2011-2012 Spanish Courses

This course is designed to enable students with no previous exposure to Spanish to achieve essential communication skills, while providing the basic grammatical, lexical, and syntactical structures to do so effectively. From the start, oral interaction will be stressed in class and reinforced through pair or small-group activities. Students are required to meet with the instructor in small groups for one hour each week (small-group conference) and to attend a weekly conversation session with a language assistant. Course conducted in Spanish. Placement test is not required. Students should attend the scheduled orientation meetings during interview and registration week.

This course is designed for students who have had some Spanish before but have forgotten most of it. Grounded in a thorough overview of essential grammatical, lexical, and syntactical structures, students will work with short texts, videos, and songs by a broad array of authors and artists from both Spain and Latin America—ranging from Alfonsina Storni, Jorge Luis Borges, and Augusto Monterroso to Gloria Fuertes, Enrique Buenaventura, and Elena Garro, among others. The objective is to expose students to the diversity of the Spanish-speaking world and, as much as possible, to “real” rather than “textbook” language. Much of the work will be done online, so students should be prepared to use their laptops; class work will focus on communication, while grammar exercises will be integrated with the texts they are reading. Through role-play and guided group activities, students will gain increased language proficiency in Spanish.  Weekly one-hour meetings with a language tutor are required, and students will have to attend some film screenings. Advanced beginning level. This course is taught entirely in Spanish. It is strongly recommended that interested students take the Spanish placement test in addition to interviewing with the instructor.

Augusto Monterroso’s microfiction, “Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía seguía allí,” exemplifies the complexity of the Spanish language and grammar through a single sentence that can generate many interpretations. This course is designed to revise and emphasize the fundamental Spanish grammatical structures, using literary fiction as a frame to understand the craft of language and its richness. We will also pay special attention to oral communication, the use of new vocabulary, and writing formats to create a dynamic dialogue among grammar, literature, and culture to contextualize multiple meanings while increasing fluency in every aspect of language production. Intermediate I level.

This course is intended for students who have already mastered the basics of Spanish and wish to continue a more advanced study of the grammar and vocabulary and to develop a more complex level of oral and written discourse, emphasizing subjective expression. Written and oral skills will be strengthened by oral presentations, class participation, and frequent essays (which include film reviews), based on a broad array of materials related to contemporary Latin American and Iberian culture. We will attempt to cover various sources: short stories, poems, novels, films, music lyrics, newspaper articles, etc. For conference, students will have a chance to explore various aspects and topics of Hispanic culture and the arts. We will take advantage of our local resources such as museums, libraries, and theatre. Weekly conversation with a language assistant will be required. Intermediate II level, course conducted entirely in Spanish. Placement test recommended for students who have not taken Spanish at SLC.

Voracious, boundless, the den of unbridled lust and greed (La Celestina) or a heaven of opportunity, sometimes safety from prosecution and prejudice, the city is a polymorphous reality onto which we project our fantasies and desires (Atlantis, Eldorado, Axtlán). Feminized, it can be a courted or threatened citadel (traditional romances), the whore of Babylon, enticement and entrapment. It’s a seductive or frightening labyrinth (Borges, Sin noticias de Dios), the lettered city or the urban cauldron where immigrants sink or swim (El super, Los olvidados). If small, the imaginary solution to our contemporary rootlessness (Atame) or a metaphor for suffocating oppression (Lorca’s plays, Calle mayor, El espíritu de la colmena, Madeinusa). If metropolis, the centrifugal host of postmodern excesses and loss (Generación X, MacOndo), the tentative locus of postrevolutionary modernism (Maples Arce). Roads into or out of it and its darkened alleyways are the quintessential frame of noir narrative (Nahum Montt, Muñoz Molina). Is the country a haven for time-tested virtues and resistance to forms of coercion (Fuentovejuna), or a desert where all dreams are deformed or come crashing down (Ana María Matute)? Are nature and nurture, culture and history, at war with each other, and how can we negotiate our own space between them (Cortázar)? We will explore these themes—and others that will surely emerge in this context—in literature and film from both sides of the Atlantic, while pursuing a systematic review of advanced Spanish grammar. Intermediate III level, course taught in Spanish. If you have not studied Spanish at SLC prior to this year, It is strongly recommended that you take the Spanish Placement Test in addition to the interview with the instructor.

Although academia tends to lag behind, Spanish language authors of today have trascended notions such as national origin or geographical location. Dychotomies such as peninsular vs. Latin American literature stopped being meaningful many years ago. More than ever, the only common bond among these writers in the 21st century is the language in which their works are written: Spanish. In this course, we will study the literary production of the Spanish-speaking world—ignoring, as the authors do, artificial barriers such as nationality. Novelists writing in Spanish today have more in common with young authors from the rest of the world than with their venerable ancestors. Globally, they have joined ranks with authors who have also uprooted the notion of tradition. Technology plays a fundamental role in this revolutionary new phase. We will explore the literary production of the Spanish-speaking world as manifest in fictional works published (and occasionally unpublished) during the first 11 years of the 21st century. Advanced level.

This course focuses on the creation and recreation of (our)selves and the construction of national memories. The course will have two approaches: On one hand, we will explore how breaking the boundaries between memory and fiction allows writers and artists of the Hispanic world to construct their own image. The second approach will be devoted to the evaluation and discussion of the “politics of memory” that shape the recovering of historical processes in Spain and Latin America. We will study a selection of journals, theatre, short fiction, poetry, interviews, autobiographies, autofiction, paintings, photography, testimonials, and films—paying close attention to the processes of self-representation and the cultural tasks of memory. We will emphasize, through literary and cultural analysis, several aspects of the texts in relation to their social and historical contexts, while improving oral communication, lexical, grammatical, and written skills. Evaluation will be based on active participation in class discussions, preparedness to class, short response papers, brief presentations, interviews with New York-based writers and artists, and individual projects elaborated with the instructor during conferences. Students are welcome to explore their own memories and to participate in the process of writing themselves. Weekly meetings with the language assistant are a requirement. Advanced level. This course will be taught entirely in Spanish. It is strongly recommended that students take the Spanish placement test in addition to interviewing with the instructor.