2020-2021 Course Descriptions

PORTUGUESE 101-1: Elementary Portuguese

Introduction to grammar and development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in Brazilian Portuguese, as well as the history and culture of Portuguese-speaking countries.

PORTUGUESE 101-2: Elementary Portuguese

Development of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and grammar skills in Brazilian Portuguese, as well as the history and culture of Portuguese-speaking countries.
Prerequisites: Port 101-1 or Portuguese Language Placement Test.

PORTUGUESE 101-3: Elementary Portuguese

Portuguese 101-3 is an elementary level language course designed for students in the beginner level of Portuguese. Based on the communicative approach, the course highlights the acquisition of basic language skills, listening, speaking, reading and writing, emphasizing grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation of Brazil Portuguese in meaningful cultural contexts. In Portuguese 101-3, the contexts are structured around the theme "Os passatempos", "As festas e tradições", e "O mercado de trabalho". The course also offers insights into the history and culture of the Portuguese speaking countries in Europe, Africa and America. Focusing on the mastery of the language, it is important to emphasize that Portuguese is the language spoken for instruction and interaction among students.

PORTUGUESE 115-1: Portuguese for Spanish Speakers

For students proficient in Spanish. Comparative sociolinguistic and interactive approach to communicative competence emphasizing pronunciation, intonation, sentence structure, and patterns of spoken and written Portuguese. Prerequisite: AP 4 or equivalent on the Spanish Language Placement Exam.

PORTUGUESE 115-2:Portuguese for Spanish Speakers

Portuguese 115-2 is the sequence of Portuguese 115-1. For students proficient in Spanish. Comparative sociolinguistic and interactive approach to communicative competence emphasizing pronunciation, intonation, sentence structure, and patterns of spoken and written Portuguese. Prerequisite: Port 115-1 or Placement test.

PORTUGUESE 201-0: Reading and Speaking Portuguese

This intermediate course is designed to expand mastery in reading and speaking Brazilian Portuguese through select cultural videos,readings of literary "crônicas", periodicals, and the Internet. Students will also have the opportunity to communicate online in Portuguese with college students in Brazil. This course counts toward the minor in Portuguese.

PORTUGUESE 202-0: Reading and Writing Portuguese

Instruction in reading and writing expository and narrative prose. Emphasis on vocabulary, linguistic skills, and syntax appropriate to formal written Portuguese. Prerequisite: PORT 115-2, PORT 121-3, or sufficient score on placement examination.

PORTUGUESE 303-0:Language and Persuasion in Portuguese

Students will analyze different discourse genres in the perspective of persuasion. With examples from classical to modern rhetoric, we will consider the use of the linguistic sign as a carrier of ideology and illocutionary force, that can be verified in sociolinguistic and cultural contexts of Brazilian Portuguese.

PORTUGUESE 396-0 (combined with SPANISH 397-0-3): #DignidadLiteraria: Contemporary Latinx Literature as Resistance

In early 2020, the publication of Jeanine Cummins’s novel American Dirt sparked a series of debates surrounding the writing of and representation of experiences, particularly traumatic experiences, lived by the Latinx community. Alongside these debates, the resistance campaign#DignidadLiterariaemerged. It has been promoted largely on social media and works to expose and correct systemic racism and biases within the publication industry. Our course will use the example of #DignidadLiteraria to consider the broader concept of resistance in and through contemporary Latinx literature. We will study a range of primary texts, critical essays, interviews, and social media accounts to address the role that literature, authors, and publishing professionals play in fighting for civil and human rights.Since this course is cross listed, all conversations, assignments, and materials will be in English.

SPANISH 101-1: Elementary Spanish

For students who have never studied Spanish or studied Spanish less than two years in high school. Communicative method used for development of speaking, listening, conversation, and grammar skills in a cultural context. Three class meetings a week. Outside online video program.

SPANISH 101-2: Elementary Spanish

Spanish 101-2 is the second course of a three-quarter sequence in Elementary Spanish. Students will learn Spanish in order to use it beyond the classroom in meaningful and authentic ways at the Novice High-Intermediate Low level of proficiency. This means that students will be able to communicate short messages on everyday topics that affect them directly. Class is taught in Spanish.

SPANISH 101-3: Elementary Spanish

Spanish 101-3 is the third course of a three-quarter sequence in Elementary Spanish. Students will learn Spanish in order to use it beyond the classroom in meaningful and authentic ways at the Intermediate low level of proficiency. This means that students will be able to communicate messages on everyday topics that affect them directly. Class is taught in Spanish. Prerequisite: Spanish 101-2. No P/N

SPANISH 105-6: First year seminar: Decolonization and Contemporary Latin American Theory

Decolonization Theory seeks to understand how historical geopolitical conditions are reinforced by ongoing colonial legacies. A substantial amount of writing has been produced around what exactly maintains the coloniality of power (as identified by Peruvian sociologistAníbal Quijano), which impacts literature and philosophy as much as governance and infrastructure. We will identify the key features of decolonial thought in Latin America,pairing it with materials to learn about Latin American history. The class will focus of decolonization as both a methodology and a practice for understanding the present and,perhaps, trying to change it.

COURSE 115-1: Accelerated Elementary Spanish

Spanish 115-1 is the first course of a two-quarter sequence in Elementary Spanish designed for students with previous experience in Spanish. Development of proficiency in speaking, listening, writing, and reading in a cultural context. Offered in winter.

SPANISH 115-2: Accelerated Elementary Spanish

Spanish 115-2 is the last course of a two-quarter sequence designed for students with previous experience in Spanish. Development of proficiency in speaking, listening, writing, and reading in a cultural context at the Intermediate-Low level. Offered in spring.
Prerequisite: Spanish 115-1. No P/N

SPANISH 121-1: Intermediate Spanish

Communicative method. Further development of grammar, vocabulary, speaking, and writing skills through emphasis on cultural content and functional use of Spanish language. Three class meetings a week. Outside online video program. Prerequisite: SPANISH 101-3, SPANISH 115-2, or sufficient score on Spanish Language Placement Exam.

SPANISH 121-2: Intermediate Spanish

Second course in a three-quarter sequence in Intermediate Spanish. Further development of communicative proficiency with an emphasis on the functional use of Spanish and cultural content and reflection. Three synchronous class meetings a week with additional asynchronous language contact.

SPANISH 121-3: Intermediate Spanish

Third course in a three-quarter sequence in Intermediate Spanish. Further development of communicative proficiency with an emphasis on the functional use of Spanish and cultural content and reflection. Three synchronous class meetings a week with additional asynchronous language contact.
Prerequisite: 121-2. No P/N

SPANISH 125-0: Accelerated Intermediate Spanish

Communicative method. Further development of grammar, vocabulary, speaking, and writing skills through readings and short films. Three class meetings a week. Outside online video. Offered in fall only. Prerequisite: AP score of 3 or sufficient score on Spanish Language Placement Exam.

SPANISH 127-0: Accelerated Intermediate Spanish for Heritage Language Learners

For Heritage Language Learners. Communicative method. Further development of grammar, vocabulary, speaking, and writing skills through readings and viewing short films. Offered in fall only. Prerequisite: AP score of 3 or or sufficient score on Spanish Language Placement Exam.

SPANISH 197-0: Language in Context: Latinos, Language and Culture

An introduction to the socio-political and linguistic richness of Spanish-speaking communities in the US is the basis for development of written and oral discourse of heritage learners. This course allows Spanish heritage learners to acquire more knowledge of their linguistic and cultural heritage, to become more competent in Spanish literacy skills and to develop and/or augment Spanish academic language skills. Students develop strategic Spanish academic vocabulary, learn to critically analyze a text, and write short academic essays.

SPANISH 199-0: Language in Context: Contemporary Spain

An introduction to the culture and sociopolitical issues of contemporary Spain is the basis for reviewing some problematic grammatical patterns and for skill-building in Spanish. Prerequisite: 121-3, 125-0, AP score of 4 on the Spanish Language and/or Literature, or departmental Spanish Language Placement Exam.

SPANISH 201-0: Conversation on Human Rights: Latin America

This course is designed to develop speaking and writing skills in Spanish through the question of human rights in Latin American during the 20th and 21st centuries. This question will be addressed through readings, analysis and discussions of articles, literary and historical texts, as well as films. A special focus will be on countries in the Southern Cone and on accurate informal and formal conversation.
Prerequisites: 199 or departmental Spanish Language Placement Exam.

SPANISH 203-0: Individual and Society through Written Expression

First course of a sequence that develops writing skills and structures through examination of the relationship between the individual and society. Emphasis on textual analysis and development of descriptive, narrative, and argumentative essays. Prerequisite: SPANISH 201-0, AP score of 5, or sufficient score on Spanish Language Placement Exam.

SPANISH 204-0: Reading and Writing the Art of Protest

Second course of a sequence designed to develop writing skills and structures through analysis of socially committed art. Emphasis on cultural analysis and development of longer essays. Prerequisite: SPANISH 203-0 or SPANISH 207-0.

SPANISH 206-0: Spanish for Professions: Business

Advanced course to develop communication skills in Spanish for business purposes. Emphasis on language skills for the global marketplace: specialized terminology, comprehension of cultural nuances, analytical writing skills and project-based assignments. Prerequisite: SPANISH 201-0 or AP score of 5.

SPANISH 207-0: Spanish for Heritage Speakers

Third course in a sequence for heritage language learners. Focuses on the development of writing skills and communicative abilities in a formal, academic register through the study of academic and literary texts that examine current issues related to the Spanish-speaking world and in particular, the Latinx community in the U.S.
Prerequisite: SPANISH 197-0, AP score of 5, or sufficient score on Spanish Language Placement Exam. No P/N

SPANISH 220-0-1: Introduction to Literary Analysis

This course offers students an introduction to both literary analysis and Spanish and Latin American literary traditions. While our primary object of study is literature—that is, different literary forms (e.g., narrative, drama, poetry) and individual literary texts—we will also consider other forms of cultural production (e.g., feature films and music). When “reading” our primary sources, we will practice a range of methods so as to learn how to approach those sources from different historical, cultural, and critical perspectives. This course aims to strengthen students’ analytical and written skills at the same time that it works to foster their interest in Spanish and Latin American literature and culture.The majority of materials, assignments,and conversations will be in Spanish.

SPANISH 220-0-2: Introduction to Literary Analysis

This class will provide an introduction to literary analysis in Spanish. We will study primary works drawn from different regions, historical periods,and genres.Our methodologies will range from close reading and poetic scansion to creative reinterpretations.We will also discuss the role of contextual factors—for instance, autobiographical, ideological, historical,and cultural—in shaping our analysis of literary texts.The aim of this class is to prepare students to read, discuss, and write analytically in Spanish about literature and culture.
Prerequisite: Spanish 204-0. No P/NP.

SPANISH 260-0: Literature in Latin America before 1888

This course offers students an introduction to both literary analysis and Spanish and Latin American literary traditions. While our primary object of study is literature—that is, different literary forms (e.g., narrative, drama, poetry) and individual literary texts—we will also consider other forms of cultural production (e.g., feature films and music). When “reading” our primary sources, we will practice a range of methods so as to learn how to approach those sources from different historical, cultural, and critical perspectives. This course aims to strengthen students’ analytical and written skills at the same time that it works to foster their interest in Spanish and Latin American literature and culture. All course materials will be available via our Canvas site.
Prerequisite: Span 204.

SPANISH 261-0: Literature in Latin America since 1888

This course provides an overview of some of the major trends in Latin American literature and culture since 1888, while at the same time offering opportunities to improve students’ oral and written Spanish. The course will emphasize various literary styles and ideological constructions that, in different ways, reflect the complexity of Latin American cultures. While introducing students to the social and historical context in which the works were written, the course will focus on the following issues: the cultural and political dimensions of literature; the representation of class, gender, and race; the formative impact of nationalism and internationalism; and the concern for finding autochthonous modes of expression.

SPANISH 346-0: Testimonial Narrative in Latin America

Study of the tradition of testimonial writing in Latin America with attention to cultural, political, and historical contexts and questions of truth, memory, and subjectivity. Works by authors such as Miguel Barnet, Rigoberta Menchú, Elena Poniatowska, Jacobo Timerman, and Rodolfo Walsh.

Prerequisite: 1 course from SPANISH 250-0, SPANISH 251-0, SPANISH 260-0, or SPANISH 261-0.

Literature Fine Arts Distro Area

SPANISH 348-0: Readings in Latin American Short Fiction

Some critics have suggested that the Latin American short story in the twentieth century might have made an even more significant contribution to world literature than the celebrated novels of the Boom (1960s- 1970s). For example, the argument goes, it is Jorge Luis Borges's short fiction that actually initiates the "new" narrative currents with which Latin American literature has become identified since the sixties. Likewise, one might argue that it is Julio Cortázar's short fiction--even more than his "revolutionary" novels--that will stand the test of time. Indeed, these and other well-known writers associated with the "género fantástico" (e.g., Horacio Quiroga, Luisa Valenzuela, Rosario Ferré) are among the "masters" of the Latin American short story who have also taught us how to read and think about narrative more generally. Within the context of the Latin American tradition, we will focus on the short story as it has been written and theorized by Latin American writers, considering as well proposals from beyond the region (e.g., Poe) and reading models offered by literary critics and theorists of narrative fiction and the fantastic. Where possible, film adaptations of works will be considered along with the original literary texts. Emphasis on close reading and analysis.
Prerequisite: 1 course from Spanish 250-0, Spanish 251-0, Spanish 260-0, or Spanish 261-0.

SPANISH 364-0: Cultural Borders/Border Cultures

As lines that demarcate boundaries between two or more groups (or ideas), borders simultaneously divide and conjoin.There is perhaps no place more emblematic of both the political and cultural complexities of border spaces today than the U.S./Mexico border. Through the work of artists, writers, and performers from both the U.S. and Mexico,this course will explore the hotly contested histories and the symbolic function(s) of the Border in both Latinx and Latin American cultural production. As we engage with diverse literary, artistic, and cinematic representations of this border space, we will examine the processes of contact, hybridization, adaptation, and exclusion that are generated, and the modes of self-fashioning that are produced, from within this unique cultural environment.Readings and films will be drawn from the work of Gloria Anzaldúa, Carmen Boullosa, Guillermo Gómez Peña, Laurie Ann Guerrero, Juan Felipe Herrera, Yuri Herrera, Alex Rivera, and Heriberto Yépez, among others.
Prerequisite: Spanish 220, or consent of the instructor.

SPANISH 395-0: Trans*Cultures in Latin America

This course is an introduction to the literary history of queer women and transmasculinities in the Latin American long fin-de-siècle (1890-1930), with particular attention to modernista and avant-garde cultural productions. Recent scholarship on representations of deviance in Latin America argued that gender and sexual abnormalities were nineteenth-century medical constructs that identified queerness as a monstrosity. We will explore how queer women and early forms of transmasculinities, pejoratively called marimachos in the vernacular culture, came to embody dissident identities that disputed gender binaries and late nineteenth-century concepts of womanhood, decorum, and maternity. Drawing from a variety of methodological approaches, the course will illuminate the specificity of practices carried out by a rich plethora of female and transmasculine subcultures in Mexico, the Caribbean, Brazil, and the Southern Cone: soldaderas (women soldiers), llaneras (rural women), cuchilleras (knife fighters), arrabaleras (tango singers), marimachos (tomboys), suffragists, and other iconic figures of the turn of the century. Some of the topics covered include notions of Greek love, primitivism, teratology, and sexual inversion, as well as why first-wave feminism caused a crisis in the traditional ways of representing women in Latin American literature and print culture. The course will engage with major topics within gender, disability, and trans* theories, including intersectional approaches, transfeminist and queer studies.

SPANISH 397-0: Тopics in Latin American, Latina and Latino, and Iberian Literatures and Cultures

Aspects of the literatures and cultures of Latin America and Spain. Possible topics include postcolonial criticism and its reception in Hispanic cultures, notions of translation, theories of poetics, orality and oral culture, the memoir, and travel writing. May be repeated for credit with different topic.

SPANISH 397-0-2: Global Im/Mobilities: Borders, Migration, and Citizenship

This seminar asks the following questions about borders, migration, and citizenship: (1) What are the forces—political, cultural, and environmental—that facilitate or inhibit human circulation? (2) How do governments, NGOs, scholars, and wider publics draw distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate forms of human mobility (e.g., “economic migrants”versus “refugees”)? (3) How are migrants affected by efforts to regulate their movement, and what alternative forms of citizenship and belonging have they created?We will draw on a broad range of geographical examples (giving particular attention to the Iberian Peninsula and the Americas)and read widely across anthropology, history, and political theory, as well as journalism and fiction. Collectively, we will explore the ways that global im/mobilities have been lived, and how they shape our world today.

SPANISH 397-0-2: Jews and Muslims in Contemporary Spain
(combined with JWSH_ST 390-0)

This undergraduate seminar examines the shifting place of Jews and Muslims in contemporary Spain. Together, we will explore several interrelated questions: (1) How have “Spain” and “Europe” variously been defined as modern, white, Christian, or secular by figuring Jews and Muslims as others? (2) How have these terms and the forms of life and history that they purport to represent changed over time? (3) What are the similarities and differences between the “Jewish Question” and the “Muslim Problem”? (4) How do Jews and Muslims understand themselves in relation to Spain, Europe, and to each other? At a time when racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, and right-wing populist movements are ascendant in Spain and across Europe, we will work collaboratively to not only answer these questions, but to formulate new ones. To do so, we will consult scholarship in anthropology, history, cultural theory, and philosophy as well as on fiction, film, and journalism as resources. Throughout the term, we will be especially attuned to the forms of inclusion and exclusion that have affected Jews and Muslims in Spain, always with an eye toward how such abstractions come to matter in everyday life.

SPANISH 397-0-3 (combined with PORTUGUESE 396-0): #DignidadLiteraria: Contemporary Latinx Literature as Resistance

SPANISH 397-0-3: Rice Across Time in Latin America
(combined with ANTHRO 390-0 and LATIN_AM 391-0-21)

This seminar will track both the shifts and continuities in racial ideologies operating in Latin America since the colonial period, following the work of historians and anthropologists. The course will consider impact of these ideologies on subject formation by reviewing their progression over time through theoretical arguments and evidence from case studies. Because race has been central to the forms of power and authority that first undergirded the colonial system and later birthed the many Latin American nations, we can trace a continued line of transmission of racialized ideologies that structure inequality in the region. Using a cultural and linguistic anthropological framework, we will approach these racial categories as composites of markers of otherness that include skin color, clothing, kin affiliations, occupation, among others. The course moves progressively from research about the early colonial period and forward chronologically until the 20th century, with a final discussion of migrant trajectories to the US. Topics covered will include variations in how race is defined and invoked in context, identity as a performative effect, coloniality as an ongoing process, and the role of historical memory in post-colonial Latin America.

SPANPORT 401-0: The Letter in Latin America
(combined with COMP_LIT 488-0 and LATIN_AM 401-0-20)

This course has two goals. First, it seeks to familiarize students with Latin American intellectual traditions in the modern period. In order to do so, it surveys a representative selection of pivotal figures in three different, and crucial, historical moments: the post-revolutionary 19th century and its responses both to Independence and an emerging neocolonial order; the frenetic 1920s and 30s and the articulations of a properly Latin American identity and culture; and the late 20th century, which has witnessed an attempt to reckon with the repercussions of the revolutionary projects of the mid-century. Second, within and across these historical constellations, the course will analyze prominent conceptual paradigms that have defined intellectual discourse in the region, such as mestizaje, hybridity, and heterogeneity, focusing particularly on their evolution and metamorphoses. As we consider the advent and waning of elite, lettered production’s influence and power to shape national and regional conceptualizations, we will pay special attention to how alterity and coloniality inflect the region’s intellectual production. Readings will be derived from a list of primary texts with optional supplements from other sources.

SPANPORT 410-0: Oralities and Literacies in Early Colonial Latin America

Early colonial Latin American literature is brimming with different forms of orality—songs and colloquies, speeches and sermons, to name a few—but we often study this corpus through texts bound up with alphabetic literacy—annotations and transcriptions, written letters, reports, recollections, and so on. How do these varied forms of orality and literacy shape and distort colonial encounters and conflicts? How do they continue to inform the field of colonial Latin American studies today? How can we push at the seams of this classic conundrum by thinking about visual literacy, mediascapes, sensoria, and embodied knowledge? Taking these questions as our point of departure, this class will examine colonial Latin American literary and cultural production through the lens of oralities and literacies. We will read primary texts drawn from a range of contexts in the colonial world alongside theoretical and critical works from within and beyond colonial Latin American studies.

SPANPORT 415-0: Studies in 19th Century Literatures & Cultures

Analysis of the discursive models of nineteenth and early twentieth-century Latin American and/or Iberian literary and cultural production. Topics vary. May be repeated for credit with a different topic.

SPANPORT 450-0: ¿Abajo el monumento? Iconoclasm and Conservationism in the Monumentality of/about Spain

The title of this class is taken from the conference Down with Monuments?, organized by the UChicago’s Art History Dept.and the SAICin 2018. The question is still relevant and will be explored in this course with the specificity of the monumentality in/about Spain.We will study theoretical texts to examine the notions of monumentality, iconoclasm and conservationism at large, with a focus on the monument’s ambivalent nature as historical document and work of art,the rhetoric of size and ornament, the construction of memory rituals and collective identity, and the different notions of iconoclasm and conservationism. Simultaneously, we will explore the construction of monumentality in/about Spain particularly since the late 19th century to the present, identifying the ideological debates and hegemonic battlesentailed in the conception of specific monuments. Since the beginning of the course, students will pick one particular monument to do a comprehensive research throughout the quarter. Classes will be divided between 2/3 of theoretical/historiographical discussion, and 1/3 of workshop to discuss the students’ ongoing research. For the final essay, students will present their research including a specific proposal of intervention on the monument.

SPANPORT 480-0: Topics in Latin American Literature and/or Iberian Literatures & Culture

This seminar course explores Iberian and Latin American cultural and political issues in relation to particular representational techniques, prominent literary traditions, subject-and national-making practices, and varied forms of writing literary texts. Topics vary.

SPANPORT 495-0: Practicum in Scholarly & Publication

Workshop intended to help students to design, research and write a scholarly article. Required for all graduate students in their second year.

SPANPORT 496-0: Dissertation Prospectus Writing Workshop

This course seeks to impart to students the knowledge necessary to answer the questions: what is a dissertation, and how do I write one? In the spirit of a workshop, we will work as a group to foster and cultivate the skill sets necessary to formulate and articulate an organizing question adequate to the charge of a significant, independent, multi-year research project. We will call this first stage the prospectus, and we will figure out what it is and how best to write it. We will try to distill multiple and often conflicting statements, expectations, and/or fears about what the dissertation is so we can effectively undertake its preparation and writing.

SPANPORT 560-0: Foreign Language Teaching: Theory and Practice

A foundation of theories and research in second language acquisition and second language pedagogy, along with analysis and practical application for the Spanish language classroom. One 3-hour class meeting a week. Outside of the classroom, students will observe three classes of Spanish language courses taught at Northwestern University.
Prerequisite:
- Being a graduate student in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
- If undergraduate, having taken SPAN 204 or equivalent at Northwestern University.
No P/N