Objectives
With the large number of Hispanics in the world and in the United States, a Spanish concentration or minor is now of greater value than ever. The study of Spanish language and literature not only broadens students' cultural horizons; it proves extremely useful in preparation for careers--whether in legal, medical, business, or other professions.
How to Become a Concentrator
Students considering a Spanish concentration should complete the language requirement as soon as possible, preferably by the end of their first year at Brandeis. (They may also complete the optional ECS 100a, the Proseminar, early in their Brandeis career.) They are then advised to take SPAN 105a before beginning the sequence of Spanish language (SPAN 106b) and literature (SPAN 110a, 111b, and beyond) courses that will fulfill the Spanish concentration. Please note: Many Spanish concentrators and minors choose to study in Spain or Latin America for all or part of their junior year. Normally, any full-credit Spanish literature course taken abroad will count toward the Spanish concentration up to a maximum of four courses for concentrators and two courses for minors. Students interested in learning more about the Spanish concentration or minor are encouraged to speak with the undergraduate advising head in Spanish.
Faculty
See Romance and Comparative Literature.
Requirements for Concentration
The concentration consists of nine semester courses.
A. SPAN 106b (Spanish Composition, Grammar, and Stylistics).
B. SPAN 110a (Introduction to Peninsular Spanish Literature), and SPAN 111b (Introduction to Latin American Literature), to be completed as early as possible.
C. Five additional semester courses from the Spanish literature offerings numbered above 111, at least one of which must deal with Spanish or Latin American literature before 1700. No more than two of these electives may be taken in English. Courses conducted in English include those abbreviated SECS (Spanish and European Cultural Studies) and ECS 100a.
D. At least one course beyond 106b must be designated "library intensive" and at least one should be "writing intensive." Normally SPAN 111b is "library intensive" and SPAN 198a is "writing intensive."
E. SPAN 198a (Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies) in the fall semester of the senior year. Those seeking departmental honors will also take SPAN 99d in the spring to complete the Senior Thesis. Students who declared a concentration prior to the fall semester of 1997 have the option of substituting SPAN 97a, the Senior Essay (fall semester only) for SPAN 198a, or for honors, of taking SPAN 99d for the full year instead of SPAN 198a in the fall and SPAN 99d in the spring. Honors students must have maintained a 3.60 G.P.A. in Spanish courses previous to the senior year. Honors are awarded on the basis of cumulative excellence in all courses taken in the concentration, including the Senior Thesis.
F. Junior and senior concentrators may apply for admission into graduate seminars of the Interdisciplinary Program in Literary Studies by permission of the instructor and the undergraduate advising head in Spanish.
Students may petition the undergraduate advisor for changes in the above program. Students wishing credit toward the Spanish concentration courses crosslisted under ECS (abbreviated SECS) will be required to do the reading and writing in Spanish.
Requirements for Minor
The minor consists of five semester courses.
A. SPAN 106b (Spanish Composition, Grammar, and Stylistics).
B. SPAN 110a (Introduction to Peninsular Spanish Literature) and SPAN 111b (Introduction to Latin American Literature).
C. Two additional Spanish literature courses from the offerings numbered above 110. No more than one of these electives may be taken in English. Courses conducted in English include those abbreviated SECS (Spanish and European Cultural Studies). All students pursuing a Spanish minor will be assigned an advisor in the department. Enrollment in the Spanish minor must be completed by the end of the first semester of the senior year. All courses are conducted in Spanish, unless otherwise noted.
Courses of Instruction
(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students
PORT 10a Brazilian Portuguese
Prerequisite: Some knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese. Signature of the instructor required.
Introduces Brazilian culture while reviewing and presenting basic grammar skills. Speaking, reading, and writing skills are all emphasized. Movies, news broadcasts, magazines, and internet sites all complement class work. Usually offered every semester.
Ms. MacAdams
SPAN 10a Beginning Spanish
Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
For students who have had no previous study of Spanish. 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. Several sections will be offered. Usually offered every year.
Staff
SPAN 20b Continuing Spanish
Prerequisite: SPAN 10a or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
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 and practice of the four language skills. Special attention to reading and writing skills, as well as guided conversation. Several sections will be offered. Usually offered every semester.
Staff
SPAN 31a Intermediate Spanish: Composition and Grammar
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Prerequisite: SPAN 20b or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
This course focuses on the development of writing and/or grammatical skills in the context of continuing development of linguistic competence in Spanish. Usually offered every year.
Staff
SPAN 32a Intermediate Spanish: Conversation
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Prerequisite: SPAN 20b or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
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
SPAN 33a Intermediate Spanish: Reading
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Prerequisite: SPAN 20b or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
This course focuses on the development of reading skills in the context of the continuing development of linguistic competence in Spanish. Usually offered every year.
Staff
SPAN 34a Intermediate Spanish: Topics in Hispanic Culture
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Prerequisite: SPAN 20b or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
Topics or themes from Hispanic cultures are the context for continuing development of linguistic competence in Spanish. Usually offered every year.
Staff
SPAN 40b Intermediate Spanish II
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Prerequisite: Any 30-level Spanish course or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
Prepares students for practical applications while continuing development of linguistic competence in Spanish.
Staff
SPAN 41b Spanish for Cultural and Literary Studies
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Prerequisite: Any 30-level Spanish course or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
This course prepares students for the more advanced Spanish courses leading to the concentration and minor. It focuses on cultural and literary topics in the Hispanic world while continuing development of linguistic competence in Spanish. Usually offered every year.
Staff
SPAN 42b Spanish for the Professions
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Prerequisite: Any 30-level Spanish course or the equivalent. Enrollment limited to 18 per section.
Prepares students for practical applications of Spanish in U.S. and foreign communities while continuing development of linguistic competence in Spanish. Each section focuses on a single topic such as business Spanish, medical Spanish, Spanish for the social sciences. Usually offered every year.
Staff
SPAN 97a Senior Essay
Students should first consult the area head of the concentration. Signatures of the instructor and the advising head required.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
SPAN 97b Senior Essay
Students should first consult the area head of the concentration. Signatures of the instructor and the advising head required.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
SPAN 98a Independent Study
May be taken only with the written permission of the advising head of the concentration and the chair of the department. Signatures of the instructor and the chair of the department required.
Reading and reports under faculty supervision. Usually offered every year.
Staff
SPAN 98b Independent Study
May be taken only with the written permission of the advising head of the concentration and the chair of the department. Signatures of the instructor and the chair of the department required.
Readings and reports under faculty supervision. Usually offered every year.
Staff
SPAN 99d Senior Thesis
Students should first consult the area head of the concentration. Signatures of the instructor and the advising head required.
Usually offered every year.
Staff
(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students
The SECS abbreviation denotes Spanish and European Cultural Studies courses.
SPAN 105a Spanish Conversation and Grammar
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Prerequisite: Any 30-level or 40-level Spanish course or the equivalent, or permission of the area head. Enrollment limited to 15.
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
SPAN 106b Spanish Composition, Grammar, and Stylistics
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Prerequisite: SPAN 105a or permission of the area head. Enrollment limited to 15. A library intensive course.
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
SPAN 108a Spanish for Heritage Speakers
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Enrollment limited to 18.
Designed specifically for bilingual "heritage" speakers of Spanish, who would like formal training in the language, particularly reading and writing skills. Special attention is given to Latino cultures and to issues pertaining to U.S. Latinos. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Dávila
SPAN 110a Introduction to Peninsular Spanish Literature
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Prerequisite: SPAN 106b or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 15.
Was El Cid a political animal? How do women, Jews, and Moslems fare in classical Spanish literature? Study of major works, authors, and social issues from the Middle Ages to the end of the 17th century. Texts covered range from the epic Cantar del Cid to Cervantes and masterpieces of Spanish Golden Age theater. Usually offered every semester.
Ms. Fox
SPAN 111b Introduction to Latin American Literature
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Prerequisite: SPAN 106b or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 18. A library intensive course.
Focuses on texts from the 15th to 19th centuries in search of textual characteristics that help to shape a comprehensive study of Latin American literature and its historical and cultural context. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Pérez
SPAN 120b Don Quijote
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Prerequisite: SPAN 110a or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 15.
A reading for fun and critical insight into what is often called "the first modern novel." We will discuss some reasons for its reputation as a major influence on subsequent fiction throughout the Western world and view several film interpretations. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Fox
SPAN 125b Literary Women in Early Modern Spain
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Prerequisite: SPAN 110a or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limited to 15. A library intensive course.
Examines works by and about women in early modern Spain, with particular attention to engagements with and subversions of patriarchal culture on theater, prose, and poetry, by such writers as Caro, Zayas, Cervantes, and Calderón. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Fox
SPAN 130a Modern Peninsular Spanish Literature
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Prerequisite: SPAN 110a or permission of the instructor.
A historical study of Spanish literature from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, including considerations of neoclassicism, Romanticism, Realism, the Generations of '98 and '27, as well as post-Civil War fiction. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Mandrell
SPAN 135a Modern Latin American Literature
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Prerequisite: SPAN 111b or permission of the instructor.
Introduces students to the major trends and ideologies in Spanish American literature from the turn of the 20th century through the 1950s. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Dávila
SPAN 140a Peninsular Spanish Poetry
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Prerequisite: SPAN 110a or permission of the instructor. Topics vary from year to year.
Usually offered in even years.
Messrs. Mandrell and Yglesias
SECS 150a Golden Age Drama and Society
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Open to all students. Conducted in English with readings in English translation.
The major works, comic and tragic, of Spain's 17th-century dramatists. Works may include Cervantes's brief witty farces, Tirso's creation of the "Don Juan" myth, Lope's palace and "peasant honor" plays, and Calderón's Baroque masterpieces, which culminate Spain's Golden Age. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Fox
SPAN 161a Latin American Poetry
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Prerequisite: SPAN 110a, 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Development of 20th-century poetics through the works of Dario, Vallejo, Neruda, Paz, and others. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Pérez and Mr. Yglesias
SPAN 163a The Latin American Boom and Beyond
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Prerequisite: SPAN 110a, 111b, or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit.
Examines texts of the Latin American "Boom" as well as contemporary narrative trends. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Dávila
SPAN 164b Studies in Latin American Literature
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Prerequisite: SPAN 111b or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit.
A comparative and critical reading of main trends, ideas, and cultural formations in Latin America. Topics vary year to year and have included fiction and history, humor, autobiography, art and revolution. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Dávila and Ms. Pérez
SPAN 166b Writing the Latin American City
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Prerequisite: SPAN 111b or permission of the instructor.
Examines the representation of the Latin American city within the context of modernity. Texts from various Latin American countries are examined in light of critical approaches to the city and its inhabitants. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Dávila
SPAN 168b Latin America Through the Eyes of Women
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Prerequisites SPAN 110a or SPAN 111b. Enrollment limited to 18.
How do Latin American women represent their own realities? How do their artistic versions of social realities challenge traditional historical representations? Why aren't women included in the "boom" of Latin American literature? We study literary and artistic works by Latin American women from the 17th to the 19th centuries, looking at the different ways in which gender intersects their discourses. Usually offered in odd years.
Ms. Pérez
SECS 169a Travel Writing and the Americas: Columbus' Legacy
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Open to all students. Conducted in English with readings in English translation.
Following the arrival of Columbus, the continent later known as America engaged with other continents in a mutual process of cultural, historical, geographical, and economic representation. We explore the development of some of those representations, beginning with travel writing and ending with recent images of the Encounter. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Pérez
SPAN 170a Topics in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Spanish Literature
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Prerequisite: SPAN 110a 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 18th- and 19th-century poetry of the sublime. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Mandrell
SPAN 180b Topics in Twentieth-Century Spanish Literature
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Prerequisite: SPAN 110a or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit.
Topics will vary from year to year, but might include the Generation of '98; the Generation of '27; García Lorca (poetry and drama); the post-Civil war novel; novels of the individual's quest; or modern women's writing. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Mandrell
SPAN 190b Latin American Fiction in Translation
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Considers a number of major Latin American novels and stories in an effort to identify significant trends of divergence and convergence with regard to the mainstream of Western narrative. Usually offered in even years.
Ms. Dávila
SPAN 191a Hispanic Topics in Translation
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Open to all students. Conducted in English with readings in English translation. Course may be repeated for credit.
Topics vary from year to year, but might include Realist Representations of Women; Ideas of the Modern and Modernity; Spanish Realism: or the Spanish Civil War. Usually offered in odd years.
Mr. Mandrell
SPAN 192a Contemporary Hispanic Women's Fiction in Translation
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A consideration of contemporary fiction by Spanish, Latin American, and Latina women writers. Usually offered in even years.
Mr. Mandrell
SPAN 193b Topics in Hispanic Cinema
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Open to all students. Conducted in English with readings in English translation. 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 in odd years.
Ms. Pérez
SPAN 198a Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies
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Prerequisite: SPAN 110a or SPAN 111b, or permission of the instructor. Signatures of the instructor and the advising head required.
A research seminar organized around varying themes ("the other," "the nation," etc.). Instruction on literary/cultural theory, researching a topic, 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. Mandrell
Cross-Listed Courses
European Cultural Studies: The Proseminar