HISP 0100. Basic Spanish.

This fast-paced beginning course provides a solid foundation in the development of communicative skills in Spanish (speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing) as well as some insight on the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. Individual work outside of class prepares students for in-class activities focused on authentic communication. Placement: students who have never taken Spanish before, or have scored below 390 in SAT II, or below 240 in the Brown Placement Exam. Students who have taken Spanish before and those with an AP score of 3 or below must take the Brown Placement Exam. Students should check Placement and Course Description in the Undergraduate Program section of the Hispanic Studies Website. Enrollment limited to 15; 12 spaces are available for students during pre-registration. 3 spaces will be available at the start of the semester for incoming or re-admitted students who should attend the first class. Pre-enrolled students must attend the first four days of class to maintain their pre-registered status and notify the instructor in advance if they must miss any day before the 4th class when the composition of the course section is finalized.

HISP 0110. Intensive Basic Spanish.

This course is a highly intensive, two-semester sequence in one that carries double credit. Primarily for students with some knowledge of Spanish who have scored below 450 in SATII or below 340 in Brown Placement Exam. Students with little or no preparation in Spanish should consult with the Course Supervisor. The course seeks to engage students with a contemporary view of Hispanic cultures through a variety of texts, topics, and themes; it seeks to integrate grammar, vocabulary, and discourse work to support the development of communication in all the modalities. It offers an inclusive perspective on learning and embraces diversity of identities and communities in the Hispanic world. Students learn to use language in interdisciplinary scenarios that help them connect to their academic and life experiences, thus gradually developing their linguistic, communicative, academic, and multicultural competencies as well as professional skills. Ideal for students interested in fast-tracking their language learning to meet study abroad requirements. Enrollment limited to 15. Pre-registered students must attend the first two days of class to maintain their pre-registered status and notify the instructor in advance if they must miss any day before the 2nd class when the composition of the course section is finalized.

HISP 0200. Basic Spanish.

A continuation of HISP 0100. This course continues to focus on acquisition of communicative skills (speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing) as well as cultural awareness. With successful completion of the course students will be able to understand simple texts, carry on short spontaneous conversations involving everyday topics (such as modern day life and its pressures, health, art and culture, nature and the environment, relationships) and write simple texts with good command of grammar and sentence structure. Prerequisite: HISP 0100 or placement: SAT II scores between 400 and 450; Brown Placement Exam scores between 241 and 340. Students with an AP score of 3 or below must take the Brown Placement Exam. Students should check Placement and Course Description in the Undergraduate Program section of the Hispanic Studies Website. Enrollment limited to 15; 12 spaces are available for students during pre-registration. 3 spaces will be available at the start of the semester for incoming or re-admitted students who should attend the first class. Pre-enrolled students must attend the first four days of class to maintain their pre-registered status and notify the instructor in advance if they must miss any day before the 4th class when the composition of the course section is finalized.

HISP 0300. Intermediate Spanish I.

This course involves about 14-15 hours of work/week). It carries on the work initiated in HISP0110-100-200 to develop and strengthen students' linguistic, communicative, academic, and multicultural competencies. It continues to focus on the integration of grammar, vocabulary, and discourse work to advance competence and proficiency in Spanish and to support further development of communication in all the modalities. This course is framed by an inclusive perspective on learning and embraces diverse identities and communities in the Hispanic World. It fosters a community of learning among students and offers a variety of texts, themes, and topics related to students’ academic and life experiences that also help them develop professional skills. Enrollment is limited to 12. Pre-enrolled students must attend the first four days of class to maintain their pre-registered status and notify the instructor in advance if they must miss any day before the 4th class when the composition of the course section is finalized.

Pre-requisite: students with an AP score of 3 or below must take the Brown Placement Exam.

HISP 0400. Intermediate Spanish II.

A continuation of HISP 0300. This course continues to develop and strengthen students’ linguistic, communicative, academic, and multicultural competencies. It focuses on content and language integration and creates opportunities to use the language in interdisciplinary scenarios related to diverse academic experiences. Enrollment is limited to 15. Pre-enrolled students must attend the first four days of class to maintain their pre-registered status and notify the instructor in advance if they must miss any day before the 4th class when the composition of the course section is finalized.

Prerequisite: HISP 0300 or placement: SAT II scores between 520 and 590 or Brown Placement Exam scores between 411 and 490. Students with an AP score of 3 or below must take the Brown Placement Exam. Students should check Placement and Course Description in the Undergraduate Program section of the Hispanic Studies Website.

HISP 0490A. Spanish for Health Care Workers.

This course provides students with the linguistic and cultural competencies necessary to communicate and help treat Spanish speaking patients with limited English. It includes a general review of pertinent grammar and vocabulary relating to health care professions, assessment, and vocabulary useful for establishing patient rapport. Students will practice communicating in common medical situations, conducting patient interviews, and increase their understanding of possible responses from patients. We will broaden knowledge of different cultures, explore health care systems/ professions in a variety of settings, and have pertinent speakers invited to class. This course does not qualify as a pre-requisite for study abroad or for HISP 0600. Students who complete 0490A successfully can continue with HISP 0500 as the next level. This is an intermediate level language course so if you have taken a 600 course or above, you will be too advanced.

HISP 0500. Advanced Spanish I.

Offers comprehensive work in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, with targeted grammar review. Students work with a variety of readings (literature, newspaper articles, etc.) and with art forms such as music and film, in order to develop oral and written expression and to explore issues relevant to the Hispanic world. Students explore topics of their own interest through student-led activities and presentations. Prerequisite: HISP0400 or placement: SAT II scores between 600 and 660, Brown Placement Exam scores between 491 and 570, or AP score of 4 in language or literature. Please check Hispanic Studies website (Undergraduate Programs) for course descriptions and placement information. Enrollment limited to 15; 12 spaces are available for students during pre-registration. 3 spaces will be available at the start of the semester for incoming or re-admitted students who should attend the first class. Pre-enrolled students must attend the first four days of class to maintain their pre-registered status and notify the instructor in advance if they must miss any day before the 4th class when the composition of the course section is finalized.

HISP 0550. Intermediate Spanish for Heritage Speakers.

Heritage speakers of Spanish are students who understand and speak Spanish to some degree but have not yet had formal education in Spanish. This course is specifically for students who already possess intermediate communicative skills and can communicate effectively in their home and community. This course is designed to validate, strengthen and expand the previous linguistic and cultural knowledge students bring to the classroom. Through a variety of authentic materials, students will explore issues of identity, linguistic rights, equality, and social justice, while developing their Spanish range to include formal registers, and honing their oral communication, reading and writing skills.

HISP 0600. Advanced Spanish II.

Advanced-level work in speaking, listening, reading, and writing, with focused review of challenging Spanish grammar. Course materials include films, music, art works, and a variety of written texts chosen to promote class discussion and in-depth written analysis. There will be individual and group activities, including in-class presentations and creative writing projects. Prerequisite: HISP0500 or placement: SATII scores between 670 and 740, Brown Placement Exam scores between 571 and 650, or AP score of 5 in language. Enrollment limit 12. Pre-enrolled students must attend the first four classes to maintain their status and notify the instructor in advance if they must miss any day before the 4th class when the course section is finalized. Students with scores of 750 and above on the SAT II, 551 on the Brown Placement Exam, or 5 in AP Literature should consider HISP 0730-0740-0750 range.

HISP 0650. Advanced Spanish Through Literature & Film.

Este curso sirve como una introducción a la literatura y la cultura del mundo hispanohablante, y a las prácticas de la lectura crítica y la escritura analítica. HISP 0650 no sólo provee un panorama histórico y contextualizado de la literatura en español, sino que también aporta estrategias de leer, pensar, y escribir sobre textos literarios y cine, preparando el/la estudiante para cursos más avanzados de literatura y cultura. A lo largo del semestre, se realiza un repaso de gramática a nivel avanzado para aclarar dudas y fortalecer el español hablado y escrito de cada estudiante.

HISP 0710A. Cultura gastronómica de España.

Spain has a rich and varied culinary culture — both steeped in its multicultural history and at the cutting edge of new culinary movements. In this course, you will learn about la cocina española in all its dimensions and at the same time develop your linguistic skills in written and oral Spanish. Topics include: the Mediterranean diet (and its threat from fast food), the culture of tapas, the wine regions of Spain, Spain’s new star chefs, the olive oil industry, Spanish food products abroad. We will explore these topics through documentaries, recipes, interviews, films, music, short stories, and hands-on cooking.

HISP 0710B. Hispanic Culture Through Cinema.

This course will examine eleven cinematic works of the contemporary Hispanic world (Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Spain, and the USA) from 1999 until 2012. We will focus on the cultural, thematic, technical and aesthetic aspects of the films, as well as on their socio-historical and political context. Every movie will be discussed in class integrating sociological, historical, political and aesthetic contexts, as well as a critical analysis of the film as artistic expression. This is a course also designed to improve students’ speaking abilities while learning about Hispanic cultures and cinema. FYS

HISP 0710C. Introducción a la lingüística hispánica.

This course introduces students to the study of language and deepens their knowledge of Spanish in its main linguistic components. After briefly considering the nature of language, we will study the sounds of Spanish (phonology and phonetics), word and sentence structure (morphology and syntax), and the elements and mechanics to express and interpret meaning (semantics and pragmatics). We will then turn our focus to linguistic phenomena such as changes in Spanish over time (historical linguistics), variations in the language according to region and social group (sociolinguistics), and bilingualism, with special attention to Spanish in the U.S.

HISP 0710D. History of the Spanish Language.

We will study of the development of Spanish from the first manifestations to the present, and the development of the language beyond the Iberian Peninsula (in the Sephardic diaspora and in the Americas). Includes the historical and cultural events that deeply influenced the shaping of Castilian language. We will examine the most relevant contributions as well as other languages (Arabic in particular) in shaping the Spanish language. Taught in Spanish.

HISP 0710E. Introduction to Professional Translation and Interpretation.

What is translation? Interpretation? What roles do the translator and interpreter play in communication? What skills and kinds of knowledge are needed to develop competency in translation and interpretation as professional/community services? What factors shape how a text is translated (e.g., purpose, intended audience, type and genre, intercultural differences)? What is the role of translation in advancing language competence and proficiency? Through a functionalist approach, students advance their mastery of Spanish and develop translation competence. In addition to academic work (readings, translation assignments, and in-class exercises), students will also gain practical experience working with Spanish-speaking clinics and community organizations.

HISP 0710F. Introduction to Literary Translation.

This course provides students with an opportunity to enter the fray: working as literary translators, reading texts that reflect on the nature of translation, and considering this frustrating, gratifying, and meaningful field of study and practice for themselves. It offers students an introduction to the field of translation studies (mostly via texts in English, but with discussion in Spanish) as well as a foundation of experience in the practice of literary translation, predominantly from Spanish to English, but with opportunities for translating from English to Spanish or either of these languages to another one. The course is highly interactive, with students frequently called upon to reflect on their experience as translators, and dialogue about this experience with their peers. Throughout the semester, we will engage in regular workshops, with students sharing their work and collaborating with one another throughout.

HISP 0730. Encounters: Latin America in Its Literature and Culture.

An introduction to major authors, movements, and themes of Spanish American literature from the Discovery to the present. This course also aims to develop students' oral and written expression in Spanish. Students are expected to engage in close reading and discussion of texts, as well as to revise their papers. Prerequisite: HISP 0600, or AP score =5, or SAT II (Literature) score of 750 or above, or Brown placement score of 651 or above.

HISP 0740. Intensive Survey of Spanish Literature.

This course provides students an overview of the major authors and movements in Spain’s literature from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It teaches students to close-read and engage critically with individual texts and their literary, historical, and social conditions of production. Throughout, we will interrogate canon formation, examine the literary construction of the self and the nation, and analyze the reflection – and creation – of culture in literature. Conducted in Spanish. Prerequisite: HISP 0600, or AP score =5, or SAT II (Literature) score of 750 or above, or Brown placement score of 651 or above.

HISP 0750B. The Latin American Diaspora in the US.

This engaged course is designed to bridge academic learning about Latin American diasporic history and culture and volunteer work in agencies serving Latinx communities in Providence. Readings, films, and guest presentations examine the ways in which the Latinx community has imagined itself and has been imagined by others. Spanish language learning occurs in the classroom and the community, where students have the opportunity to enrich and test course content. Conducted in Spanish, Spanglish welcome. Prerequisite: HISP 0600 or placement: SAT II scores of over 750, 5 in AP Literature or 651 and over in the Brown Placement Exam.

HISP 0750C. Love and War in Medieval and Contemporary Spanish Fiction.

Examines presentations of Medieval Iberian culture in literature and film. This subject interrogates the persistent popularity of medieval themes and stories in contemporary film and fiction. It will consider some medieval narratives, such as El Cid, medieval chronicles and ballads, and La Celestina, which inspire a tradition of revisionist re-writing, as well as modern "inventions" of the medieval in a range of cultural forms. Prerequisite: HISP 0600 or placement: SAT II scores of over 750, 5 in AP Literature or 551 and over in the Brown Placement Exam.

HISP 0750E. Topics in Hispanic Culture and Civilization.

This course provides an overview of the culture and history of Spain from medieval times to the present, drawing from literature, art, music, and film. We will study Islamic al-Andalus, Judeo-Spanish culture (including the Sephardic diaspora), Christian Spain, the conquest and colonization of the “New World,” the decline of empire, the Civil War and its aftermath. Historical and cultural connections between Spain and Europe, and Spain and America will also be examined. Taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: HISP 0600 or placement: SAT II scores of over 750, 5 in AP Literature or 551 and over in the Brown Placement Exam.

HISP 0750G. Wildeyed Stories.

Students will study a wide-range of stories from cultures of the Spanish speaking world in literature and film: tales, fables, and humorous stories of heroism, deception and revenge. Class discussions will seek to situate the works examined within the political and cultural currents and debates of their time. Emphasis will be placed on both the historical context and on the development of close reading skills. Conducted in Spanish. Prerequisite: HISP 0600 or placement: SAT II scores of over 750, 5 in AP Literature or 551 and over in the Brown Placement Exam.

HISP 0750I. Spanish Cinema and Literature: The Postmodern Cinema of Pedro Almodovar.

Spanish film has experienced a total renewal after Franco's death. In this course we will analyze recent developments in Spanish film paying special attention to the way film directors have exploited a very rich and well established literary tradition from Luis G. Berlanga, and Carlos Saura, to Víctor Erice and Pedro Almodóvar. Prerequisite: HISP 0600 or placement: SAT II scores of over 750, 5 in AP Literature or 551 and over in the Brown Placement Exam.

HISP 0750M. The Spanish Civil War: Image, Text, and Memory.

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) has inspired a vast trove of scholarly and artistic production. In this course, we will analyze documentary and feature-length Spanish films in order to understand the social and political causes of the war and its central players. We will complement our film discussions with relevant poetry, novels, and art works to expand our critical perspectives on ways of representing and remembering the Civil War. In Spanish for first-year students with SAT II of 750 or above, a 5 on the AP Literature exam, or a Brown Placement Test score of 651 or above. Enrollment limited to 19 first year students.

HISP 0750N. Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Medieval Spain.

Spain was one of the most culturally diverse parts of Europe throughout the Middle Ages, with Muslims, Jews, and Christians living side by side in both the Christian and Muslim kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula for nearly eight centuries (711-1492), in fluctuating peace and tension. Uninterrupted contact produced richly complex patterns of cultural exchange whose legacy is variously embraced and debated today. This first-year seminar will examine relationships between Muslims, Jews, and Christians from the perspectives of literature, music, art, architecture, archaeology, and history. While largely focusing on the centuries of co-existence, we will also consider the expulsions and forced conversions of Jews and Muslims that took place after 1492, as well as the resurgence of these communities in contemporary Spain. Throughout, students will acquire theoretical bases for understanding current interreligious conflict and for envisioning its repair. Instruction in Spanish.

HISP 0750O. Cultural Studies in Spanish America.

This is a culture class, taught in Spanish, in which we will explore the origins and meanings of the terms “culture” and “cultural studies,” a particular approach to culture, as it is manifested in a Spanish American context. This critical approach crosses conventional disciplinary boundaries and so will we, examining a variety of texts, phenomena, and themes that extend traditional concepts of "culture." Topics considered will include: sports-- fútbol and lucha libre-- music in literature, melodrama and the telenovela, manifestations of Indian and mestizo identities in the late 20th-21st centuries, tourism, and contemporary urban existence.

HISP 0750P. Screening Social Justice in the Spanish-Speaking World.

This course engages students with social justice issues in the Spanish-speaking world (the US, Latin America, and Spain), analyzing recent films addressing topics such as: racial, gender, and sexual identities; socioeconomic inequality; immigration, the border, and displacement; civil conflict, dictatorship, and their aftermath; the environment and climate change; postcolonial legacies and the impact of neoliberalism and globalization. We will analyze the stories these films tell and how they tell them, asking whether film can be considered an activist project, and what effect it might have on legal, political, and social debates outside the walls of the cinema. While some knowledge of Spanish is a plus, it is not required, as films are subtitled and readings and course materials are in English.

HISP 0750Q. Health, Illness and Medicine in Spanish and Spanish American Literature and Film.

In this class we will read/see, discuss and write about texts and films that deal with health, illness, death and medicine in Spanish and Spanish American contexts. Our approach will be informed by principals of Narrative Medicine that demonstrate how attending to, representing and affiliating oneself with other human beings by studying literature and the arts can transform relationships between patients and healthcare professionals. We will be honing our reading and analytical skills as we confront the subjective dimensions of illness and medicine from humanistic and cross-cultural perspectives. This course is conducted in Spanish.

HISP 0750R. Mexico: An Introduction to Its History and Culture.

This course will take an interdisciplinary approach to studying the rich history of Mexico and its diverse populations. We will examine both how Mexico has constructed its own identity from within (for example, the 20th century explorations of "lo mexicano"). In addition, we will study how Mexico has been constructed from without, especially from the English-speaking world (for instance, American diplomat Joel Poinsett's 19th century views). Course materials will range from both Mexican and European chronicles of conquest to modern reflections and representations by historians, philosophers, filmmakers, musicians, writers, and artists, among others. In English.

HISP 0750S. The Art of Revolution in Latin America (COLT 0711J).

Interested students must register for COLT 0711J.

HISP 0750T. Around Latin America in 80 Days: An Historical and Cultural Journey (LACA 0500).

Interested students must register for LACA 0500.

HISP 0750U. Re-writing Realities: A Non-Fiction Creative Writing Workshop.

This course focuses on the basic elements of creative non-fiction writing in Spanish. By writing our own pieces, we will discover how artistic uses of Spanish language can help us view our ‘reality’ under a new light. We will be reading texts from the Spanish language tradition of non-fiction produced through hybrid texts—that is, narrative and essayistic pieces that are not investigative journalism. Our readings will range from influential writers such as Rubén Darío, Jorge Luis Borges, and Alfonso Reyes to contemporary authors including Javier Cercas, Juan Villoro, and Eduardo Halfon.

HISP 0750W. Caribe Queer.

The Hispanophone Caribbean and its diasporas have created a vibrant literary and more broadly artistic catalogue through which to think formations of gender and sexuality in racial, political, and economic context. In this course, we focus on 20th- and 21st- century Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban queer and trans authors, characters, artists, and themes. We discuss literary, poetic, and artistic material within a set of historical and theoretical frames. We ask how Hispanophone Caribbean literature and art portray and theorize racial, gendered, and sexual life in relation to historical and contemporary structures of power. A playlist featuring queer and trans Caribbean artists complements the course.
Most readings are in Spanish. Class discussions and assignments are in Spanish.

HISP 0750X. Environmental Arts: Film, Literature and Photography.

The climate crisis has pushed artists and scholars to reflect on how we relate to the environment, and to critically assess the concepts that have guided our approach to ideas of nature and the nonhuman since the advent of modernity. We are witnessing a global effort in developing new means of inhabiting the world, and the arts offer a privileged space to investigate these possibilities. This mostly asynchronous course explores environmental aesthetics through multiple media, theoretical perspectives and geographical contexts. With a focus on Hispanophone cinema, literature and photography, we will cover topics such as the urban/rural divide, extractivism and decoloniality, the problem of scale in our understanding of the Anthropocene, the construction of landscape and the relationship between art and the nonhuman. The course will be taught in English, no knowledge of Spanish is required.

HISP 0760. Transatlantic Crossings: Readings in Hispanic Literatures.

This course provides students a comprehensive introduction to literature and culture of the Spanish-speaking world, through exploration of a wide range of genres (short story, poetry, theater, novel, and film) and periods of production. The course not only gives students a contextualized historical panorama of literature in Spanish, it also equips them with strategies for reading, thinking, and writing about texts and films in Spanish, preparing them for more advanced literature and culture courses in Hispanic Studies. The course is conducted entirely in Spanish.

HISP 1020A. Spanish Civil War in Literature and the Visual Arts.

The Spanish Civil War (1936-39) would culminate with the military overthrow of the Republican government and the beginning of Francisco Franco's long dictatorship. This course examines artistic representations of the war, from film (documentary and fictional), through painting (Picasso), to the written works of both Spanish and foreign authors including Orwell, Hemingway, Neruda, Cela, Sender, Rodoreda. Readings and discussion in English.

HISP 1210A. Judeo-Spanish Literature and Culture.

Focuses on Judeo-Spanish literature from the 10th century to the first years of the Spanish Jewish diaspora (end of the 15th century). Poetry and narrative are read as works of moral instruction rooted in traditional modes of art and thought. Considers also the preservation of Judeo-Spanish culture in the Sephardic diaspora through ballads and songs recorded from oral traditions.

HISP 1210E. History of Romance Languages.

The Romance family is one of the most widely-spoken and politically important language families. The aim of this course is to introduce students to the history and linguistic characteristics of the Romance family. Our purpose is to learn the factors that led to the development of modern standard Romance languages, and provide an understanding of Romance structures and their linguistic relationships. The course covers language families; genetic relationships (family trees); typological comparison; internal versus external history; language contact and borrowing; Romance Pidgins and Creoles; Standard language versus dialect; social variation; concepts of Phonetics and Phonology; Morphology; Syntax; Semantics; Lexicon. In English.

HISP 1210F. History of the Spanish Language.

This course is intended to give you a basic introduction to the genealogy and development of the Spanish language. Includes the historical and cultural events that deeply influenced the shaping of the language, the nature of Medieval Spanish, and the development of the language beyond the Iberian Peninsula (Sephardi diaspora and in the Americas). This course will make the history of Spanish accessible to anyone with a knowledge of Spanish and a readiness to grasp basic linguistic concepts.

HISP 1240A. Fashion and Fiction in the Early Modern Hispanic World.

In the early modern period, clothing and fabrics were meant to provide visible markers of social status, gender, religion, race, and nationality. Yet dress did not just so much reflect identity as construct it. It could blur differences even as it supposedly marked them. In other words, clothes often created fictions, and fiction itself frequently focused on clothing. Drawing on literary and historical texts as well as paintings, prints, and maps, this course traces the connections between fashion and fiction in a period of unprecedented change in Spain and the wider Hispanic world. In Spanish.

HISP 1240C. Golden Age Short Stories.

We will examine the spatial itinerary of main literary figures (the picaro or rogue, the morisco, the soldier, the courtesan, the witch, the indiano) and the spaces they inhabited in Spain's short stories throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. Violence, sexual transgression, and social conflicts are themes of inquiry. Emphasis on Cervantes' Novelas ejemplares.

HISP 1240L. Don Quijote de la Mancha.

This course will study Miguel de Cervantes's El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha in its literary and historical contexts. We will read Cervantes's masterpiece as a book about books and about the pleasures and dangers of reading; as a story of the Spanish empire and its discontents; as a palimpsest of Christian, Muslim, and Jewish meetings in Spain; and as a reflection on the nature of language, desire, and madness. All the while, we will read Don Quijote as an eminently entertaining and endlessly engaging work of the human imagination. In Spanish. Prerequisites: HISP 0650 or minimum score of 5 in 'AP Spanish Literature.'

HISP 1250A. Madrid: History, Literature, and Culture.

This course explores cultural production in and about Madrid during key moments of the city's history from its establishment as the capital of imperial Spain in the 16th century through its reinvention as a major international tourist destination in the late 20th. Multimedia in orientation, the course draws on representations of the Spanish capital in literature, painting, photography, maps, music, and film. Topics include: self-invention in the court city, modernization and its discontents, Madrid and Spanishness, provincialism versus internationalism. In Spanish.

HISP 1250B. Hispanic Culture Through Film.

This course examines major trends of Hispanic cinema through a representative selection of culturally diverse films from Spain, Latin America and the USA. Among the course objectives are: to learn about Hispanic history and culture through film, to understand cinema’s strengths and limitation for representing culture and history, to gain an understanding of Hispanic cinema in a broader context of globalization, and to learn to write film analyses in Spanish.

HISP 1290D. Contra Franco vivíamos mejor? Literature and Culture of the Spanish Dictatorship (1939-1975).

The end of the Spanish Civil War inaugurated one of the longest dictatorships of the twentieth century. This course will examine the literature and popular culture produced in the peninsula during that period--both the "official" culture allowed and sponsored by the Franco regime, and the voices of resistance that attempted to present alternative political views against a background of repression and censorship.

HISP 1290G. Generación del '98.

To what extent does a national crisis, the Spanish defeat of 1898 by the United States, provoke a movement of patriotic revaluation, the so-called "Generation of '98"? Or are the symptoms of crisis more in accord with fin de siècle aesthetics, which incites literary experimentation in all the traditional genres? These crucial questions will be studied in such typical authors as Unamuno, Baroja, Azorín, Antonio Machado, and Ramón del Valle-Inclán.

HISP 1290J. Spain on Screen: 80 Years of Spanish Cinema.

Spain’s is one of the most dynamic and at the same time overlooked of European cinemas. In recent years, Spain has become more internationally visible on screen, especially thanks to filmmakers like del Toro, Almodóvar, and Bayona, or actors Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. But where does Spanish cinema come from? And what can it tell us about the nation and its history? Focusing on issues such as landscape, memory, violence, gender, sexuality, and national identity, this course provides students with a solid training in film analysis and a wide-ranging introduction to Spanish culture through its cinema. In Spanish.

HISP 1290K. The Spanish Novel since 1975.

In 1975, the death of General Francisco Franco opened the door to a new democratic Spain. In the novel, the social and political novelties generated a change both thematic and formal. This course pays attention to issues such as the diverse genres that have gained strength, such as the groups that have acquired a literary voice, and the portrayal of current preoccupations. Prerequisite: HISP 0730 or 0740.

HISP 1290P. Federico García Lorca, 1898-1936.

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) embodies Spanish Modernity. While his innovative poetry and drama established him as a crucial figure in the 20th Century Spanish cultural landscape, his brutal murder by Fascist supporters at the beginning of the Civil War made of him a symbol of the lost freedom. This class will study his artistic evolution: from his youth in Granada, and his studies in Madrid-where he met and befriended filmmaker Luis Buñuel and painter Salvador Dalí-to his trip to New York and Latin America. The focus of the class will be the study of his poetry, theatre, and essays, but will also explore both the construction of the Lorca myth, and the period of cultural splendor that is encapsulated in his biographical dates: from the loss of the empire in 1898, to the beginning of the Civil War in the summer of 1936.

HISP 1290U. The Spanish Civil War in Visual Culture.

No other event marked contemporary Spain as profoundly as the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). This course will study the history of the war itself and trace the multiple ways it has been remembered and represented from its immediate aftermath through to the present. Materials will include films and documentaries, paintings and photography, propaganda posters and newsreels, radio and television, monuments and comics, oral histories and fiction. In addition, we will read critical and theoretical texts on historical trauma and individual and collective memory as well as amnesia. This course will be conducted in Spanish.

HISP 1330C. Indigenous Literatures of Latin America.

This course explores the presence of indigenous cultures in Latin American literature over the last five centuries. Blending historical and literary analysis, we will delve into foundational indigenous narratives (with a stress on Nahuatl, Mayan and Quechua variants); the vision of Colonial mestizo and bilingual go-betweens; othering discourses in antiquarian, archeological and travel narratives; and the indigenous imprint in contemporary novels, short stories and poetry, including indigenous, women and transnational authors. Through this journey, marginalized cultures throughout the continent show their resilience as the multicultural plot of Latin American history comes to the fore. In Spanish.

HISP 1330D. Patriots, Rogues, and Lovers.

Nineteenth-century Spanish American writers were committed to educating their readers, yet they delighted in entertaining them with melodrama. We critically examine patriotic novels and stories with a focus on tales of love and/or adventure. We consider the breakdown of this trend in the first quarter of the 20th century as well as feminist critiques of it.

HISP 1330K. Contemporary Poetry of Latin America.

An exploration of some representative poets and movements in modern Latin American poetry, with special emphasis on the Latin American Modernists, the Avant-Garde and contemporary trends. Topics include: analytical techniques, historicity, poetry and translation, and a creative writing workshop. For advanced students only. Prerequisites: HISP 0740, or HISP 0600 and HISP 0730. Previous experience in 1000-level Spanish courses desirable.

HISP 1330P. The Philosophy of Borges.

Jorge Luis Borges devoted several essays during his youth to developing his philosophical understanding of concepts like "personality," "memory," "reality," "narrative" and "style." At some point later in his literary career, he attempted to erase the memory of those years from his public existence, to the extent that most of the books published during the 1920s were never reprinted during Borges' lifetime. Nevertheless, it was in those years that he developed the entire philosophical grounding of his future literary work. We will work to decipher Borges' philosophy through the reading and interpretation of his essays, narratives and poems, including several key texts from his first three suppressed prose volumes (Inquisiciones, El tamaño de mi esperanza, and El idioma de los argentinos). In English, with some Spanish readings. Prerequisite: HISP 0730 or 0740.

HISP 1330Q. Short Forms: Major Works in a Minor Key.

This course focuses on two outstanding practitioners of the short story in twentieth century Latin American literature –the Argentineans Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar—paying close attention to each one’s most famous collection of stories (Borges’ Ficciones [1944], Cortázar’s Final del juego [1956]). We’ll map the ways in which their writing connects to different genres (detective fiction, science fiction, poetry), media (photography, painting, film), and practices of adaptation (especially translation), and explore their legacy for more recent writers (Ricardo Piglia, Edmundo Paz Soldán, Roberto Bolaño, Samanta Schweblin).

HISP 1330T. El amor en español.

This course will visit a series of famous, colorful and controversial couples (novios, esposos y amantes) from the literature and history of Spain and Latin America. We will consider such themes as courtly love, erotic love, commonplaces about love and distortions of them, the degradation of idealized love, and the renunciation of human love in favor of divine love in the medieval and Renaissance periods. We will also address contemporary rites of passage in the formation of couples, traditional and modern views of love and marriage, as well as the “death of the couple,” love and melancholy, melodrama and hysteria.

HISP 1330U. Hauntings: Gothic Fictions, Banditry and the Supernatural in Latin America.

A specter haunts Latin America. The constitution of the nation-state in the region after the Wars of Independence (1810-1830) entailed creating fictions to include (and, naturally, exclude) those who belonged to the community of the nation. Usually the left-outs were the ones who did not comply with the profile of the desired citizen:lettered, male, white and urban. This course will focus on narrations about those ‘left-outs’ after the constitution of the Nation-States in the region. We will read fictions about mad monster women, spectral slaves, bloodthirsty bandits, priests-turned-sorcerers, dwarfs, animal rebellions, and many other “exceptions to the norm.” In Spanish.

HISP 1330V. Gender Trouble in Spanish America.

This course will explore the construction of gendered identities in Spanish American literature and film after 1960. Questioning normative constructions of gender roles, we will see how masculinities and femininities are represented and respond to changing politics and power, often redefining earlier “gender contracts.” Works studied will include novels by Angeles Mastretta, José Donoso, Mario Bellatín and Diamela Eltit, short stories, theater, poetry, and 2-3 films, as well as pertinent theoretical and critical approaches to the study of gender in Latin America. In Spanish.

HISP 1330W. War, Revolution and the Cult of the Hero in Latin American Culture.

This course will tackle the literary underpinning of war and revolution in order to scrutinize its powers. The discourse on war does not originate ex nihilo but recycles and appropriates narratives of the nation, the State or a given region depending on the specificities of each given war. Starting with Bolivar's "Decreto de Guerra a Muerte", passing through literary renditions of civil wars, continuing with guerrilla warfare texts, all the way to narratives on the War on Drugs, this course will question the ways in which war and revolution are made through language and staged in literature. Taught in Spanish.

HISP 1330X. The Nature of Conquest: Scientific Literatures of the Americas.

Throughout history, conquest and colonization have implied different kinds of appropriations: control over new lands, new bodies, new languages. With the appropriation of new languages came the confrontation between different ways of organizing the world and, in particular, alternative ways of understanding humankind's relationship to nature. This course explores the scientific literatures that emerged in the wake of Spanish conquest and colonization of the Americas (1500-1800). These hybrid scientific literatures, written in Spanish but also in Nahuatl, Maya, Quechua and graphic forms, illustrate the lasting cross-pollination between Old and New World notions about American nature.

HISP 1330Y. “Us” and “Them”: Cross-Cultural Representations in Spanish American Literature and Film.

This class will study the construction of self and other in Latin American cultural production. By examining examples from colonial times to today in a variety of literary genres and in three particular countries - Mexico, Argentina and Peru - we will examine ethnic, racial, and national identities (primarily). Our study will include some of the theoretical ideas associated with the confrontation between "them" and "us" and changes in these positions: the concept of the contact zone, of acculturation, and cultural hybridity, among others.

HISP 1330Z. Tropical Fictions: Geography and Literature in Latin American Culture.

Tropical nature in Latin America has been represented in conflicting ways: a place of leisure and sensuality, but also of depravity and sloth; a place of infinite riches but also a space where disease and racial degeneration thrive. Tracing the variations and endurances of these tropes in 18th- to 21st-century Western consciousness, this course aims to re-think the tropics in literature, film and the arts from a vantage point different to that of temperate-climate European civilization. Readings include canonical fictions such as La vorágine (1924), 19th-century European travelogues from the region, as well as contemporary indigenous art.

HISP 1331A. Writing Animals in the Iberian Atlantic.

Animals are our mirrors, our doubles; creatures onto which we project our notions about humanity and its limits. From Aristotle’s ladder to Mesoamerican nahualism, animals have been at the center of how we understand the world and our place in it. This course looks at Animal Studies in dialogue with Hispanic, Latin American and Indigenous Studies to explore how intersectionality illuminates discourses about the human-nonhuman divide. Drawing on studies from both sides of the Atlantic, we will analyze the main genres that have focused on the nonhuman and recent studies on sheep, pigs, the rhinoceros, llamas, and perhaps even hummingbirds.

HISP 1331D. Latin America and the Caribbean: Challenges of the Global South (LACA 1620B).

Interested students must register for LACA 1620B.

HISP 1331E. Visions and Voices of Indigenous Mexico.

“In Mexico we are all mixed” goes a popular dictum, placing mestizaje at the core of what it means to be Mexican. One fifth of the population, however, self identifies as indigenous (pueblos originarios), and keeps experiencing various forms of discrimination for not abiding by the dominant national discourse. HISP 1331E explores three pilars of indigenous identity –land’s gifts, material culture and language– to inquire how indigeneity has been deployed and reclaimed by indigenous groups through time. Materials include pre-Hispanic and Colonial codices, murals and objects, and present day literary works, music and cinema, with one hour of Nahuatl basics per week. Prerequisites: HISP 0650 or minimum score of 5 in 'AP Spanish Literature.'

HISP 1331G. Latin American Horror (GNSS 1520).

Interested students must register for GNSS 1520.

HISP 1331H. Latin American Environmental Humanities (LACA 1504G).

Interested students must register for LACA 1504G.

HISP 1331I. Inframundos: Mexican/American Underworlds.

From pre-Columbian times to the diasporic present in the United States, Mexican history and culture are filled with references to underworlds as sites of transgression. The Christian hell and Colonial mine became default spots for native bodies, while prison cells, tunnels and subterranean trains lodge today’s poor and disenfranchised. This seminar will visit these sites through literature, film, music and journalism to question which subjects have been read as transgressors through time and why. Authors discussed will include Juan Rulfo, Carlos Fuentes, Verónica Gerber, Yuri Herrera, Valeria Luiselli, and Myriam Gurba. Taught in Spanish; Spanglish welcome.

HISP 1331J. Hablan los hijos: una nueva generación de escritores latinoamericanos.

This seminar introduces students to some of the most exciting voices in contemporary Latin American literature: Samanta Schweblin and Mariana Enríquez (Argentina), Alejandro Zambra and Nona Fernández (Chile), José Carlos Agüero and Gabriela Wiener (Peru), Valeria Luiselli and Verónica Gerber (Mexico). We will read their novels and short stories in relation to previous generations of Latin American writers and in conversation across borders with one another. We will look at their reception in their countries of origin and abroad via translation, and explore new ways of writing and talking about literature in blogs, podcasts, and reviews; we will also delve into contemporary experiments in film and the visual arts to see how they dovetail with and comment on common concerns around memory, identity, community, and crisis.

HISP 1331L. Peasant-Boom-Slum: The Latin American Novel (COLT 1422N).

Interested students must register for COLT 1422N.

HISP 1331M. Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Hispanophone Caribbean Literature.

The Hispanophone Caribbean has created a vibrant literary and more broadly artistic catalogue through which to think formations of race, gender, and sexuality in the afterlife of racial slavery and under duress of colonial structures. In this course, we focus on 20th- and 21st-century Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban literary, poetic, and cinematic material within a series of historical contexts and theoretical frameworks.

We ask how Hispanophone Caribbean literature and art portray and theorize racial, gendered, and sexual life in relation to historical and contemporary structures of power. What linguistic and artistic techniques do Hispanophone Caribbean literature and art use to reflect on and render queer and trans life more livable? What are the possibilities and limits of these linguistic and artistic techniques?

All readings are in English translation. A playlist featuring queer and trans Caribbean artists complements the course.

HISP 1331N. Haunting Childhood and Social Justice in Latin America (LACA 1505A).

Interested students must register for LACA 1505A.

HISP 1331O. Mourning and Experimental Form: African Diaspora Religions in Hispanophone Caribbean Literature.

How does one “move on” with loss? How does one live in the wake of loss? And what does it mean to mourn when loss is irreducible to a specific person, cause, or moment in time? In this seminar, we explore these questions by discussing Hispanophone Caribbean novels, cinema, poetry, and music. We pay particular attention to how literary and other artistic media use African diaspora religious practices and how they work with/through/against racial, gendered, and sexual tropes to address questions of loss and mourning. In each thematic unit, students will read primary materials in an intercalated manner to encourage critical dialogue across readings Class discussions will be in Spanish. A playlist of Hispanophone Caribbean music on the theme of death and mourning complements the course.

HISP 1331R. Blackness and Puerto Rican Literature.

This course approaches Puerto Rican literature as a set of texts with which to critically think about discourses of racial blackness in the Puerto Rican archipelago and its diasporas. We examine key literary moments, from 19th century “foundational fiction” and early 20th century “Afro-Antillean” poetry to contemporary Black Puerto Rican voices. Guided by a set of Puerto Rican and Black U.S. scholars, our discussions are informed by the historical changes in the political status of Puerto Rico and how these changes have shaped discourses of racial blackness in Puerto Rican literature and culture. By focusing on the specificities of various Puerto Rican literary scenes, this course aims to gain insight into broader discussions regarding racial blackness in the Caribbean and Afro-Latin America. Class discussions are in Spanish. A playlist of music by Puerto Ricans complements the course.

HISP 1331U. Underground Studies: Extractivism and Decolonization in the Americas/Abiayala (ENVS 1233)..

Interested students must register for ENVS 1233.

HISP 1370A. "One Hundred Years of Solitude": Culture and Politcs in Garcia Marquez's Work.

This course will focus on Garcia Márquez's masterpiece in order to analyze its modes of representation, discursive strategies, and fictional construction as well as its interactions with history, politics, and literary and popular traditions. Other related work by the Colombian Nobel Prize winner will be discussed, as will his journalistic pieces and movies. The novel may be read in Spanish or English; discussion will be mainly in Spanish.

HISP 1370B. Gaborium: Memory, Fiction, and Reading in Gabriel García Márquez.

Departing from some formats of writing and reading (myth, history, legend, journalism, memoirs) in García Márquez writings, we plan to study the representation (magical, carnivalesque, political) unfolding in his novels, stories, and essays. From this processing of information and exchange, our course will analyze the cultural history of abundance, scarcity, and Utopia in Latin America. Prerequisite: HISP 0730 or 0740. Enrollment limited to 40.

HISP 1370E. La creatividad en América Latina.

Varias teorías actuales sobre la creatividad se ilustran muy bien con relatos, poemas, películas, música y arte de América Latina gracias a su adaptació de materiales, diversidad de formas, y gusto por la mezcla. Revisaremos las poéticas del dadaísmo, el surrealismo, la literatura fantástica, el realismo mágico, la biografí imaginaria, el utopismo, y el juego verbal. La clase será visitada por algunos autores para discutir sus procesos creativos.

HISP 1370F. Modernity and Memory in Latin America.

Contemporary cultural history proposes that memory is not an archive or a museum of history but a past evoked to amplify the present. We examine the rewriting and transformation of history in texts that illustrate issues of tradition/modernity, countryside/culture, center/margins, migration/exile, feminine/masculine, and popular culture/media culture.

HISP 1370I. The End of the Century and the Idea of the New.

This course will explore the narrative of the end, the culture of crisis, and the literary sceneries of the new aesthetics. Departing from a comparison between the "fin de siècle" and the current "end of the century," we will pass to the apocalyptic views of the millenium and focus on current essays on the topic (Calvino, Baudrillard) as well as on new trends, ideas, and narratives related to this subject in the Americas. This could be the first course on the literature of the 21st century.

HISP 1370K. Literatura latinoamericana del siglo XXI.

Estudiaremos las tendencias innovativas de la narrativa latinoamericana reciente. Veremos la literatura como un trabajo sobre la resignificación de lo nuevo. Nuevas voces, nuevos textos y géneros, y nuevas ideas proponen una visión del futuro que buscaremos documentar. Los libros y textos que leeremos son un mapa del futuro. Algunos temas: el sicodrama familiar, violencia y crisis del proyecto moderno, la saga de la migración, la conciencia transatlántica, el mundo emotivo y los afectos, la ética de la solidaridad.

HISP 1370L. Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the Politics of Magic Realism.

Estudiaremos las principales novelas del autor, desde El coronel no tiene quien le escriba hasta Cien años de soledad, con especial atención al realismo mágico y las ideas sobre la novela que cultivó el autor. Nuestra discusión se situará en el proceso social y político latinoamericano así como en las mitologías de la cultura popular. Prerequisite: HISP 0730 or 0740.

HISP 1370N. Carlos Fuentes and the New Mexican Narrative.

This seminar will focus on close-readings and conceptualization of Fuentes' innovative works of fiction and main ideas on Mexico and its cultural history. We will discuss a selection of his short-stories, novels and essays, moving from the political to the Gothic, from history to the Baroque. We will follow with new Mexican fiction writers who renew and debate Fuentes practices and ideas. Among them, Carmen Boullosa, Jorge Volpi, Pedro Ángel Palou, Cristina Rivera Garza and Yuri Herrera. The seminar will be in Spanish, and is limited to 40 students.

HISP 1370T. Transatlantic Literature of the XXI Century: The Galaxia Borges.

This course will explore new trends and authors from the Hispano-phonic world: Spanish, Latin American and Latino narratives of migration, bilingualism, globalization and innovative forms and techniques. This course will be dedicated to Borges global. We will follow his imprint on the international literature and literary ideas. We will read, in Spanish and English, Borges' stories and essays.

HISP 1370V. Mujeres Malas.

This seminar will analyze the notion of "bad women" in Pre-modern and Latin American Literature and visual texts. Perception, representation, and stereotyping of these women, both historical and fictional, as Mad, Witch, Femme fatal, Hysterical, and Crazy, will allow us to follow the ideological narrative that produced these characters. Some of them are based on medical, primitive, political, and even psychoanalytic conceptions. We will discuss the primitive Castilian epic cycle, Celestina, Carmen, the novel and the opera; Malinche, Cortéz' translator in the conquest of Mexico; and novels and short stories from contemporary authors as well as Luis Buñuel' films. Prerequisite: HISP 0730 or 0740.

HISP 1370W. La Cultura Política de la Transición y DDHH en el mundo Hispánico.

This course will discuss literary representations of "transitions" as the social and cultural mechanisms by which a country or region (Spain, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Cuba) moves form tradition to modernity, from the rural to urban, and from authoritarian regimes to democracy. We will also analyze the role of borders, social spaces, political negotiation, mapping and networks in the sagas of migration. Prerequisite: HISP 0730 or 0740.

HISP 1370Y. Literature and Film of the Cuban Revolution.

Cuba’s revolution of 1959 gained extraordinary visibility internationally, motivating images of bearded rebels, jubilant crowds and middle-class flight. Yet even as the Cuban Revolution became an object of representation abroad, it guided the domestic production of new forms of literature and cinema. Over the course of the semester, we will trace the relationship between fiction and film, and between art and the revolutionary project, from 1959 to the present day.

HISP 1371B. Sports and Culture in Latin America.

Sports in Latin America are big, and in some cases huge, and their significance goes way beyond pure entertainment. They are a contemporary theater of sorts where underlying social tensions are relived and sometimes exacerbated. This course studies soccer, boxing, baseball and lesser-known sports (e.g., ultramarathons and women’s wrestling) in relation to Latin American national narratives, politics, race, and gender. Using tools of sociology and anthropology, among others disciplines, we will study the representation of and discourse about sports in cinema, literature, television, and other media. IN ENGLISH.

HISP 1371C. “El gran zoo”: Animals in Latin American Culture.

From César Vallejo’s dismembered spider, to Julio Cortázar’s house tiger, to Nicolás Guillén’s satirical zoo, this course traces the varied ways in which animals appear in 20th and 21st century Latin American culture. We will pay particular attention to the zones of entanglement between the human and non-human, in order to analyze how a number of Latin American writers and filmmakers tackle oppositions between nature and culture, civilización y barbarie, city and countryside, self and other. In unsettling the human-animal divide, Latin American cultures respond to some of the most pressing—perhaps dehumanizing—issues of the century.

HISP 1371D. Latin American Authors Encounter the Sciences (LACA 1504F).

Interested students must register for LACA 1504F.

HISP 1371F. Narrating the Borderlands: Literature, Legality, and Solidarity.

This course explores multiple issues concerning crossing, living, and narrating the United States-Mexico border. We will focus on the border as a legal space bound to interpretations about what it means to migrate legally or illegally across that territory. We will explore the border as a vast and uneven expanse that entails diverse and often contradictory narrations and imaginaries that range from idealized landscapes to apocalyptic wastelands. Finally, we will discuss how border-crossing is a theme for artists and writers working on the solidarity networks from those who have dealt with the journey and its perils.

HISP 1371H. Storytelling in the Americas (LACA 1630).

Interested students must register for LACA 1630.

HISP 1371I. From Pancho Villa to Netflix: An Introduction to Mexican Cinema.

This course is an introductory overview to Mexican cinema, its prominent themes, and its historical eras. We will begin with the silent films of the national period in the 1930s and conclude with the transition to streaming platforms in the 2010s. We will pay attention to three interrelated questions: 1) What is the relation between cinema and political projects? 2) How does national cinema approach gender? 3) What is the role of neoliberal market in reshaping Mexican films? This approach will be useful to see how the production of cinema is related to major political and social processes in Mexico.

HISP 1371L. Take My Breath Away: A Cultural History of Air in Modern Latin America's Imagination and Literature.

Latin America has been conjured up from opposing aerial images. On the one hand, Amazonia has been represented as the “lungs of the earth”; on the other, its megalopolis as polluted places where breathing is hazardous. From Neruda’s poetic journey to Machu Picchu, passing through eco-feminist gothic fictions, all the way through accordion, flute and Caribbean music, flight narratives and space films, this course explores what “aire” allows us to recount —or choke—, to scent —or to smell— about being in place or traveling. The languages of instruction will be Spanish and English.

HISP 1371P. On Both Sides of the Lens: Latin American Women Filmmakers (GNSS 1070).

Interested students must register for GNSS 1070.

HISP 1371Q. Insurrectas: Latin American and Latinx Women Writers and Artists.

Although some still hold onto the idea of universal artistic expression, we are increasingly aware of the embodied nature of creative work and of the need to analyze it from intersectional approaches that consider race, gender, class, and other social factors. This course examines creativity, struggle, and resistance in the work of Latin American and Latinx women writers and artists. We will consider debates about artistic innovation, activism, dissidence, and feminism in national and transnational contexts. Writers and artists studied include Frida Kahlo, Violeta Parra, Terri de la Peña, Achy Obejas, Elizabeth Acevedo, and many others. The course will primarily be conducted in Spanish, with some readings in English, and discussions in Spanglish will be welcome.

HISP 1371R. Detention and Freedom in the Americas.

On a continent where pretexts for the privation of liberty range from criminal activity to political beliefs to cross-border migration, creative writing - as Chilean-American writer and human rights activist Ariel Dorfman once commented - has a powerful relationship to hope and survival. In this course, we will read poetry, short fiction and testimonial writing from spaces of detention across Latin America and the U.S., asking how subjects in detention represent themselves, their aspirations to freedom, their physical and social environment, and the languages of defense and protection that ostensibly justify their detention. Primary texts by contemporary writers in Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, the U.S. and at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base; readings and class discussion in Spanish.

HISP 1371T. Reimagining the Line: Contemporary Arts and Political Imagination at the Mexico-US Border.

This course explores contemporary literary works, film, and art from and/or about the Mexico-US border. Concentrating on its political and aesthetic dimensions, the course focuses on the divisive nature of the border, the systematic exploitation of its gender and ethnic minorities, and the freedom produced by border experiences and arts. Students will analyze how border writers and artists come up with rhetorical and political strategies that allow them to reimagine themselves and their bi-national territory, and to generate challenging notions of citizenship, nationhood, and culture to establish more fluid and socially responsible modes of representation. The course pays close attention to works and creators that understand the border experience as one of instability and hardship, but also as a form of ideological resistance, subversive power, and freedom. Students are encouraged to bring their own interests and experiences to the course.

HISP 1500L. Theory and Practice of Translation.

The objectives of the course are to give students a firm grounding in the theory of translation studies as well as extensive experience in the practice of literary translation, working closely with several canonical Spanish texts as well as texts of the student’s choice. Throughout the course of the semester, students will also be called upon to reflect actively on their experience as translators, and dialogue on this experience with their peers. This course is structured as a workshop, with students sharing their work – both translations and reading reflections – and collaborating with their peers.

HISP 1500M. Queer Aesthetics and Intimacies en español.

This course asks what connections can be drawn among ‘queer’ texts across time, place, and different genres of writing and forms of artistic expression in Spanish, Latin American, and US Latinx cultures. By looking to literary texts and cultural objects from the 20th to 21st centuries, this course considers how non-normative sex and gender function within spaces beset by colonial, racist, and nationalist legacies and how queerness imagines being within and without these structures. Readings and discussion will be in Spanish with an option to write papers in English for non-concentrators or concentrators fulfilling one of their English-language courses.

HISP 1700A. Dismantling the Clockwork: Creative Writing and Narrative Techniques.

This class focuses on creating literary texts in Spanish, which involves the development of a sensibility to appreciate narrative texts and the skills to employ writing techniques, e.g, use of the first person, free indirect speech or the stream of consciousness. Drawing from theoretical reflections on writing made by Latin American and Spanish canonical writers as well as examples of its use, we'll explore the creative possibilities of narrative forms: aphorisms, prose poetry and short stories. Our objective is to strengthen students’ skills as individual and collaborative authors through exercises in literary production and techniques, strategies, and habits of good writing. In Spanish.

HISP 1700B. Rhythm and Silence: A Creative Writing Workshop.

The course focuses on learning the craft of creative writing in Spanish across genres. We will study underlying principles of writing through lectures, readings, discussions, and exercises. As we reflect upon the creative process, we will examine the relationship between author and text and explore narrative techniques used to construct complex characters, dialogue, and imagery. The object will be to expand our creative writing skills and discuss the works of influential contemporary Latin American authors such as Juan José Arreola, Eduardo Halfon, Juan Carlos Onetti, Juan José Saer and Mario Vargas Llosa.

HISP 1750P. TAship/fellow for First Year Seminar HISP 0750P.

This course provides a senior concentrator the opportunity to work as a TA and fellow for the First Year Seminar HISP 750P: Contemporary Social Justice Cinema of the Spanish Speaking World. The TA/fellow completes more advanced versions of the two short semester papers and for a final project compiles a course development proposal for improvement to the class, along with an annotated bibliography. The student holds weekly discussion sections with first years and also provides developmental writing support throughout the semester.

HISP 1980. Independent Study.

Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

HISP 1990. Senior Thesis Preparation.

Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

HISP 2013. Dissertation/Professional Development.

This is intended for advanced graduate students in Hispanic Studies at the prospectus or dissertation stages. Its main purpose is to help students conceptualize or refine projects (including corpus of investigation, scholarly approaches, and principal guiding questions) and develop strategies for research and writing. Conducted as a workshop, the seminar provides ample opportunities for participants to give and receive feedback on each other’s work and thus acquire important skills in peer review. While focused primarily on the dissertation (prospectus), the seminar also offers guidance on various aspects of professional development such as preparation for the job market and article publication.

HISP 2030B. History and Fiction: Literature of the 15th Century.

The goal of this course is to familiarize students with major literary works of the Fifteenth Century, and their socio-cultural background. Major works of three outstanding poets of this period (Juan de Mena, Íñigo López de Mendoza, and Jorge Manrique), satirical and historical writings, romances, (ballads sung with instrumental accompaniment), Alfonso Martínez de Toledo's Corbacho and Fernando de Rojas' Celestina will be presented in the context of the distinct cultural traditions that coexisted in Spain.

HISP 2030C. Medieval Masterpieces.

Examines three medieval Spanish masterpieces: Cantar de Mio Cid, Libro de buen amor, and Celestina. Other works are read to explore lines of continuity and discontinuity in these three works and their respective genres.

HISP 2030D. Fifteenth-Century Sentimental Romances and Celestina.

The fifteenth-century sentimental romances establish narrative innovations and a literary climate that lead inevitably to the creation of the "novel". With their insistent portrayal of the sufferings of love, romances by Padrón, Flores, San Pedro, and Rojas represent an essential step in the evolution of the modern novel.

HISP 2030E. Medieval Spanish Epic.

A study of the medieval Spanish epic poems and narratives. This seminar will move through a series of topics or events and texts from the 10th to the 15th centuries, exploring the relation between heroic narratives and history. Four medieval cycles (Castilain Counts, Cid, Carolingian, and anti-Carolingian) based on oral traditions will be studied and compared with their ballad congeners printed in the 16th century. We will examine the different contexts and channels in which historical epic narratives were produced, consumed and transmitted.

HISP 2030G. Mester de clerecia.

This course will focus on different works of "mester de clerecía" from the 13th and 14th centuries, and provide an overview of current thinking regarding their nature and origin, while at the same time seeking to interrogate many of the prevailing assumptions and received ideas of Spanish literary historiography. Works and topics will include: Libro de Alexandre (ideologies of power), Libro de Apolonio (the intellectual hero), Berceo's works (hagiography, clerical poetry, the rise of literacy), Poema/Libro de Fernán González (epic hero), and Libro de buen amor (seduction manual/spiritual guide).

HISP 2030H. Latin in America (LATN 2080F).

Interested students must register for LATN 2080F.

HISP 2160F. Questioning the Canon: Golden Age Theatre.

The canonical dramatic texts of the Spanish Golden Age - from Lope de Vega's El caballero de Olmedo and El castigo sin venganza to Tirso de Molina's El burlador de Sevilla and Calderón's La vida es sueño will be opened to new critical inquiry. Dramatic discourse, construction of characters, social and moral issues such as justice versus revenge, reality versus dream, courtly love versus erotic love, chastity versus incest, will be at issue. Each play will also be studied in relation to its social background and as metaphors of power and political crisi.

HISP 2160G. Don Quixote: Contexts and Constructions.

This seminar offers an in-depth study of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha in its “own right” and through an exploration of its afterlives (editions, translations, interpretations, imitations). On the one hand, we will examine the novel in its narrative complexity and engagement with early modern Spanish literature and history. On the other, we will trace its modern critical reception, with particular focus on its paradoxical canonization both as a “universal” masterpiece and a cornerstone of constructions of Spain and the study of Spanish and the Hispanic world.

HISP 2160J. The Poetics and Practice of Space in the Theater of the Spanish Baroque.

This seminar will explore the real and virtual spaces of seventeenth-century Spanish drama. We will examine the diverse spaces in which theatrical performances took place (public playhouses, city streets, court theaters, convents), as well as the various types of spaces represented on the stage (domestic and public, urban and rural, worldly and supernatural, familiar and distant). How did dramatic space articulate the boundaries of the public and private in the Spanish baroque? How did it function in the configuration of social hierarchies, subjectivities, and marginal as well as normative identities? In the theatrical world of seventeenth-century Spain, how did spatial practices on stage shape the experience of space off stage?

HISP 2160M. Early Modern Madrid: The Cultural Creation of a Court Capital.

This seminar studies Madrid's transformation from a secondary market town into the epicenter of Spain's global monarchy under the Spanish Habsburgs and how that transformation fueled, and was fueled by, literary and artistic production. The intersection of the court and the city that rapidly expanded around it made Madrid not only Spain’s imperial capital, but its cultural capital as well through a confluence of overlapping and competing social interests. Topics include: negotiations of the global and the local in historical chronicles and municipal festivities; the centrality of the theater in urban socialization; the use of poetry for self-fashioning; the transmission of political news. We will study authors canonical (e.g., Lope de Vega, Calderón, Zayas) and lesser known (e.g., Liñán y Verdugo). While Madrid will be our focus, we will give comparative consideration to other cities of the early modern world.

HISP 2160N. Antiquity and Innovation in the Hispanic Renaissance.

The artistic and literary florescence of the Siglo de Oro paralleled a broader current of cultural innovation, which extended beyond peninsular Spain to other parts of Europe and the Americas – a movement which can be conceived as a Hispanic Renaissance. After an introductory overview, the seminar will highlight four major tendencies, through close examination of some foundational authors and texts. The course will be organised thematically, but texts will generally be approached in chronological sequence, beginning with Antonio de Nebrija’s investigations in the 1490s and ending with Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora’s showcasing of New Spain’s complex legacies.

HISP 2160P. The Invention of the Novel: Fiction and Society in Renaissance Spain.

In the space of ten years, at the mid-sixteenth century, four genres made their first appearance in Spain: the picaresque, pastoral and Moorish (or captivity) novels, and the novel of foreign customs and adventures. This course examines how and why these novels, and the more complex novels that followed, became key instruments for commentary and dissent in a society with little tolerance for both pursuits. Working individually and in groups, we will also undertake a series of exercises in close and critical reading to hone analytical skills. All readings, discussions and assignments will be done in Spanish.

HISP 2160Q. Stage and Page in Early Modern Spain: A Seminar on the Comedia Nueva.

This seminar studies the development and florescence of early modern Spain’s most popular form of entertainment, the comedia nueva, from both literary and performance perspectives. We will read works by the principal playwrights of the period (Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, Calderón de la Barca, and others); examine the comedia’s main sub-genres (honor plays, comedias de capa y espada, and autos sacramentales, etc.); and consider the institutional regulation and social and material dimensions of theatrical activity (including the configuration of playhouses and composition of acting companies). Key critical approaches to the comedia, past and present, will also be explored.

HISP 2250N. Madrid's Modern Landscapes (1780-1900).

A seminar to study the changing relationship between landscape, architecture, and society during Madrid’s modernization, from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth. Considers representations of gardens, parks, and “natural" landscapes around the Spanish capital as expressions of how writers, planners, and intellectuals envisioned changes in ideas of national identity, gender relationships, class consciousness, and artistic perception. Readings, presentations, and group discussions are designed to promote a sustained analysis of such concepts as modernization, nature, the city and the country, with an eye not only to Madrid’s past but also to our own relationship to landscape in the present.

HISP 2350C. La nueva novela de América Latina.

Este curso está dedicado a algunos textos fundadores: Rayuela de Julio Cortázar, Pedro Páramo de Juan Rulfo, La muerte de Artemio Cruz de Carlos Fuentes, Los ríos profundos de José María Arguedas, Cien años de Soledad de Gabriel García Márquez; pero también a otros que literaria inician nuevas rutas: La guaracha del macho Camacho de Luis Rafael Sánchez, Un mundo para Julius de Alfredo Bryce Echenique, Los vigilantes de Diamela Eltit, y La ingratitud de Matilde Sánchez.

HISP 2350E. Novela latinomericana contemporánea: Crítica Textual y Ediciones Críticas.

Estudiaremos la constelación de novelas fundamentales (Pedro Páramo, Los ríos profundos, Rayuela, La muerte de Artemio Cruz, Cien Años de soledad entre otras) que configuran un sistema literario hecho de innovación formal, ampliación de la lectura, y puesta en crisis de la representación.

HISP 2350G. Teoría y Práctica Poética en Cesar Vallejo.

Seminario dedicado a estudiar en profundidad la poesía hermética de Vallejo. Analizaremos su práctica poética así como su teoria del poema a través de la evolución de su obra y pensamiento.

HISP 2350H. The History of Wonder in Colonial Spanish American Lettres.

The notion of wonder (asombro, maravilla) played a determining role in the Spanish and Creole writings of the Spanish American colonial period. The volatile aesthetic of wonder raises and implicates such important issues as otherness, exoticism, category crisis, and identity formation. A studies course examining the role of wonder in New World historiographic and literary writings of the 16th and 17th centuries.

HISP 2350I. Vallejo y sus contemporáneos.

Este seminario monográfico tiene como finalidad explorar la obra poética de César Vallejo en relación a los contextos del modernismo, la vanguardia, y la poesía contemporánea. Partiremos de un análisis formal del lenguaje poético y su organización semántica, de modo de ejercitarnos en el análisis textual de la poesía.

HISP 2350M. Poetics of the Avant-Garde in Latin America.

This course traces the shocks and flows of avant-garde activities through Latin America, beginning in the first decades of the twentieth century and weaving our way to the present. We will explore manifestoes, poetry, artworks, and film from Argentina, the Caribbean, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru, from creacionismo through Brazilian modernismo, ultraísmo and estridentismo, poesía afroantillana and tecnoindigenismo, with occasional detours into Iberian experiments, culminating with studies of the neo-avant-gardes of the 1960s and of the nostalgia for the avant-gardes which characterizes the early twenty-first century.

HISP 2350P. Teoria Literaria: la literatura Transatlantica.

Dedicado a la teoría del texto transatlántico, en este seminario trabajaremos sobre la historia intelectual de la interculturalidad Atlántica. A partir de los modelos, contactos, apropiación, debate y dialogismo que entre Europa y América Latina configuran un sistema literario, nos detendremos en la construcción del Sujeto, la Representación y la Lectura. Estudiaremos a Guamán Poma de Ayala y Garcilaso de la Vega, la saga de Calibán, los modelos de la formación nacional en Martí y Sarmiento, y la genealogía de la mezcla como la diferencia moderna de la producción cultural latinoamericana. En español.

HISP 2350V. The Politics of Romanticism in Spanish American Literature.

This course postulates Romanticism as a regime of representation employed by second-generation citizens of the new Latin American republics to organize time-space in post-Independence Spanish America. Through readings of national romances, periodicals, poetry, cuadros de costumbres and travelogues, we will discuss what Romanticism and being Romantic meant for mid-19th-century writers and readers in Spanish America. Weekly readings will be organized around a word from a glossary of Romantic keywords: lengua, pueblo, indio, España, among others. Finally, the course will examine connections between 19th-century Romanticism, 20th century criollismo and Populism.

HISP 2350X. Literatures of Work and the Work of Literature in Tropical Latin America.

This seminar investigates the ways in which labor has been represented in tropical Latin American literature from Independence until the mid-20th century. We will explore the representations of different agro-export tropical booms in fiction —tobacco, rubber, banana, among others— in order to understand how work determined the ways in which populations and landscapes were imagined into being. Finally, this seminar will incorporate fictions of labor that appear more difficult to control or are rendered as gothic: vagrancy and banditry. Seminar readings and discussion will be in Spanish.

HISP 2351D. Practicing Latin America.

Taking its cue from de Certeau’s notion of “space as practiced place”, this seminar explores the ways in which Latin America has been perceived, practiced, and pieced together in poetry, narrative, film, and the visual arts. Readings will establish a counterpoint between figurations of Latin America in early discovery accounts and later travel narratives, looking at poetic remappings and novelistic reworkings of earlier tropes, while also exploring key theoretical texts from Latin American studies and their more recent articulations through the shifting prisms of gender, Indigeneity, decolonial studies, and translation.

HISP 2450. Exchange Scholar Program.

HISP 2520I. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in Her Literary Context.

Intensive study of Sor Juana's major writings in a variety of genres; comparisons with other writers of her extended literary milieu.

HISP 2520J. Teoria y practica del texto transatlántico.

Este curso propone varios escenarios teóricos sobre el texto transatlántico. Partiendo de modelos de teoría literaria formal trabajaremos sobre un conjunto de textos de ambas orillas del idioma. Revisaremos las cuestiones del genero, representación, lectura y recepción, mezcla y heterogeneidad archivo y cambio.

HISP 2520L. Latin American Existential Literature.

European existentialism had a strong impact on Latin American literature, though that impact remains under-explored. The course begins with European existentialism and Latin American identity politics. It then explores the particular constructions of European existentialism effected by Argentine, Uruguayan, Mexican, and Brazilian writers of prose fiction in the mid-twentieth century. Readings in Spanish and English. Instructor override needed for registration.

HISP 2520M. The Poetry and Discursive Strategies of Spanish American Modernismo.

The development of Modernismo was a turning point in the elaboration of the continental self-image. Modernista poets like Rubén Darío, Leopoldo Lugones, Julio Herrera y Reissig, Julián del Casal, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera and José Asunción Silva were among the first original Hispanic American creators of literature, but they did not share a common view on continental problems and solutions. The relevance of Modernismo for the shaping of Latin American self image cannot be overstated. Modernista's conceptions on new intellectuals, aestheticism, l'art pour l'art, racism, immigrants, science and the occult, modernization, decadence, dandysmo, the body, sex, feminism, anarchism, cosmopolitism, pan-Latinism, universalism and nationalism will be discussed.

HISP 2520O. The Old Science in the New World: Nature, Culture, and Empire in the Age of Exploration.

Studies how Spain's exploration and conquest of the Americas tested European understandings of the natural world; of nature's bearing on human psycho-physiology and, thereby, on culture; and of the balance between normalcy and deviance in natural and human domains. Topics range from changing theories about the distribution of land and life around the globe to "natural" and "moral" histories implicated in a debate over Spain's rights to the Americas and its peoples. Readings: Aristotle, Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, Columbus, Vespucci, Oviedo, Las Casas, and Acosta. Students will be able to read primary texts in either Spanish or English. Discussion in English. Undergraduates welcome.

HISP 2520P. Narrativa latinoamericana contemporanea (De Juan Rulfo a Diamela Eltit).

Estudiaremos los modos de representación, prácticas de escritura y lectura, redes culturales, tramas sociales y políticas de los relatos de la modernidad crítica y diferencia latinoamericana. Autores: Cortázar, García Márquez, Fuentes, Bryce, Rodriguez, Juliá.

HISP 2520Q. Critical Readings in Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican Literature.

This course traces the emergence and evolution of nationalist expression in literary and political texts from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Beginning with early anti-colonial and nation-building writing, we focus particularly on the idea of the island in articulations of national culture. We address key figures in the intellectual history of the Caribbean; essays, novels and poetry from the nineteenth-century to the twenty-first; and recent critical and theoretical work on the Spanish Caribbean. Weekly topics include the intersection of race and nationalism; exile and migration; and transnational ties to the broader Caribbean, the U.S. and Latin America. This course is for graduate students only.

HISP 2520R. Radical Borders.

This course considers Mexico from a transnational perspective in order to explore the aesthetic and political dimensions of its northern and southern borders. We will examine the question of migration from and to Mexico in novels, poems, and theoretical materials from countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, and the United States. The objective is to conceptualize the notion of border not only as a space of surveillance and law enforcement but also as an arena for radical politics and revolutionary ideals. We will read texts by Horacio Castellanos Moya, Alaíde Foppa, Yuri Herrera, Subcomandante Marcos, and Sayak Valencia among others.

HISP 2620A. Entre nosotros: Representing the Family in Modern and Contemporary Spain.

This course reflects on the representation of the family in Spanish literature and film since the Civil War, spanning texts and films from the period 1942-2009. Some of the themes we will explore over the course of the semester include: the family as a space for the formation of identities and subjectivities; the symbolic relationship between family and nation; religion; gender roles and the concepts of maternity, fatherhood, and childhood; monstrous families and the specter of incest; modern "found" families constructed outside biological bonds. Texts and films by Sender, Buero Vallejo, Delibes, Cela, Laforet, Buñuel, Borau, Almodóvar, Saura, among others.

HISP 2620O. Authorship and Authoritarianism in Spain and Latin America.

This course examines responses to authoritarianism in contemporary Spanish and Latin American literature, using the particular cases of recent dictatorships in Spain (Francisco Franco, 1939-1975) and Chile (Augusto Pinochet, 1973-1990) as a focus. Alongside novels and a play dealing with dictatorship and its aftermath, we will read theoretical texts that offer varied approaches to history, literature, aesthetics, and politics. Throughout, we will examine the complex relationship between authority, authoritarianism, and authorship in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, asking how dictatorship is (not) narrated and how we can read narratives emerging from contexts of repression and state terror. In Spanish.

HISP 2620P. The Urbanization of Culture: BCN-MAD from Modernity to Postmodernity.

The way you live is the way you represent reality, David Harvey argued in The Urban Experience (1989). Any change in aesthetics, he continued, it should therefore imply a change in the perception of space leading to what Harvey described as the urbanization of consciousness. Playing out of this concept, this class will examine the ways by which two Iberian cities (Barcelona and Madrid) have been both represented and re-imagined in contemporary culture through novels, film, painting and photography.

HISP 2900. Theory and Methods of Foreign Language Teaching.

How are second languages acquired? How can instruction optimize acquisition? How do we evaluate, improve or create effective teaching materials? This course introduces the theory of foreign language learning and teaching and seeks to help language teachers implement communicative language teaching through reflective practice. Written permission required for undergraduates.

HISP 2900A. Translation: Theory and Practice (COLT 2720D).

Interested students must register for COLT 2720D.

HISP 2970. Preliminary Examination Preparation.

For graduate students who have met the tuition requirement and are paying the registration fee to continue active enrollment while preparing for a preliminary examination.

HISP 2980. Research in Spanish and Latin American Literature.

Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

HISP 2990. Thesis Preparation.

For graduate students who have met the residency requirement and are continuing research on a full time basis.

HISP 2990A. Learning & Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language.

This course provides practicing and prospective teachers of Spanish as a second language (L2) with an introduction to the field of second language acquisition (SLA) and its application to language teaching methodology and pedagogy, with a specific focus on the teaching of Spanish. In addition to the theoretical discussion, there is a significant practical component to the course so you can start (or continue) to develop skills and materials for your own work as an instructor at Brown University and beyond.

HISP 2990B. Proseminar in Hispanic Studies.

This proseminar’s aims are twofold: 1) to provide graduate students with a map of the discipline of Hispanic Studies, with attention to its history and to its newest directions; and 2) to demystify key elements of an academic career, both specific to the doctoral program in our department and more generally. The bulk of course’s meetings will therefore have a dual structure. In the first half of our sessions, we will center on particular fields and their representative and innovative essays, in discussions introduced by members of the department and beyond. The second half of each class session will be devoted to practical issues around professionalization (article publication, reviews, conference participation, crafting the dissertation, etc.). Students will be closely involved in the planning of the course, contributing suggestions for topics to explore and potentially presenting samples of their own work.

HISP 2991. Thesis Preparation.

Section numbers vary by instructor. Please check Banner for the correct section number and CRN to use when registering for this course.

HISP XLIST. Courses of Interest to Concentrators in Hispanic Studies.