Fall 2023 Class Schedule
Fall 2023 course descriptions
PORTUGUESE 115-1: Portuguese for Speakers of Spanish and other Romance Languages
For students proficient in Spanish, French or Italian. Comparative sociolinguistic and interactive approach to communicative competence emphasizing pronunciation, intonation, sentence structure, and patterns of spoken and written Portuguese. Prerequisite: Spanish AP 4 in Spanish, French or Italian, or equivalent on the Spanish Language Placement Exam.
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. Analysis and development of written skills in different types of discourse genres. This course counts toward the Minor in Portuguese. Prerequisite: PORT 115-2, PORT 121-3, or sufficient score on placement examination.
PORTUGUESE 210-0: Icons, Legends, and Myths in Brazil
Representations in graphic materials, documentaries, film, theater, folklore, narrative fiction, and popular music of historical, literary, and popular figures in the national imagination. Incudes English or Portuguese discussion sections. Prerequisite for Portuguese discussion section: PORT 201-0, PORT 202-0, or sufficient score on placement exam. Prerequisite for English discussion section: none.
SPANISH 101-1: Elementary Spanish
First course of a three-quarter sequence in introductory Spanish, designed for students who have never studied Spanish or studied Spanish less than two years in high school. Students will learn Spanish in order to use it beyond the classroom in meaningful and authentic ways at the Novice level of proficiency.
SPANISH 105-7: College Seminar ( Taught in English)
What do we do about a world that doesn't conform to our expectations? Do we set out to mold reality to our vision or accept it as it is? How do we forge ahead with our dreams if others do not share our values or goals? Cervantes' Don Quixote tackles these big questions in ways that are both moving and funny as it narrates the adventures of the bedraggled hero--a man driven mad by reading too many fantasy novels--and his earthy sidekick Sancho Panza. The novel contains themes that resonate with our lives today, exploring not only what it means to write--and read--fiction but also asking us to evaluate what kind of person we want to be in the world. In our class, we'll read the novel closely and debate how its essential questions can shape our personal choices moving forward.
SPANISH 121-1: Intermediate Spanish
First 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. Prerequisite: SPANISH 101-3, 115-2, or Spanish Language Placement Exam.
SPANISH 125-0: Accelerated Intermediate Spanish
Further development of communicative proficiency at the intermediate high level with an emphasis on the Hispanic world and the development of cultural competence. This means that students will be able to communicate familiar and some researched topics, often across various time frames. Offered in fall only. Prerequisite: AP of 3 or sufficient score on Spanish Language Placement Exam.
SPANISH 127-0: Accelerated Intermediate Spanish for Heritage Language Learners
The main purpose of this course is to build upon the language knowledge that students bring to the classroom and advance their proficiency of Spanish for multiple contexts. The course content will generate opportunities for students to hone their oral and written skills, to become acquainted with more formal registers of Spanish and to deepen their sense of pride in their linguistic and cultural heritage in order to communicate more effectively and more confidently in the target language. Offered in fall only. Prerequisite: AP of 3 or sufficient score on Spanish Language Placement Exam.
SPANISH 200-0: Advanced Spanish for Heritage Language Learners
This course readies heritage Spanish learners for advanced studies in the target language by exploring contemporary topics in the Spanish-speaking world. It provides insights into how historical events have influenced the present in Latin America, Spain, and the U.S. Latino/a/x communities. Students will develop a critical awareness of their language skills, with a focus on reading and writing. It is designed for students who grew up with Spanish as their main language at home. Prerequisite: Spanish heritage learners who have completed SPANISH 127-0, AP of 4, or Departmental Placement.
SPANISH 201-0: Advanced Spanish I: Contemporary Latin America
This course is designed to develop all modes of communication in Spanish as students progress towards the advanced-low level of proficiency, through the interpretation and analysis of sociopolitical topics in Latin America. In addition, the critical examination of authentic materials will help students explore how the recent history of Latin America has shaped its present. Prerequisite: SPANISH 121-3, 125-0, 199-0, AP of 4 on the Spanish Language Exam, or Departmental Placement/Reassessment.
SPANISH 204-0: Advanced Spanish II: Artivism in Times of Political Change
This course is designed to develop all communication modes in Spanish at the advanced-low level of proficiency, through the exploration, interpretation and analysis of multimodal texts centered around politically and socially engaged art. The course will explore the role that the creative arts played in the political and social sphere in 20th-century Spain and Latin America while connecting these movements to current times. Prerequisite: SPANISH 197-0, 201-0, 203-0, 207-0, AP of 5, or Departmental Placement .
SPANISH 231-0: The "New" Latin American Narrative (Taught in English)
So, what's "new" about the New Latin American Narrative? The course approaches this question by considering several key trends in Latin American literature in the second half of the twentieth century. Focusing on novels, short fiction, and testimonial writing & film, we will study representative works from the so-called pre-Boom, Boom, and post-Boom decades (1940s-50s, 1960s-70s, 1980s). Although the new narrative is often identified with Boom novels (such as One Hundred Years of Solitude) and with the Boom era overall—when Latin American literature "exploded" onto the world stage--we will take a broader view to consider the diverse types of narrative representing “new” currents in the region. Reading and discussion will focus on formal aspects of narrative and on cultural and historical contexts that shaped the production and reception of new narrative works by well-known figures. Primary texts: Borges’s and Cortázar’s “fantastic” fictions and essays on narrative poetics; Fuentes’s revolutionary Boom novel about 20th-century Mexico (The Death of Artemio Cruz); Ferré’s irreverent feminist stories about Puerto Rican society and culture; Valenzuela’s ironic dramatic fictions about political repression in Argentina; García Márquez’s documentary-testimonial tale about an exiled filmmaker’s covert return home during the Pinochet era (Clandestine in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littin). Secondary materials will provide literary, historical, and cultural contexts for primary works. Readings and discussion are in English.
SPANISH 251-0: Literature in Spain since 1700
This course is conceived for literature-lovers who wants to cultivate their passion for reading in another language, but also for those who tend to have a harder time with literature, particularly older texts when written in Spanish. We will study literature in historical context and vis-à-vis other media. The purpose is that the students improve their language and critical analysis skills, while familiarizing themselves with the most important aesthetic and political currents of the last centuries in Spain through literature. We will think in and out of the canon of Spanish literature with a critical approach. Issues such as the construction and deconstruction of authorship, the audience, literary genres, avant-garde experimentation and censorship will be discussed. Novels, poetry, and plays are analyzed with an emphasis on the impact of empire and post-empire, feminism, anti-racism, queerness, and plurilingualism. This course provides a foundation to further study of the Spanish cultures in more advanced courses. Prerequisite (may be taken concurrently): SPANISH 200-0 or 204-0.
SPANISH 260-0: Literature in Latin America before 1888
Survey of pre-Hispanic, colonial, and romantic traditions in Latin America. Focus on authors and texts such as Popul Vuh, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Martín Fierro. Prerequisite (may be taken concurrently): SPANISH 204-0. Prerequisite (may be taken concurrently): SPANISH 200-0 or 204-0.
SPANISH 261-0: Literature in Latin America since 1888
This course provides an overview of some of the major trends in Latin American literatures 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 writing. 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. Prerequisite (may be taken concurrently): SPANISH 200-0 or 204-0.
SPANISH 335-0: Modern Fiction in Spain: Studies in Genre
We will study how the DIY culture can be applied to literature, visual arts, and the publishing industry by exploring a genre that has been often marginalized: fanzines. Fanzines are non-professional, low-resources publications about a specific topic, movement, aesthetic, or group. Specifically, we will study fanzines produced by the counter-culture, punk, queer and feminist groups in Spain since the end of the fascist dictatorship to the present (1975-today). We will study their relationship to mainstream literature through the reading of a contemporary classic novel that includes, and reflects on, fanzines, Cristina Morales’s Lectura fácil (2018). Topics addressed in the novel and the fanzines include disability, feminism, dance, mental health, and politics. Students will read this contemporary classic, will study diverse fanzines, and, in groups, will design, print, and distribute their own fanzines as a final project. This class may include interviews with creators of fanzines and local visits in the Evanston/Chicago area. Prerequisite: 1 course out of SPANISH 250-0, 251-0, 260-0, or 261-0.
SPANISH 395-0-1: Topics in Latin American, Latina and Latino, and Iberian Literature and Cultures: Haunted Infrastructures of Modern Mexico
Since the end of the 19th century, large-scale infrastructure projects such as trains, dams, and roads have transformed the landscapes, ecologies, and cultures of Mexico. Usually, these projects have been officially cast as material symbols of Mexico’s modernization and development, works that promise a “better” future. Meanwhile, through the use of forms such as the realist novel, the travel journal, the avant-garde manifesto, the experimental film, or the futurist poem, literature and art have examined how these projects bring with them profound and haunting social transformations. They have thus approached infrastructures with fascination, but also with caution, disappointment, or fear. In this class, we will explore experimental forms of literature, art, and film that address infrastructural development in modern Mexico from different angles and in changing political circumstances. We will also discuss contemporary social struggles, conflicts, and movements related to large-scale infrastructure projects in Mexico today.
SPANISH 395-0-2: Topics in Latin American, Latina and Latino, and Iberian Literature and Cultures: Literature and Revolution in Latin America 20th Century
This course explores the debate on literature and revolution during the second half of 20th century Latin America. The analysis focuses on Cuba, 1959, year of the triumph of the Cuban revolution, as an epicenter that spreads the revolutionary ideas that ignited revolutionary movements all over Latin America; tacks back to the texts of Bolivar and Martí, mentor figures for many revolutionary projects, to explore the cultural changes that outline the era of political changes in the second half of 20th century. We will pay close attention to the process of politization of life that occurred during the heyday of revolution till the development of the new state and revolutionary hegemony. We will resort to literary texts written during the revolutionary era to explore the impact of revolution on them and how writers respond to the new political horizon, especially in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. We will explore how literary texts sustain, defy, or even ignore the reinvention of life and social relations characteristics of those times, and also how politics in turn defy literature.
SPANISH 397-0: Topics in Latin American, Latina and Latino, and Iberian Literature and Cultures: The Formation of Sephardic Diaspora and Culture, 1400-1800 (Taught in English)
This historical survey will follow the Jews of Spain as they were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula at the end of the fifteenth century and became members of a global diasporic group and Sephardic Jews. We will focus on the 1492 Expulsion and the political and religious processes that led to it; on immigration to various new locales in the Mediterranean and Western Europe; on the creation of new religious and racial identities of “New Christians”; on the formation of a Sephardic canon, and on many other central topics in the history of the Sephardic diaspora and its culture. We will use this opportunity to explore questions essential to historical thinking: the nature of historical change and the challenges of studying continuity rather than rupture; processes of identity and community making and their archival traces; and the differences between history, historiography, memory work and nostalgia. We will pay special attention to the diversity of the Jewish experience by comparing and contrasting various perspectives on Sephardic history and applying new methods from the history of gender and race.
SPANPORT 415-0: Studies in the 19th Century Literature and Cultures
Our emphasis will be on rethinking the traditional image of the nineteenth century as homogeneous to reveal its inevitable heterogeneity, essential to our understanding of the inauguration of Latin American modernity. We will review readings of these discourses from different historical moments and examine how these discourses have given way to other critical traditions.
SPANPORT 455-0: Comparative Studies in Latin American and/or Iberian Literatures & Cultures: Archive Poetics: Subaltern Knowledges and Irreverent Uses
This seminar studies the contemporary appropriation, uses and reactivations of cultural archives in modern and contemporary Argentine literature and culture. We conceive the archive as a social machine that organizes and administers both texts and documents as well as our bodies through different forms of technology that registered our present. We explore the processes of memory that foreground the central role of archives, especially when it comes to the production of knowledge and experiences of subaltern communities, historically excluded. If archives have often been the basis for the rethinking of cultural heritages and foundational fictions, we pay particular attention to the new elaborations of historical, social and cultural models and uses deployed by 20th and 21st Argentine writers. Thus, we delve into art and literature engagements that erode the national archive’s former boundaries, stability, function and meaning performing political intervention and subversions that prove to be increasingly recombinant and generative. At the core of our theoretical framework, we test Jorge Luis Borges’ famous proposition that marginal cultures -minor literatures have legitimate access to a multiplicity of cultural traditions advocating an irreverent use of the universal archive as the source of true originality.
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.
2023-2024 course descriptions