Fall 2008 classes: Upper Division Course Descriptions
Spanish 100: Introduction to Spanish Linguistics (3 units)
Ana Ameal Guerra
Prerequisites: Spanish 25 (or equivalent at instructor’s discretion); proficient linguistic competence in Spanish.
The aim of this course is to offer a general overview of contemporary Spanish Linguistics, and likewise to establish the basis for the application of linguistic principles. We will study areas such as the History of the Spanish language; the goals and methodology of the Language Sciences; the sound system of Spanish (Phonetics and Phonology); the form and function of words (Morphology); the structure of sentences and other relevant aspects of Spanish syntactic structures; the different geographical, social and contextual varieties of the language (dialectal varieties, registers, bilingualism, etc.); and a burning question in contemporary Spanish Linguistics: Spanish in the US.
Spanish 107A: Survey of Spanish Literature to 1700. (3 units)
Eduardo Ruiz
Este curso tiene como misión principal el trazado de un panorama (survey) de la literatura peninsular hasta 1700. La segunda misión de este curso es la inserción de estas lecturas en los diferentes contextos históricos, sociales, políticos y culturales en que tienen lugar. La tercera misión es la elaboración de una serie de ideas críticas y teóricas que nos permitan comprender los distintos modos de construcción cultural que se han puesto en juego durante este larguísimo período. Para poder llevar a cabo todas estas misiones de naturaleza tan distinta, vamos a hacernos dos preguntas fundamentales: ¿por qué estudiar la producción cultural del pasado? y ¿cómo estudiar la producción cultural del pasado? Para responder estas preguntas estableceremos temas fundamentales que nos preocupan en nuestro mundo contemporáneo, para investigar si en el pasado estos temas han sido también fuente de preocupación y cómo se han enfrentado a ellos. De este modo, podremos no sólo adquirir un conocimiento sobre un objeto pasado, sino que también tendremos la oportunidad de conocer el modo en que nosotros mismos hemos construido y discutido estos temas. Algunos de tales temas son los siguientes: convivencia multicultural, multilingüismo, diferencias entre géneros ('genders'), percepción del otro, relaciones entre poderes religiosos y poderes estatales, formas de construcción de la crítica social, función del arte, etc. Cada semana nos dedicaremos a uno de estos temas, y, para poder explorarlos, leeremos textos literarios y críticos del período anterior a 1700 en la Península Ibérica.Todos los textos, convenientemente divididos en temas y semanas, estarán en bspace. Descripción actualizada.
Spanish 117: The picaresque (3 units) Prof. Ignacio Navarrete
What is the effect of poverty on narrative? This course will examine the discourse of poverty in (primarily) Spanish narrative literature, both thematically (what is poverty like?), and formally (how does poverty affect the telling of a story?). Among the issues we’ll look at are: the effacement of the poor subject; the relationship between poverty and religion; are the poor justified in doing whatever is necessary in order to survive; poverty and gender; poverty and the body; is there a story to poverty; is the picaresque a genre; etc. Readings will range from ancient Roman novels and medieval Arabic stories, to the “core” readings of Renaissance Spanish texts, And to modern expressions of the picaresque sensibility. Three papers (including one on a novel to be read outside of class, and final exam.
A xeroxed reader will contain some of the short stories and secondary literature.
Books to be ordered through the ASUC bookstore:
Apuleyo, El asno de oro (Cátedra, 84-376-0658-7)
Petronio, Satiricón (Cátedra, 84-376-0546-6)
(Anon.) Lazarillo de Tormes (Cátedra, 84-376-0660-8)
Quevedo, El Buscón (Cátedra, 84-376-0237-8)
Luna, Juan de. Segunda parte del Lazarillo (Cátedra, 84-376-0762-0)
Pérez Galdós, Benito, Misericordia (Cátedra, 84-376-0368-4) Cela, Camilo, La colmena (Cátedra, 84-376-0794-8) Defoe, Daniel, Moll Flanders (Penguin, 0-14-043313-9)
Spanish 135.4:Cine, literatura y música de la Revolución Cubana (3 units)
Prof. Julio Ramos
Este curso se propone el trabajo de preparación para aproximarnos a los “documentales” de Nicolás Guillén Landrián, el cine cubano de su tiempo, y el permanente diálogo entre el cine, la música y la literatura durante el periodo revolucionario. Nos interesa elaborar un vocabulario crítico para aproximarnos a varias películas claves y su "negociación" (y tensión) artística con las políticas culturales del Estado (particularmente en el Instituto Cubano de Arte e Industria Cinematográfica y la Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión).
El análisis de películas como Memorias del subdesarrollo, PM, Now, Por primera vez, Coffea Arábiga, Taller, Lucía o de Cierta manera nos permitirá reflexionar sobre la institucionalización del cine en la década del sesenta y su relación con la literatura y la música experimental del periodo ante las exigentes discusiones sobre la creación de una cultura de lo "nacional-popular" en las primeras décadas de la historia revolucionaria. Desde tal perspectiva estudiaremos la creación del Grupo de Experimentación Sonora del ICAIC (Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Amauri Pérez y Sara González) y el ideal de formas culturales capaces de superar la división tradicional entre música culta y popular en la colaboración –por ejemplo– de Chucho Valdés, Leo Brouwer, José Luis Cortés y otros en el grupo musical Irakere. Nos detendremos luego en la progresiva separación de los géneros y tradiciones musicales en la década del 90, la creación de la timba, el surgimiento de un cine alternativo (Sed) y el hip-hop cubano en la era de la crisis del complejo militar-cultural.
Libros (la lista es muy tentativa aún: la lista definitiva se entregará el primer día de clases)
Edmundo Desnoes, Memorias del subdesarrollo
Che Guevara, selección de Discursos
Fidel Castro, "Palabras a los intelectuales"
Reinaldo Arenas, Arturo, la estrella más brillante
Antología del cuento Submarino amarillo de Salvador Redonet
P.J. Gutiérrez, selección de Trilogía sucia de La Habana
A.J. Ponte, Un arte de hacer ruinas
Selecciones de Michael Chanan y Ana López sobre cine cubano
Selección de poesía contemporánea.
Películas
Nicolás Guillén Landrián
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Santiago Alvarez
Octavio Cortázar
Ch. Marker
J. García Espinosa
Sara Gómez
Enrique Alvarez
M. Kalatozov
Spanish 135W. Poesía hispanoamericana. (3 units)
Prof. Francine Masiello
Restricted to spanish majors. This course will be run as a workshop in which students will learn to read and listen to poetry and learn how to write about it. The focus is on the evolution of poetry from the avant-garde movements of the 1920s to contemporary voices in the experimental fields of poetry, rock music, and performance. Several poets will be invited to attend the class, reading from their own works and participating with the students in the analysis and reading of earlier poetic texts from the avant-garde. This is an intensive writing course. Your job is to figure out how to speak intelligently about poetry, to listen to the pulsations of the poem, and to figure out how we get to the various “meanings” that a poem allows. Weekly writing exercises, web based dialogues among students about poetic texts; a longer final essay (6-7 pp.) and a final exam.
Photocopies will be made available to you or you will be directed to web sites for the poetry texts that we will cover in class.
Texts covered:
Oliverio Girondo. Veinte poemas para ser leídos en un tranvía
Vicente Huidobro. Altazor
Pablo Neruda, Residencia en la tierra.
Luis Mario Schneider, El estridentismo: Una antología. México. UNAM, 1983.
Nicolás Guillén. Motivos de Son.
Spanish 162: The Structure of Spanish (3 units)
Ana Ameal-Guerra
Analysis of major syntactic structures of Spanish. The course surveys the parts
of speech, major processes of word formation, and sentence structure (simple sentences, coordination,
juxtaposition, and subordination). There will be intensive practice in analytical problems.
Spanish 167: Language & Society (3 units)
Prof. Juan Sempere
In this course we deal with sociolinguistics, political linguistics and language contact, among other issues relating to language and society. Although Spanish is the central focus, other languages spoken in Spanish speaking countries will also be considered. The main topics are: The origins of Spanish, Spanish in Latin America, the other languages of Spain, regional and social variations in Spanish, language attitudes, register in Spanish, Spanish in the media, language and gender, language policies in post-Franco Spain, language planning in Spain and Latin America, language and education, the vitality of Spanish today. The course will be taught in Spanish, although some of the readings will be in English. Course requirements: exercises, two term papers, one class presentation, a midterm exam and final examination.
Spanish 179: Mexican American Spanish (3 units)
Prof. Juan Sempere
The purpose of this course is to study in detail the historical development, structure and current status of Mexican Spanish in the U.S.A. (Mainly in the American Southwest, including Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and California). We will trace the origins of Mexican Spanish in North America from the end of the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century through colonial documents that already attest to some of the distinctive characteristics of Mexican American Spanish. For that period, the significant influence of indigenous loanwords will be glossed and emphasized, while for the second half of the 19th century until today, we will delve into the influence of English on Mexican American Spanish. Linguistic analysis (phonology, morphology, and syntax) is essential in this course, as well as a solid knowledge of the grammars of Spanish and English in order to study the intricacies of codeswitching or the mixture of both languages. The course will be taught in Spanish, although some of the readings will be in English. Course requirements: Exercises, a research project, one class presentation, a midterm exam and final examination.
Portuguese 113: Brazilian Civilization: Arte e Política. (3 units)
Prof. Candace Slater
The course offers students an overview of Brazilian culture, and the intertwining between art and politics in key moments of the nation’s history. We will look at three major moments in the redefinition of Brazil by Brazilian artists and intellectuals: the Modernism/Regionalism of the 1920s, the Tropicalism of the 1960s, and the search for new forms of expression following the advent of “globalization” in the 1990s. Many of the texts are major works that anyone serious about Brazil should know; others are popular narratives that represent a search for new ways of utilizing sometimes very old traditions. We will also talk about the current cultural policies of the Workers’ Party government. Need working knowledge of Portuguese.
Texts (Partial Listing) Gilberto Freyre. Casa Grande e Senzala.
Oswald de Andrade. Manifesto Antropafagista.
Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Selected poems.
Christopher Dunn. Brutality Garden.
Chico Science. Selected lyrics.
Ferrez. Caros Amigos (selections).
Milton Hatoum. Órfãos de El Dorado.
Portuguese 135.1: Culture, Media and Politics (3 units)
Prof. Ana Maria Martinho
This course will be centered in the study and analysis of New Media, TV, Radio and Press documents from Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone Africa.The focus will be content and discourse analysis through a comparative approach. Internet references, videotapes, audiotapes and press selections will be used as core resources.The activities in class will be organized in the format of a workshop.The students are expected to choose a topic that they can pursue as an individual project throughout the course and that may include writing, audio or video productions.All the resources will be available and referred to on Bspace or provided in class.
Intensive reading and writing activities will help the students improve their language skills in Portuguese.
Portuguese 135.2: Translation: Theory and Practice (3 units)
Prof. Ana Maria Martinho
This course is intended for students who wish to develop linguistic and literary skills in Portuguese through an intensive translation activity. It is also a good course for those wishing to further their studies in this field or to start a personal project in translation.
A wide typology of texts will be used: literary, journalistic, essayistic.
We will discuss some of the main theoretical issues translation raises today and convert those problems into practical reading and writing situations.
Different translations made after some of the works of major writers in the Portuguese language will be compared and discussed.
The students are expected to choose texts to work on as an individual or group oriented project.
Translators with international experience will be present as guest speakers on a regular basis in order to share their personal experiences.
The working languages will be Portuguese and English. Contributions in Spanish and French are also welcome.
A reader will be provided.
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