution, murals,
mass media, and magical realism is threaded through with the works of great
women writers and artists, dealing with the reality of machismo and some of
the ghosts of men's images of them. After a backward glance to icons of Colonial
women, we jump to: stories by Mexican women of the Revolution; the artwork of
the women of Mexico's 1930s and '40s; film star in the Golden Age of Mexican
cinema; indigenism, feminism, and political activism in the '60s and '70s; and,
in contemporary fiction and film, realism, both magical and ironic. Conducted
in Spanish. Entollment Limit: 20.
Mr. O'Connor
323. Return to Macondo: García Márquez's fiction ??
1HU, CD
First semester, first module. Welcome to our trip to Macondo! To get there first
we will review a few short stories, essays, and a short novel by Gabriel García
Márquez. Then we will enter the world of Macondo, the setting of this
Colombian writer's Nobel-winning novel, Cien años de soledad. All reading
and writing in Spanish. Enrollment limit: ??
Mr. Scholz
324. 400 Years of Don Qujiote 3 hours
3HU, CD
Second Semester. This course is a close reading of Don Quijote and a reevaluation
of the novel, 400 years after its publication. Students will learn about its
literary and historical context and of its main critical approaches. In this
course you will enjoy reading one of the most beautiful, imaginative and creative
works of art of all times. Enrollment limit: 20
Mr. Pérez de León
328. From Page to Screen: Cinematic Adaptation in Latin America 3 hours
3HU, CD
First Semester. Conducted in Spanish. We know that a novel is different from
a movie: now let's take a close look how. This course will examine a series
of film adaptations of diverse genres of Latin American literature -a true-crime
novel, a play, two novellas, conquistador's tales - that will compare the techniques
of film theory and close readings in literature. The films studied will be:
García Márquez/Guerra, Eréndira; Cabeza de Vaca/Echevarría,
Cabeza de Vaca; Donoso/Ripstein, El lugar sin límites; Berman/Berman,
Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda; and Piglia/Belinsky, Plata quemada.
Enrollment Limit: ??
Mr. O'Connor
IV. Advanced Courses
406 Nobel Poets of Latin America 3 hours
3HU
Second Semester: An in-depth study of three Nobel laureates from Latin America:
Gabriela Mistral (Chile), Pablo Neruda (Chile) and Octavio Paz (Mexico). This
seminar-style course examines the art and lives of these twentieth century figures
and the literary contexts and impact of their work on Hispanic letters. Conducted
in Spanish. Enrollment Limit: 15.
430. New Narrative in Latin America 3 hours
3HU
First semester. This course studies the major trends of recent Latin American
fiction within the general framework of the New Narrative („the boom").
Five outstanding - and by now canonized - novels and twelve short stories form
the core texts for class discussion. Authors include Vargas Llosa, Rulfo, Carpentier,
Arguedas, Asturias, Fuentes, Onetti, Donoso., among others. Emphasis is given
to the analysis of major themes, formal and stylistic innovations, and also
to the contemporary socio-historical circumstances as represented in fiction.
Enrollment Limit:
Mr. Scholz
445. Crime, Sex and Ghosts of the Past: Contemporary Spanish Fiction and Film
3 hours
3 HU
First semester. Spain's transition to democracy following Franco's death in
1975 was characterized by two contradictory phenomena: a sudden moral, sexual,
and political liberation, and a collective "pact of oblivion" that
indefinitely postponed any reckoning with the dictatorial past. This course
studies the film and fiction of post-Franco Spain, rife with sex and crime but
also haunted by the ghosts of history. Includes works by Martín Gaite,
Vázquez Montalbán, Llamazares, Almodóvar, Medem, and Saura.
Taught in Spanish. Enrollment Limit: 15
Mr. Faber
452. After Boom and Bust: Latin American Narrative Since 1987 3 hours
3HU, CD
Second semester. The great period of the Boom novelists came to an end, some
say, with the return of the dictatorships in the mid-70s. What happens after
the fall of those same dictatorships, roughly since 1987? This course surveys
narrative after both boom and bust, suggesting various directions: a) the twilight
of the Boom novelists (García Márquez); b) the feminist revision
of traditional genres (Mastretta); c) the long-term effects of the dictatorships,
either in exile (Valenzuela) or at home (Piglia); d) the politics of sex and
nostalgia in Cuba's período especial (Estévez); e) the "postmodern",
either in indigenous politics (Subcomandante Marcos) or gender-bending slapstick
(Aira). Conducted in Spanish. Enrollment Limit: ??
Mr. O'Connor.
HIST 109. Latin American History: Conquest and Colony 3 hours
3SS, CD
First Semester. An introductory survey of Latin American history centering on
the imposition, maintenance, and decline of Spanish and Portuguese colonial
rule in Latin America. Emphasis is placed on understanding pre-conquest native
societies, the material and cultural basis of colonialism, the complex human
mosaic fashioned in colonial Latin America after 1492, issues of gender in preconquest
and colonial Latin America, and the nature and development of resistance within
the colonial world. Enrollment Limit: 60.
Mr. Volk
MWF 9:00-9:50
HIST 110. Latin American History: State and Nation Since Independence 3 hours
3SS, CD
Second Semester. This course provides an introductory survey of Latin American
history from the wars of independence in the early 19th century to the independent
nations' struggle to cope with the monumental issues of political legitimacy,
economic growth, and social order throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Particular
emphasis will be placed on understanding the material, political, class, cultural,
and gender structures which shaped Latin America's independent states. Enrollment
Limit: 60.
Mr. Volk
MWF 9:00-9:50
HIST 293. Dirty Wars and Democracy 3 hours
3SS, CD, WR
First Semester. An exploration of the dictatorships of Chile, Brazil, Argentina,
and Uruguay in the 1970s and 1980s. We will examine why these regimes arose,
the nature of the dictatorial state, the opposition to, and fall of, the regimes,
and the difficulties of returning to some form of democratic governance. A wide
variety of cross-disciplinary methodologies will be employed, from psychology
to performance theory. Lecture and discussion format. Recommended preparation:
HIST 110. Enrollment Limit: 40.
Mr. Volk
TTh 9:35-10:50
HIST 294. The United States and Latin America 3 hours
3SS, CD, WR (Next offered 2006-07)
HIST 312. Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge 3 hours
3SS, WR
Second Semester. Every museum is a narrative, every visit to a museum a chance
to explore the ways that narrative shapes and reflects how we think about the
past and the present, underlying ideologies that represent or challenge dominant
thought, assumptions about how we learn. This course is intended for students
interested in the way we look at and "conserve" the past via the organization
of material culture, and in how museum design and practice reflects contemporary
epistemology, ethnography, nationalism, and colonialism. Consent of instructor
required. Enrollment Limit: 12.
Mr. Volk
W 7:00-9:00PM
First Year Seminar Program
FYSP 175. How Images Matter: Latin America through U.S. Eyes 3 hours
3SS, CD, WRi (Next offered 2006-07)
HIST 361. The Mexican Revolution: Birth, Life, Death 3 hours
3SS, CD, WR
First Semester. No revolution in Latin American history has been more widely
studied than the Mexican. Yet after more than 80 years of research, scholars
still debate whether there ever was a revolution in Mexico. The seminar will
focus on the life cycle of the Mexican Revolution, exploring its origins, institutionalization,
and (according to some), its demise. Our sources will encompass a rich history,
which has exploded in the last 15 years, as well as novels and art works. Classes
will be organized and discussions led by students. The course will also have
a major research component. Consent of instructor required. Enrollment limit:
15.
Mr. Volk
W 7:00-9:00 PM