Hispanic Studies

PORT W1101x Elementary Portuguese I 4 pts. A beginning course designed for students who wish to start their study of Portuguese and have no proficiency in another Romance language. The four language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing are developed at the basic level.

SPAN W1101x and y Elementary Spanish I 4 pts. Prerequisites: A score of 0-279 in the department's Placement Examination. An introduction to Spanish communicative competence, with stress on basic oral interaction, reading, witting, and cultural knowledge. Principal objectives are to understand and produce commonly used sentences to satisfy immediate needs; ask and answer questions about personal details such as where we live, people we know and things we have; interact in a simple manner with people who speak clearly, slowly and are ready to cooperate; and understand simple and short written and audiovisual texts in Spanish.

PORT W1102y Elementary Portuguese II 4 pts. Prerequisites: PORT W1101 or the equivalent. A course designed to acquaint students with the Portuguese verbal, prepositional, and pronominal systems. As a continuation of Elementary Portuguese I (PORT W1101), this course focuses on the uses of characteristic forms and expressions of the language as it is spoken and written in Brazil today.

SPAN W1102x and y Elementary Spanish II 4 pts. Prerequisites: SPAN W1101, or a score of 280-379 in the department's Placement Examination An intensive introduction to Spanish language communicative competence, with stress on basic oral interaction, reading, witting and cultural knowledge as a continuation of Spanish W1101. Main objectives are to understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of immediate relevance; communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a direct exchange of information on familiar matters; describe in simple terms aspects of our background and personal history; understand the main point, the basic content, and the plot of filmic as well as short written texts.

CATL W1120x and y Comprehensive Beginning Catalan 4 pts. An extensive introduction to the Catalan language with an emphasis on oral communication as well as the reading and writing practice that will allow the student to function comfortably in a Catalan environment.

SPAN W1120x and y Comprehensive Beginning Spanish 4 pts. Prerequisites: A score below 379 in the department's Placement Examination or some previous exposure to the language. One-term intensive coverage of the contents of SPAN W1101 and SPAN W1102. A student may not receive credit for both SPAN W1120 and the sequence SPAN W1101-SPAN W1102.

CATL W1201x and y Intermediate Catalan I 4 pts. Prerequisites: CATL W1120. The first part of Columbia University´s comprehensive intermediate Catalan sequence. The main objectives of this course are to continue developing communicative competence - reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension - and to further acquaint students with Catalan cultures.

SPAN W1201x and y Intermediate Spanish I 4 pts. Prerequisites: SPAN W1102 or SPAN W1120, or a score of 380-449 in the department's Placement Examination. An intensive course in Spanish language communicative competence, with stress on oral interaction, reading, writing, and culture as a continuation of SPAN W1102 or SPAN W1120.

CATL W1202x and y Intermediate Catalan II 4 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Corequisites: Catalan 1201 or the equivalent. Catalan 1202 is the second part of Columbia University's intermediate Catalan sequence. Course goals are to enhance student exposure to various aspects of Catalan culture and to consolidate and expand reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills.

SPAN W1202x and y Intermediate Spanish II 4 pts. Prerequisites: SPAN W1201 or a score of 450-624 in the department's Placement Examination. An intensive course in Spanish language communicative competence, with stress on oral interaction, reading, witting and culture as a continuation of SPAN W1201.

SPAN W1208x and y Spanish for Spanish-Speaking Students 4 pts. Prerequisites: Heritage knowledge of Spanish. Students intending to register for this course must take the department's on-line Placement Examination. You should take this course if your recommended placement on this test is Spanish W1202 (a score of 450-624). If you place below Spanish W1202 you should follow the placement recommendation received with your test results. If you place above Spanish W1202, you should choose between Spanish W3300 and Spanish W4900. If in doubt, please consult the Director of the Language Programs. Designed for native and non-native Spanish-speaking students who have oral fluency beyond the intermediate level but have had no formal language training.

PORT W1220x and y Comprehensive Intermediate Portuguese 4 pts. Prerequisites: PORT W1102 or PORT W1320. This course discusses contemporary issues based on articles from Lusophone newspapers and magazines. Students will review grammar, expand their vocabulary and improve oral expression, writing, and reading skills. They are also exposed to audiovisual material that will deepen their understanding of Lusophone societies and culture.

SPAN W1220x and y Comprehensive Intermediate Spanish 4 pts. Prerequisites: A score of 380-624 in the department's Placement Examination, or SPAN W1102, or SPAN W1120. One-term intensive coverage of the contents of SPAN W1201 and SPAN W1202. A student may not receive credit for both SPAN W1220 and the sequence SPAN W1201-SPAN W1202 or SPAN BC1203-SPAN BC1204.

PORT W1320x and y Comprehensive Elementary Portuguese I and II for Spanish Speakers 4 pts. Prerequisites: Knowledge of Spanish or another Romance language An intensive beginning language course in Brazilian Portuguese with emphasis on Brazilian culture through multimedia materials related to culture and society in contemporary Brazil. Recommended for students who have studied Spanish or another Romance language. The course is the equivalent of two full semesters of elementary Portuguese with stress on reading and conversing, and may be taken in place of PORT W1101-W1102. For students unable to dedicate the time needed cover two semesters in one, the regularly paced sequence PORT W1101-W1102 is preferable.

PORT W3101x Conversation about the Lusophone World 3 pts. Prerequisites: Portuguese W1220. This conversation class will help students develop their oral proficiency in Portuguese. We will discuss current events, participate in challenging pronunciation exercises, improve understanding of Portuguese idioms, develop conversation strengths, confront weaknesses, and increase fluency in spoken Portuguese.

CATL W3300xy Advanced Catalan Through Content: Language and Identity in Contemporary Catalonia 4 pts. An examination of the political, cultural, and artistic history in Modern and Contemporary Catalonia and its role in the building of its sociolinguistic identity. Material includes literary, academic, and media readings and audiovisual and online resources.

PORT W3300y Advanced Language through Content 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Corequisites: Port W1220 An intensive exposure to advanced points of Portuguese grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Portuguese. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class. This will serve as the topical context to review advanced points of Portuguese grammar and structure through written and oral practice, and to introduce the basic principles of academic composition in Portuguese, particularly those pertaining to narration and description. This course is required for the concentration in Portuguese Studies. "Brasil: Favela e carnaval" intends to offer an exploration of issues related to poverty, race and violence through cultural phenomena manifested in fiction, music, film and media in today´s Brazilian society.This course is required for the concentration in Portuguese Studies.

SPAN W3300x and y Advanced Language through Content [in Spanish] 3 pts. Prerequisites: Fulfillment of the language requirement. Corequisites: Formerly Spanish W3200 and BC3004. If you have taken either of these courses before you can not take Spanish W3300. An intensive exposure to advanced points of Spanish grammar and structure through written and oral practice, along with an introduction to the basic principles of academic composition in Spanish. Each section is based on the exploration of an ample theme that serves as the organizing principle for the work done in class (Please consult the Directory of Classes for the topic of each section.) This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies.

PORT W3301x and y Advanced Writing and Composition in Portuguese 3 pts. Prerequisites: PORT W1220 This course focuses on three elements: 1) the main elements of formal discourse in Portuguese (grammar, vocabulary, expressions, etc.); 2) discourse genres, based on the theoretical bases laid out by Textual Linguistics and Discourse Analysis; 3) cultural, economic, social, political themes related to the reality of Brazil or other Portuguese-speaking countries. However, students should be able to define their areas of interest and shape their experience in the course according to them. Such an approach takes advantage of the diversity in the classroom, stimulates participation, and promotes independent academic research. Therefore, students will start a weblog, where their writing activities will be posted, so that their colleagues may read and comment on them. The mandatory genres-forms for all students are in the modules of discourse genres and academic writing, and the corresponding forms, the pronominal system and semelfectives. Students will then choose one more genre among biographical texts (resumé, facebook, biography), lyrical texts (music, poetry), subjective texts (description, narrative, commentary, editorial), and journalistic texts, as well as the corresponding forms assigned to those modules: indirect speech, mandates, past verbal tenses, conjunctions, redundancy/repetition, and semelfactives (conditionals). Every student will study and practice all genres and forms, but they will be responsible for larger assignments (module notes, to be posted on their blogs) on the two mandatory modules and the optional one. At the beginning of the semester they will choose a thematic topic for the course (in their field of study or area of personal interest), and will select a literature list with the assistance of the instructor. All assignments in the course must be related to the chosen thematic topic and will involve research based on the literature list. At the end of the semester, they will produce an essay on their thematic choice.

CATL W3330xy Introduction to Catalan Culture 3 pts. Course objectives are to examine manifestations of cultural production in the Catalan-speaking world and to perfect Catalan language skills. Topics to be discussed include: bilingualism and language as the marker of "authentic" national identity; the influx of immigration and the constant redefinition of all things Catalan; the very locally rooted and at the same time very international outlook of the avant-garde from Foix to Tàpies; the protest song and popular vis-à-vis Hollywood culture; the zombie-like estrangement of characters in post-Civil War fiction. By the end of the course, students will have a broad-based yet nuanced grasp of fundamental aspects of Catalan cultures.

No previous knowledge of the Catalan language is required.

CATL W3330x (Section 001) Introduction to Catalan Cultures 3 pts. This is a content course covering topics regarding Catalan history, society, literature and visual arts. The objective of the course is to examine the main socio-cultural manifestations in the Catalan-speaking territories. Topics to be discussed include: bilingualism and language as the marker of "authentic" national identity; the influx of immigration and the constant redefinition of all things Catalan; the very locally rooted and at the same time very international outlook of the Catalan avant-garde from Foix to Tàpies; the protest song and the cultural manifestations during the Franco repression, and the crucial role of the city of Barcelona as a cultural focus and its impact on literature, film, and arts. By the end of the semester students will be familiar with the main social and cultural issues of the Catalan-speaking territories. The course will be taught in Spanish and counts as an elective towards the major in Hispanic Cultures.

PORT W3330y Introduction to Portuguese Studies 3 pts. This course presents the students with the information and basic tools needed to interpret a broad range of topics and cultural production from the Portuguese-speaking world: literary, filmic, artisitic, architectural, urban, etc. We will use a continuing cross-disciplinary dialogue to study everyday acts as a location of culture. This course will center on interpretation as an activity and as the principal operation though which culturally sited meaning is created and analyzed. Among the categories and topics discussed will be history, national and popular cultures, literature (high/low), cultural institutions, migration, and globalization. Students will also acquire the fundamental vocabulary for the analysis of cultural objects. This course is required for the concentration in Portuguese Studies.

SPAN W3330x and y Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Cultures 3 pts. Prerequisites: Spanish 3300 (formerly Spanish 3332) The course studies cultural production in the Hispanic world with a view to making students aware of its historical and constructed nature. It explores concepts such as language, history, and nation; culture (national, popular, mass, and high); the social role of literature; the work of cultural institutions; globalization and migration; and the discipline of cultural studies. The course is divided into units that address these subjects in turn, and through which students will also acquire the fundamental vocabulary for the analysis of cultural objects. The course also stresses the acquisition of rhetorical skills with which to write effectively in Spanish about the topics discussed. This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies.

SPAN W3349x and y Hispanic Cultures I: Islamic Spain through the Colonial Period 3 pts. Prerequisites: Spanish 3330 (formerly Spanish 3332). This course provides an overview of the cultural history of the Hispanic world, from Roman Iberia to about 1700. It will address Islamic al-Andalus, Christian Spain and the late Middle Ages, the conquest of the "New World", the pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas, the colonial age and the decline of empire. Students will become familiar with major events and significant political, social and cultural trends of the various periods through the study of oral vs. manuscript vs. print culture, elite vs. popular culture, conquest and resistance, transculturation, and the links between cultural production and ideology. Students will also develop beginning skills in reading older forms of Spanish. Class discussions will seek to situate the works studied within the political and cultural currents and debates of the time. Emphasis will be placed on the historical context and on the development of close reading skills. All primary materials, class discussion, and assignments are in Spanish. This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. It also fulfills the A-list Major Cultures requirement.

SPAN W3350x and y Hispanic Cultures II: Enlightenment to the Present 3 pts. Prerequisites: Spanish 3330 (formerly Spanish 3332) This course surveys cultural production of Spain and Spanish America from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Students will acquire the knowledge needed for the study of the cultural manifestations of the Hispanic world in the context of modernity. Among the issues and events studied will be the Enlightenment as ideology and practice, the Napoleonic invasion of Spain, the wars of Spanish American independence, the fin-de-siècle and the cultural avant-gardes, the wars and revolutions of the twentieth century (Spanish Civil War, the Mexican and Cuban revolutions), neoliberalism, globalization, and the Hispanic presence in the United States. The goal of the course is to study some key moments of this trajectory through the analysis of representative texts, documents, and works of art. Class discussions will seek to situate the works studied within the political and cultural currents and debates of the time. All primary materials, class discussion, and assignments are in Spanish. This course is required for the major and the concentration in Hispanic Studies. It also fulfills the A-list Major Cultures requirement.

SPAN W3450y Short Fiction in Latin America 3 pts. In this course we will discuss the theory and practice of short fiction by the leading exponents of the genre in Spanish America. Authors to be discussed may include: Horacio Quiroga, Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Juan Rulfo, José Donoso, Rosario Castellanos, Augusto Monterroso, Rosario Ferré, Gabriel García Márquez, Angélica Gorodischer, Roberto Bolaño, and Andrea Maturana.

SPAN W3462x Spanish Grammar: From Rules to Laws and Beyond 3 pts. From a cognitive and operational point of view, this course aims to reflect on the theoretical and, mainly, practical limits of traditional grammar explanations, contributing with a new meaningful, experiential and representational understanding of Spanish as a human mean of communication. Within this framework, some of the most representative aspects of the grammar of Spanish will be studied from a fully practical perspective, favoring the comparison with the grammar of English. In each case, the reflection will lead to turn the traditional rules and their exceptions, into operational laws without exceptions, as well as to highlight the naturallogic underlying every single grammar decision in the use of language.

PORT W3490x Brazilian Society and Civilization 3 pts. Each week, a historical period is studied in connection to a particular theme of ongoing cultural expression. While diverse elements of popular culture are included, fiction is privileged as a source of cultural commentary. Students are expected to assimilate the background information but are also encouraged to develop their own perspective and interest, whether in the social sciences, the humanities (including the fine arts), or other areas.

SPAN W3490x (Section 001) Latin American Humanities I: From Pre-Columbian Civilizations to the Creation of New Nations 4 pts. The course aims to offer an overview of Latin American cultures that emphasizes specific social and intellectual movements through an analysis of representative historical and literary texts, as well as visual sources, covering Pre-columbian, colonial and independence periods. Selected materials are essential documents of their times and provide a comprehensive view of the origins and construction of Latin American cultures and identities. We read and analyze the selected sources as essential documents that are also often influential statements about Latin American histories.

SPAN W3491y Latin American Humanities II: From Modernity to the Present [In English] 4 pts. An introduction to the history and culture of Latin America, from the advent of modernity to the present, that is, after the foundational period of nation formation. The course will begin by addressing the phenomenon of modernity in a peripheral context in order to understand the specificity of cultural production in Latin America. The relationship between metropolitan discourses and their creative transformation in Latin America will provide a fertile ground for the study of the continent's history and cultural movements. The overarching concern will be to study how notions of Latin American culture were negotiated at certain historical turning points by different agents such as writers, artists, and politicians. Among the themes and topics examined will be positivism and cosmopolitanism, the close and contentious relationship between art and political engagement during the Mexican and the Cuban revolutions, the Boom of Latin American literature in the 1960s, the military dictatorships of the 1970s, and the migrations that have characterized the new global realities. Students are encouraged, but are not required, to take Latin American Humanities I. This course is on the "A list" of courses for the Major Cultures Core requirement. It is recommended that students take Latin American Humanities I before taking this course. Students with knowledge of Spanish may read the works in the original language. This course may count toward the major or concentration in Hispanic Studies and the concentration in Portuguese Studies.

PORT W3495x Anarchism in Brazil: Political Culture and Social Experience 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This seminar is intended in the first instance to reflect upon the power relations that determined the culture which shaped Brazilian society´s perception of anarchism denying, in the process, this political, social, and cultural experience. Beyond this, the seminar is intended to discuss the new forms which anarchism assumed beginning in the 1970s and 1980s. This was a time when new libertarian groups and new social movements (feminist, gay, black) emerged and also when philosophies of difference, such as those of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze gave rise to more pertinent categories which could be used to reexamine and reinterpret libertarian practices and thought in a more positive light.

SPAN W3563y Spanish Pragmatics: What Do We Do When We Speak Spanish? 3 pts. Prerequisites: SPAN W3349 or SPAN W3350

Pragmatics is a most helpful criterion in the interpretation of many different types of texts. As a new course within our Department's curriculum this instrument of rhetoric analysis is a basic tool in the comprehension of our students' discourse in their literary, cultural, and critical papers.

SPAN W3799x Discourse in Spanish: Analysis and Production 3 pts. Prerequisites: SPAN 3300 and 3330 This course will make the students familiar with discourse tools in order to analyze and produce texts in Spanish. It has two general pedagogical objectives: giving the students the tools for discourse analysis and teaching how to use them in the construction of their own discourse practice. This twofold configuration means that the students will learn language consciously and deeply how the language in action works and how to use the language as an instrument of their own. The course will have three parts. The fist will deal with textual construction- discourse genders, how to construct coherence and cohesion in Spanish with special attention to discourse markers and connectors, differences between oral and written discourse, and register. The second will be about conversational analysis - the structure of interaction in a wide range of encounters, from those very ritualized - such as ceremonies or classes- to casual conversation. We also deal with non verbal communication and their role in social interaction form a multimodal perspective. The third part will be about critical discourse analysis and ideological discourse construction. We will use the tools learned in the previous parts to trace ideology in different forms of discourse, for instance, the building of Latin identity in music, sexism in advertisement, the Latin bourgeois family in soap operas, and political discourse. Also the students will select areas of analysis and production of their interest. For the three parts of the course, students will analyze primary texts such as advertisement, music, TV series, realities, films, conversations among native speakers, news, blogs, text messages, academic production, and text books. They also will produce discourse pieces according to specific communicative purposes and situations, such as an advertising campaign, political discourses, academic texts and film/TV scripts. Secondary texts will be in Spanish (original, not translated), although there will be a recommended reading list of classical DA texts in English. Assessment and grade will be built on: 1. three take home exams on the analysis of different texts (one for each course three parts); 2. student´s production of required texts; 3. class preparation and participation.

SPAN W3815x Forgetting the Spanish Civil War 3 pts. On October 31st, 2007 a polemic Historical Memory Law was passed by the Spanish Congress. The legislative initiative was only the culmination of a social and cultural change visible since the end of the 80's: After decades when the building of a new democracy made the memory of the civil war an uncomfortable issue to be avoided by politicians and the general public, an attitude best exemplified be the Amnesty Law that followed Franco's death in 1977, the arrival of a new, younger generation who had not lived under Franco demanded new models of engagement with the past. Political moves were parallel to an explosion of demand and visibility of cultural products about the war. Memory became both a suddenly urgent political issue and a profitable business for a cultural industry that was to produce and endless catalogue of best-selling novels, nostalgic coffee-table books and blockbuster films. An introductory critical reflection on some of the most influential theories of cultural memory (Huyssen, Nora, Halbwachs, Ricoeur) will be the point of departure for the analysis of a wide variety of cultural productions (historiography, film, literature, comic) focused on the civil war. The works by writers Alberto Méndez, Isaac Rosa, Muñoz Molina, Julio Llamazares, film-makes such as Guillermo del Toro, Carlos Saura, Garcia Berlanga, Agustín Villaronga or historians like Beevor, Payne, Juliá, Pío Moa, Sánchez León will be the materials from which to consider the complex mechanisms of the representations of memory and their inter-action with their socio-political context.

SPAN W3991x and y Senior Seminar: 4 pts. Prerequisites: Senior major or concentrator Status This course explores the relationship between Spanish American literature and media by focusing on five forms of media: gramophone, radio, photography, film, internet. We will discuss how these different media have opened up questions about the role of visual and aural perception, the relation between high culture and mass culture, authenticity and authorship, and the place of literature in Latin America today.

SPAN W3998y Supervised Individual Research (Spring) 3 pts. Permission of DUS required Students register in this course while they pursue independent study work under the supervision of a faculty member during the fall semester. Permission of the Director of Undergraduate Studies is required to register.

SPAN W4415x Spanish American Poetry 3 pts. Prerequisites: SPAN W3332 or permission from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Major figures of modern Spanish-American poetry. The aims of the class are twofold. 1) to explore the language of modern Spanish-language poetry and ways of approaching it; 2) to study major figures of the post-modernista Spanish-American poetry. Topics for discussion will include: theories of the lyric; the aesthetics of affect; hermeticism and colloquialism; the dramatic monologue; the prophetic voice; afro-cubanism; glossolalia; antipoesía. Critical/theoretical readings from Giorgio Agamben, Amado Alonso, Charles Altieri, Mark Edmunson, Roberto Frenández Retamar, Gustavo Guerrero, Frank Kermode, Octavio Paz, Michael Riffaterre, Guillermo Sucre, Leo Spitzer, Helen Vendler.

SPAN W4996y Spanish for the Legal Profession 4 pts.