[Classical and Romance Languages and Literatures]

Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the Americas, without even including ten percent of the United States population. It is also spoken in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, Israel, and the Philippines. The major in Spanish develops not only students' language skills, but also the exercise of critical thinking around subjects related to the culture, literatures, art, and history of the Spanish-speaking peoples of all continents. Reading, discussing, and writing in Spanish are the principal activity of the major. Spanish majors are strongly encouraged to spend a year or a semester living and studying in a Spanish-speaking country. The established cultural, political, and economic ties among all nations of the American continents underscore the importance of this major. Students interested in graduate studies in Spanish or Latin American studies, or in business, medicine, law, or international relations, are encouraged to develop advanced proficiency in Spanish.

Cross-listed Courses. Note that unless otherwise specified, when a department/program references a course or unit in the department/program, it includes courses and units cross-listed with the department/program.

Major Requirements. Spanish majors acquire a broad knowledge of the different literatures and cultural histories of the Spanish-speaking peoples. In consultation with the faculty in Spanish, the student elects courses in a variety of areas. The requirements for the major consist of ten courses beyond the intermediate level, which must include:

1) At least two out of the following: Spanish 211, 215, and 216.

2) One course to be taken outside of the Spanish program previously approved by the faculty in Spanish. This course may be chosen from a number of options from literary theory to history or politics of Latin America (e.g., English 295, Anthropology 234, History 181, Political Science 249, or a research methods course in areas such as women's and gender studies, African American studies, or American cultural studies).

3) At least two seminars on the literatures or cultural histories of Spain or Latin America (300-level) taught by Bates faculty-usually during senior year.

In addition, majors must complete a senior thesis (Spanish 457 or 458) written in Spanish. This may be a literary or cultural analysis of any topic related to the Hispanic world or a translation accompanied by a theoretical introduction. An analytical component must always be included, even in the case of projects with a strong creative emphasis. Honors candidates register for Spanish 457 and 458.

Pass/Fail Grading Option. There are no restrictions on the use of the pass/fail option within the major or secondary concentration.

Courses

SPAN 101-102. Elementary Spanish I and II. Emphasis is placed on oral proficiency with pronunciation exercises and conversational practice and the development of reading and writing skills. The course includes drill in the essential constructions and basic vocabulary of Spanish, complemented by short films, and cultural presentations. Spanish 101 and 102 are not open to students with two or more years of Spanish in secondary school. Enrollment limited to 22 per section. Normally offered every year. D. George, B. Fra-Molinero, F. López.

SPAN 201. Intermediate Spanish I. Designed to increase students' vocabulary and to improve mastery of language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. The course provides a thorough review of grammar as well as an emphasis on conversational proficiency, expository writing, and Hispanic culture. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 102. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 22 per section. Normally offered every year. F. Fahey, C. Aburto Guzmán.

SPAN 202. Intermediate Spanish II. Intensive practice in reading, composition, and conversation, as well as attention to selected grammar problems. The course focuses on discussion through visual presentations and selections of Hispanic literature, art, and culture. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 201. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 22 per section. Normally offered every year. B. Fra-Molinero, C. Aburto Guzmán.

SPAN 207. Advanced Spanish: Culture and Language. This course develops oral fluency and aural acuity as well as reading and writing skills by means of directed and spontaneous classroom activities and regular written assignments. Conversations and compositions are based primarily on readings and films. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 202. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20 per section. Normally offered every year. F. López, Staff.

SPAN 208. Advanced Spanish: Texts and Contexts. This course is a continuation of Spanish 207 with particular emphasis upon analyzing a variety of texts and developing more sophistication in writing. Conversations and compositions are based on both literary and cultural readings. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 202. Recommended background: Spanish 207. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20 per section. Normally offered every year. D. George, B. Fra-Molinero.

SPAN 211. Introducción a los estudios literarios. This course acquaints students of Spanish and Latin American literatures with fundamental concepts in literary genres, historical periods, and rhetorical figures, both traditional and contemporary. The course also maps a basic view of recent critical approaches to the study of literature, film, and television in the Spanish-speaking world. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 207 or 208. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. B. Fra-Molinero.

SPAN 215. Readings in Spanish American Literature. A survey of representative Spanish American literary texts. Major emphasis is on reading and discussing texts that relate to specific problems of literary form (such as poetry, theater, and novel), literary movements, and literary periodization. The topics are also discussed in their sociocultural contexts. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 208. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. F. Fahey.

SPAN 216. Readings in Peninsular Spanish Literature. A survey of representative peninsular Spanish texts. Major emphasis is on reading and discussing texts that relate to specific problems of literary form (such as poetry, theater, and novel), literary movements, and literary periodization. The topics are also discussed in their sociocultural contexts. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 208. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. F. López.

SPAN 225. Diaspora: Identity and Culture. Until recently the term "diaspora" has been used to identify the expulsion and displacement of particular ethnic, political, and religious groups from their homeland. Today the term "diaspora" has been amplified to explore mass migrations of various groups throughout the world caused by global economic changes. In this course students examine how Latin American literary texts reflect on the various experiences caused by the conditions of diaspora. Specifically, students analyze how literary texts articulate feelings of being "at home," a sense of national affiliation, the initial trauma of exile, ongoing displacement, nostalgia, and the reconstruction of identity in a new setting. At the same time, they examine how the new identities formulated in these texts expand beyond and so complicate national identities. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215 or 216. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every other year. F. Fahey.

SPAN 240. Loco amor/buen amor. In this course students study different ways of representing the passion of love, from the love of God to loving someone of the same sex. Spanish cities in the Middle Ages and San Francisco, California, are some settings where idealized as well as forbidden forms of love take place in the texts of the Arcipreste de Hita, La Celestina, and gay Mexican American poets. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215 or 216. Normally offered every other year. B. Fra-Molinero.

SP/TH 241. Spanish Theater of the Golden Age. This course focuses on the study of Spanish classical drama of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Reading and critical analysis of selected dramatic works by Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Calderón de la Barca, Miguel de Cervantes, Ana Caro, María de Zayas, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, among others, offer an insight into the totality of the dramatic spectacle of Spanish society during its imperial century. Prerequisite(s) or Corequisite(s): Spanish 215 or 216. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20. Not open to students who have received credit for Spanish 241 or Theater 241. Normally offered every other year. B. Fra-Molinero.

SPAN 242. Advanced Grammar and Stylistics. An intensive grammar review, with emphasis on written exercises, translation, oral drills, and grammatical analysis of literary texts. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 202. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. F. López.

SPAN 245. Social Justice in Hispanic Literature. At different times and in different countries, many Hispanic writers have felt compelled to create works (essays, novels, poetry, short stories, plays) that confront various types of social injustice. These range from the effects of imperialism to political repression, and often include issues of race, sexuality, gender, and class. In this course students analyze such texts within their respective social, political, and historical contexts. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215 or 216. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 25. Offered with varying frequency. F. López.

SPAN 247. Latin American Travel Fiction. Throughout the twentieth century, Latin American literature has been continuously enriched by fictions of travel. These fictions relate disparate stories of movement and encounter, yet time and again they have been used to make a place out of space, or in other words, to imagine community through fictionalized explorations of the nation or a broader region. This course examines how twentieth-century Latin American authors map individual and cultural identities in fictions of travel. Textual analyses center on questions of gender, ethnicity, race, and class paying particular attention to the way the traveler defines place, the "self," and the "other." Offered with varying frequency. F. Fahey.

SPAN 248. Encuentros Y Confrontaciones: Representaciones De Otreadad. This course undertakes a panoramic study of Latin American literature from pre-Conquest indigenous literature to contemporary literature. As a way of reading across five hundred years of literary production, this course studies how, since its origins, Latin American literature has narrated a struggle to come to terms with identity, difference, and cultural conflict. Drawing on philosophical, feminist, psychoanalytical, and postcolonial models of the Other, students interrogate the concept of otherness as a Western category for understanding broader geo-cultural forms of human experience. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 208 and 211. F. Fahey. New course beginning Fall 2003.

SPAN 250. The Latin American Short Story. A study of the short story as a genre in Latin America. Attention is given to the genre's definition and to the different trajectories and currents in its development. Students read major works as well as those by less known writers. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215 or 216. Open to first-year students. Normally offered every year. C. Aburto Guzmán.

SPAN 251. Inventing New Worlds. Writing in the American continents after Columbus was a cultural process marked by the creation of a new language. Spanish in these continents became a vehicle to express a radical difference. European literary genres were tested against a reality that resisted previous European categories. Columbus spoke of paradise, Las Casas denounced genocide, Garcilaso wrote about his Inca ancestors, and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz defended women's right to knowledge. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215 or 216. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. B. Fra-Molinero.

INDS 260. U.S. Latina/Chicana Writings. This course rests on two conceptual underpinnings: Gloria Anzaldua's Neueva Mestiza", and the more recent "U.S. Pan-latinidad" postulated by the Latina Feminist Group. The literary and theoretical production of Chicanas and Latinas is examined through those lenses. Particular attention is given to developing a working knowledge of the key historical and cultural discourses engaged by these writings, and the various contemporary United States Latina and Chicana positionalities vis à vis popular ethnic representations. The course also examines the function given to marketable cultural productions depending on the different agents involved. Open to first-year students. Cross-listed in American Cultural Studies, Spanish, and Women and Gender Studies. C. Aburto Guzmán. New course beginning Fall 2003.

SPAN 262. Contemporary Spain. A study of Spanish history and political ideas from 1936 to the present, starting with historical information about the civil war and an analysis of the rhetoric of both sides. The Franco period is examined through texts of "high culture" (poetry, drama, and the novel) and "popular culture" (films, songs, and newspaper clippings) that express supposedly opposing ideologies. Similar texts are used to explore the transition from dictatorship to democracy and the new and old problems that Spain has faced since the late 1970s. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215 or 216. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. F. López.

SPAN 264. Mexican Women Writers. This course examines the literature of contemporary Mexican women. The texts are studied as cultural products, as well as subjective representations of difference. Special attention is given to the relation between literature and other cultural productions. Various literary genres are considered, including poetry, short stories, essays, and novels. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215 or 216. Normally offered every other year. C. Aburto Guzmán.

SPAN 266. Fantastic Hispanic Cinema. This course explores the genres of horror and fantasy in recent Spanish-language films by directors from Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Spain, and the United States. It considers how these works represent the supernatural, the diabolical, evil violence, fear, paranoia, and magic; create, perpetuate, and subvert categories of gender, class, race, and sexuality; and adapt and participate in key literary and cinematic genres such as the Gothic, parody, adventure, family drama, magical realism, and science fiction. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 208, 215, or 216. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20. Offered with varying frequency. D. George.

SPAN 268. Galdós and Spanish Society in the Nineteenth Century. This course introduces students to the writings of Benito Pérez Galdós (1843-1920) and his particular vision of late nineteenth-century Spain. Like Cervantes before him, Galdós was an acute observer of his times, and his novels, plays, and essays capture and respond to the social, political, and aesthetic concerns that defined Spanish society at the threshold of the twentieth century. Course readings take account of the variety of literary genres Galdós cultivated throughout his career and are engaged in light of such issues as gender, national identity, religion, history vs. fiction, and the social vs. aesthetic function of literary works of art. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215 or 216. Enrollment limited to 20. Offered with varying frequency. D. George.

SPAN 341. Cervantes. A careful reading and a comprehensive formal and thematic study of Don Quijote. Careful consideration is given to various pieces of Cervantine scholarship. Effects of Don Quijote on the genre of the novel are examined. Prerequisite(s): a 200-level literature course. Normally offered every other year. B. Fra-Molinero.

SPAN 342. Hybrid Cultures: Latin American Intersections. Latin America is a space of intersections where cultures meet and/or crash. Concepts and experiences used to define, locate, and represent these cultures to each other are continuously modified at the crossings. This course aims to take literary products (novels, essays, short stories, and films) as a cross-section of this phenomenon. Each chosen text identifies multiple oppositions that converge violently, merely scar the individual, or craft a new prism by which we can read the dynamics taking place in these intersections. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215, 216, or 200-level literature course. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 20. Normally offered every other year. C. Aburto Guzmán.

SPAN 343. Contemporary Latin American Literature. This seminar examines recent uses of realism (nuevo verismo, testimonio) and the fantastic in contemporary Latin American and U.S. Latino literature produced after "the boom." The course considers the diverse ways in which contemporary authors have responded to and departed from "the boom" as a canon and how their literature has been complicated by market forces and the influence of U.S. academic productions. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215 or another Latin American literature course. Enrollment is limited to 15. New course beginning Fall 2003.

SPAN 344. Contemporary Spanish Women Writers. In this course, students discuss the impact of "la Transición" (from dictatorship to democracy) on the psychological and social dimensions of womanhood by focusing on the detailed textual analysis of novels and short stories. Authors may include Rosa Montero, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Esther Tusquets, Consuelo García, Carmen Gómez Ojea, and Soledad Puértolas. Recommended background: a course in Spanish literature. Written permission of the instructor is required. Normally offered every other year. F. López.

SPAN 345. Twentieth-Century Spanish Drama. A study of the evolution of political ideas and social values in Spain in the twentieth century through an examination of several plays. Interconnected and parallel sociocultural realities are analyzed along with different dramatic tendencies: from "poetic" to social-realist to avant-garde theaters. Authors may include: Lorca, Mihura, Buero Vallejo, Sastre, Nieva, Martín Recuerda, and Arrabal. Prerequisite(s): a 200-level literature course in Spanish. Recommended background: Spanish 215 or 216. Offered with varying frequency. F. López.

SPAN 346. The Spanish American Essay: Nineteenth Century to the Present. The purpose of this course is to gain a working knowledge of Spanish American thought from a Spanish American perspective. The essay is one of the preferred methods used by intellectuals to expound upon the paradoxical characteristics of the Spanish American territory. The course is divided into three major periods: nineteenth-century foundational thought, the quest for identity, and cultural hybridity. Both canonical and noncanonical essays are examined to better understand how Spanish American intellectuals problematize their own reality, and how this reality intersects the world. Furthermore, the question "what is the role of the intellectual in society?" is both the underpinning and the driving force of this inquiry. Enrollment limited to 15. Normally offered every other year. C. Aburto Guzmán.

SPAN 353. Un curso de cine. Cinema in Latin America and Spain is more than ninety years old. Silent movies recorded the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Pornographic films were part of the private collection of King Alfonso XIII of Spain. Epic and intimate, cinema also has been a vehicle for women directors, creating challenges to dominant forms of seeing. This course introduces students to the art of cinema analysis and to some of its technical and critical vocabulary. Discussions focus on significant figures in Latin American and Spanish cinema: Dolores del Río, María Félix, Libertad Lamarque, Vicente Fernández, Mario Moreno, Fernando Rey, Luis Buñuel, Tomas Gutiérrez Alea, María Novaro, María Luisa Bemberg, Jiménez Leal, Pedro Almodóvar, and Francisco Lombardi. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 215 or 216. Open to first-year students. Offered with varying frequency. B. Fra-Molinero.

SPAN 360. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study per semester. Normally offered every semester. Staff.

SPAN 365. Special Topics. Designed for the small seminar group of students who may have particular interests in areas of study that go beyond the regular course offerings. Periodic conferences and papers are required. Written permission of the instructor is required. Staff.

SPAN 457, 458. Senior Thesis. Research leading to writing of the senior thesis. Students participate in a limited number of group meetings, plus individual conferences. Students register for Spanish 457 in the fall semester and for Spanish 458 in the winter semester. Majors writing an honors thesis register for both Spanish 457 and 458. A detailed outline and bibliography must be approved by the department. Normally offered every year. Staff.

Short Term Units

INDS s21. Writing a Black Environment. This unit studies the response of Black writers and intellectuals of the Spanish-speaking world to issues related to the natural environment. In countries and regions of Afro-Hispanic majority the presence of the oil industry has brought serious challenges to notions of economic progress, human rights, and national sovereignty, as well as individual and communal identity. Writers from Esmeraldas, Ecuador, and Equatorial Guinea chronicle the contradictory discourses present in their societies between modernity, tradition, the idea of progress, and the degradation of the ecosystem. Recommended background: Spanish 202. Cross-listed in African American studies, environmental studies, and Spanish. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 15. Not open to students who have received credit for African American Studies s21, Environmental Studies s21, or Spanish s21. Offered with varying frequency. B. Fra-Molinero.

SPAN s32. Medieval Spain: Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Spain developed three different literary traditions during the Middle Ages. The presence in the Iberian Peninsula of three different established religions-Christianity, Islam, and Judaism-gave rise to three distinctive intellectual communities and practices. Muslim philosophers and scientists developed knowledge in areas like medicine, optics, algebra, and chemistry. Jewish scholars gave shape to the Talmudic tradition. Christian Europe sent its theologians to discover Aristotle among the few who still could read Greek in Western Europe, the Arab and Jewish scholars of Córdoba and Toledo. Conducted in English. One section reads and discusses texts in Spanish. The second section is conducted in English. Prerequisite(s): Spanish 216. Open to first-year students. Enrollment limited to 30. Written permission of the instructor is required. Not open to students who have received credit for Religion s32. Offered with varying frequency. B. Fra-Molinero.

SPAN s50. Independent Study. Students, in consultation with a faculty advisor, individually design and plan a course of study or research not offered in the curriculum. Course work includes a reflective component, evaluation, and completion of an agreed-upon product. Sponsorship by a faculty member in the program/department, a course prospectus, and permission of the chair are required. Students may register for no more than one independent study during a Short Term. Normally offered every year. Staff.

[Classical and Romance Languages and Literatures]