University Bulletin (2015-2016)

HECS 42b Literature and Human Rights in Latin America
[ hum nw ]
Taught in English.
Examines literature, fiction and non-fiction, from Latin America in relation to the construction and uses of the narrative of human rights. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Rosenberg

HISP 10a Beginning Spanish
Prerequisite: For students with no previous knowledge of Spanish and those with a minimal background. Students enrolling for the first time in a Hispanic Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#spantest.
A systematic presentation of the basic grammar and vocabulary of the language within the context of Hispanic culture, with focus on all five language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and sociocultural awareness. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HISP 20b Continuing Spanish
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in HISP 10a or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in a Hispanic Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#spantest. For students with some previous study of Spanish.
Continuing presentation of the basic grammar and vocabulary of the language within the context of Hispanic culture with focus on all five language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and sociocultural awareness. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HISP 32a Intermediate Spanish: Conversation
[ fl ]
Prerequisite: A grade of C- or higher in HISP 20b or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in a Hispanic Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#spantest.
This course focuses on the development of oral expression and conversational skills in the context of continuing development of linguistic competence in Spanish. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HISP 34a Intermediate Spanish: Topics in Hispanic Culture
[ fl ]
Prerequisite: a grade of C- or higher in HISP 20b or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in a Hispanic Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#spantest.
Topics from Hispanic cultures are the context for continuing development of linguistic competence in Spanish. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HISP 92a Internship in Hispanic Studies
Written permission of the Undergraduate Advising Head required. Students may take no more than one departmental internship for major credit.
Internships combine off-campus and on-campus work, supervised by a departmental faculty sponsor, that provides a significant learning experience in Hispanic cultural academic study. Students doing summer internships register for course credit in the following fall semester. Junior or Senior Hispanic Studies majors with a minimum GPA of 3.5 in Hispanic Studies courses may substitute one internship for an elective course. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HISP 98a Independent Study
May be taken only with the written permission of the Undergraduate Advising Head.
Reading and reports under faculty supervision. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HISP 98b Independent Study
May be taken only with the written permission of the Undergraduate Advising Head.
Readings and reports under faculty supervision. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HISP 99b Senior Thesis
Students should consult the Undergraduate Advising Head.
Usually offered every year.
Staff

HECS 150a Staging Early Modern Spain: Drama and Society
[ hum ]
Open to all students. Conducted in English with readings in English translation.
Explores readings and representations of seventeenth-century Spanish drama in social and political contexts. Special attention to gender and violence in texts dealing with seduction, cross-dressing, revolution, and wife-murder, by writers such as Cervantes, Lope, Caro, and Calderón. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fox

HISP 104b Peoples, Ideas, and Language of the Hispanic World
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: 30-level Hispanic Studies course or equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in a Hispanic Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#spantest.
Participants will expand their skills in Spanish while deepening their understanding of Hispanic cultures. Focuses on aspects of the history and ideas that shape the Spanish-speaking world, from its peninsular origins to the realities of Spanish speakers in the Americas. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HISP 105a Spanish Conversation and Grammar
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 104b, or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in a Hispanic Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#spantest.
Students learn to communicate effectively in Spanish through class discussions, oral and written exercises, presentations, literary and cultural readings, film, and explorations of the mass media. Emphasis on improvement of oral and written fluency, and acquisition of vocabulary and grammar structures. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HISP 106b Spanish Composition, Grammar, and Stylistics
[ fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: HISP 105a or the equivalent. Students enrolling for the first time in a Hispanic Studies course at Brandeis should refer to www.brandeis.edu/registrar/newstudent/testing.html#spantest.
Focuses on written communication and the improvement of writing skills, from developing ideas to outlining and editing. Literary selections will introduce the students to the principles of literary analysis and serve as topics for class discussion and writing. Usually offered every semester.
Staff

HISP 108a Spanish for Heritage Speakers
[ fl hum wi ]
Designed specifically for students who grew up speaking Spanish and who would like to enhance existing language skills while developing higher levels of academic proficiency. Assignments are geared toward developing skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking about U.S. Latino/as and the Spanish-speaking world. Students may use this course to fulfill the foreign language requirement. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Reyes

HISP 109b Introduction to Modern Spanish Cultural Studies: Modernity
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 106b, or HISP 108a, or permission of the instructor.
Introduces the study of Spanish culture through a consideration of shifting notions of modernity from the eighteenth century to the present as seen in drama, fiction, and poetry, as well as periodical literature, newscasts, and film. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Mandrell

HISP 110a Medieval and Early Modern Spanish Literature: Gender, Class, Religion, Power
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 106b, or HISP 108a, or permission of the instructor.
Was el Cid a political animal? How do women, Jews, and Muslims fare in classical Spanish literature? Study of major works, authors, and social issues from the Middle Ages to the end of the seventeenth century. Texts covered range from lyric love poetry and the epic Cantar del Cid to Cervantes and masterpieces of Spanish Golden Age theater. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Fox

HISP 111b Introduction to Latin American Literature and Culture
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: HISP 106b, or HISP 108a, or permission of the instructor.
Examines key Latin American texts of different genres (poems, short stories and excerpts from novels, chronicles, comics, screenplays, cyberfiction) and from different time periods from the conquest to modernity. This class places emphasis on problems of cultural definition and identity construction as they are elaborated in literary discourse. Identifying major themes (coloniality and emancipation, modernismo and modernity, indigenismo, hybridity and mestizaje, nationalisms, Pan-Americanism, etc.) we will trace continuities and ruptures throughout Latin American intellectual history. Usually offered every semester
Mr. Rosenberg or Mr. Arellano

HISP 120b Don Quijote
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
A reading for fun and critical insight into what is often called "the first modern novel." Discusses some reasons for its reputation as a major influence on fiction and films throughout the Western world. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fox

HISP 121b Teatro Español: Lope y Lorca
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Examines drama of Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) in the context of that of Lope de Vega (1561-1635), considering theories of theater, gender, and sexuality. Both writers were renowned during their lifetimes and mythicized afterwards for their art and their remarkable personal lives. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fox

HISP 125b Literary Women in Early Modern Spain
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Examines works by and about women in early modern Spain, with particular attention to engagements with and subversions of patriarchal culture in theater, prose, and poetry. Writers include Caro, Zayas, Cervantes, and Tirso de Molina. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fox

HISP 128b Picaros, Prostitutes, and Peasants: Representations of the Underclass in Early Modern Spain
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Explores cultural expressions of privation and privilege through the lenses of economic means, ethnicity, gender and religion in early modern Spain. Texts include a picaresque novel, a dialog set in a bawdy house, and a play about class and gender violence. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Fox

HISP 140a Topics in Poetry
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Topics vary from year to year, but may focus on different periods, poets, or poetics from both sides of the Atlantic. Study may include jarchas, Garcilaso de la Vega, Bécquer, the Generation of '98 or '27, Neruda, Vallejo, Rosario Castellanos, Octavio Paz, Huidobro, Borges. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Mandrell

HISP 160a Culture and Social Change in Latin America
[ fl hum nw wi ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Examines the relationship between the arts (including literature, film, and fine arts) and society in Latin America during the twentieth century by focusing on three historical conjunctures when this relationship was particularly rich: the political and artistic vanguards of the 1920s (with particular attention to the Mexican Revolution and its aftermath); the 1960s, marked by the historical turning point of the Cuban Revolution; and the decade of the 1990s, characterized by the transition to democracy, the emergence of human rights and other social movements. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Rosenberg

HISP 164b Studies in Latin American Literature
[ fl hum nw wi ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit.
A comparative and critical study of main trends, ideas, and cultural formations in Latin America. Topics vary year to year and have included fiction and history in Latin American literature, nation and narration, Latin American autobiography, art and revolution in Latin America, and humor in Latin America. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Rosenberg

HISP 165b The Storyteller: Short Fiction in Latin America
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Through a study of Latin American short stories, we will reflect on the power of storytelling and fictional narrative to shape subjectivity and community. We will also examine some culturally specific topics reflected in these stories, such as conflictive cultural filiations (pre-Columbian, European, etc), the tension between literacy and oral traditions, the dynamics of modernity in the periphery, and the formation of the reading public and citizenship. This class has an experiential-creative component, as students will have the chance to write fiction applying techniques studied in class. In addition, when the practicum is offered students will have the opportunity to organize a story-telling event working with Waltham's Spanish-speaking community. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Rosenberg

HISP 167b Twice-Told Tales: Colonial Encounters and Postcolonial Fiction in the Americas
[ hum nw wi ]
Taught in English.
A wide range of modern and contemporary writers and artists in the Americas have examined the legacies of European colonialism in the continent. This course explores this persistent engagement with colonialism in narrative fiction and cinema from Latin American and the United States. The first part of the course introduces key texts from the colonial period, written by European and indigenous chroniclers of the colonization of the New World. In the second part of the course we look at fiction, film, and visual art by Latin American, African American and Native American artists who set out to retell colonial histories in the present, oftentimes in controversial ways. Materials discussed include works by Juan José Saer, Octavia Butler, Coco Fusco, Guillermo Gómez Peña, Gerald Vizenor, Peter Greenaway, and Nelson Pereira dos Santos, among others. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Arellano

HISP 170a Topics in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Spanish Literature
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit.
Topics will vary from year to year, but might include Spanish Enlightenment and romanticism: costumbrismo, Romantic drama, Bécquer, Galdós (the novelas contemporáneas), or eighteenth- and nineteenth-century poetry of the sublime. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Mandrell

HISP 175b Contemporary Latin American Fiction
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Explores excerpts from works of fiction by Nobel-prize laureates Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa, published in the 1960's and 70's, then contrasts these narratives to very recent developments in Latin American fiction of the 21st century. We will discuss how contemporary writers in Latin America depart from their famous predecessors and set out to explore a range of new topics, including global pop culture, the Latin American drug trade, and love relationships in cyberspace. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Arellano

HISP 182a Narratives of the Drug Wars in Latin America
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Explores literature, cinema, and music that engage with narco cultures and the drug wars in contemporary Latin America. We will situate these narratives and artworks in relation to the history of the pursuit and commerce of mind- and mood-altering substances (e.g. coca, tobacco, chocolate) in the colonial Americas. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Arellano

HISP 185b España 20XX
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisites: HISP 109b, HISP 110a, HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Looks at cultural production and its context in Spain for an entire calendar year. The goal is to familiarize students with what has been read and watched in Spain most recently and to understand it in terms of contemporary politics and society. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Mandrell

HISP 192b Latin American Global Film
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisites: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Studies films that re-imagine Latin America’s place in the world, focusing on how images are produced and consumed transnationally. ‘Traditional’ topics like cultural identity are refashioned for international consumption, and local issues are dramatized as already crisscrossed by global flows of which the films themselves partake. Close analysis of visual representation and film techniques will be complemented in each case by a study of historical and cultural background. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Rosenberg

HISP 193b Topics in Cinema
[ hum wi ]
Open to all students; conducted in English. Course may be repeated for credit.
Topics vary from year to year but might include consideration of a specific director, an outline of the history of a national cinema, a particular moment in film history, or Hollywood cinema in Spanish. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Mandrell or Mr. Rosenberg

HISP 196a Topics in Latina/o Literature and Culture
[ hum ]
May be repeated for credit. Taught in English.
Offers students the opportunity for in-depth study of a particular aspect of the diverse literary and cultural production of U.S. latinas and latinos. Topics will vary from year to year but may include autobiography, detective fiction, or historical fiction. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Mandrell

HISP 198a Experiential Research Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies
[ fl hum wi ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 110a or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
A research seminar in which each student has the opportunity to become an “expert” in a Hispanic literary or cultural text/topic that captures her or his imagination, inspired by a study abroad experience; an earlier class in Hispanic Studies; community-engaged learning; etc. Instruction in literary/cultural theory, researching a subject, and analytical skills necessary for developing a scholarly argument. Students present research in progress and write a research paper of significant length. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Rosenberg, Ms. Fox, or Mr. Arellano