The course listing represents a sampling of courses taught by the faculty in this department in the 2009-10 academic year. To select courses for Fall 2009, see the catalog listing; similarly, for Spring 2010 refer to the relevant catalog.
HISP-101 - Elementary Spanish I
Offered: First Semester, Second SemesterCredit Hours: 5 hours
Taught in Spanish. Strong emphasis on communicative tasks to show students how Spanish is used across the Spanish-speaking world in real-life situations. Culture is an important thread that is tightly woven throughout the course. Basic grammar and vocabulary will be introduced and practiced through intensive oral and written practice. Weekly compositions and meetings with language tutors.
Syllabus: Hisp 101
HISP-102 - Elementary Spanish II
Offered: First Semester, Second SemesterCredit Hours: 5 hours
Taught in Spanish, this course is a continuation of HISP 101, complemented by additional readings to enhance written and oral skills. Grammar will continue to be introduced through more intensive oral and written practice.
Note: Students with any previous knowledge of Spanish other than from Oberlin College must first take the placement exam before enrolling in this course.
HISP-109 - Latin American History: Conquest and Colony - LxC Spanish Section
Offered: First SemesterCredit Hours: 1 Hour
This course is available for students enrolled in HIST-109 who want an opportunity to discuss colonial Latin American history in Spanish. Meeting for an additional hour per week, students will have a modest amount of reading and writing in Spanish in addition to the class discussions in Spanish. Intermediate competency in Spanish or higher required.
HIST 109 is a co-requisite.
HISP-202 - Intermediate Spanish I
Offered: First Semester, Second SemesterCredit Hours: 4 hours
Taught in Spanish. This course is a continuation of HISP 102. It adopts a format integrating grammar, oral and written practice in exercises, conversation and readings which evolve within a cultural context. Students have to attend one mandatory conversation classes on Tuesdays or Thursdays for one hour, time TBA.
Prerequisite: HISP 102 or consent of instructor.
HISP-203 - Intermediate Spanish II
Offered: First Semester, Second SemesterCredit Hours: 4 hours
This course is a continuation of HISP 202. It adopts a format integrating grammar, oral and written practice in exercises, conversation and readings which evolve within a cultural context. Students have to attend one mandatory conversation classes on Tuesdays or Thursdays for one hour, time TBA.
Prerequisite: HISP 202 or consent of instructor.
HISP-205 - Communication in a Spanish-Speaking World
Offered: Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
The goal of this course is to prepare non-native speakers for the rigors and the rewards of conversing and communicating in a Spanish-speaking environment. Using a variety of technologies (blogs, voice-over-IP telephony, Spanish language social networking sites) as well as some of the immersive language environments available through virtual realities or gaming (e.g. Second Life, World of Warcraft) students will connect with Spanish speakers outside of Oberlin and develop their reading, writing and listening skills, as well as developing effective strategies for communication in a variety of contexts. In addition to class periods there will be a 90 minute weekly evening session for technology support and practice, time and day TBA.
HISP-304 - Advanced Grammar and Composition
Offered: First Semester, Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
It is strongly recommended that students complete HISP 203 or equivalent before taking this course, which offers an in-depth review of Spanish grammar and the opportunity to study closely the different steps involved in the writing process. Students will develop and improve their writing skills by practicing descriptive, narrative, argumentative and expository writing in Spanish.
Note: This course fulfills prerequisites for upper-division literature courses and may be counted for the major or minor.
HISP-306 - Primer Encuentro: Hispanic Studies Colloqium on Literature and Film
Offered: First SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
A first encounter with the main ideas and literary currents that have contributed to create the field of Hispanic Studies. Students will analyze poems, short stories, essays, plays, and films from Spain and Latin America in light of current literary theory. Authors and directors studied include Almodovar, Neruda, Borges, Cervantes, etc. The course will also allow students to develop research and academic writing skills. Designed particularly for freshmen and sophomores, this colloquium serves as a bridge to the Spanish-taught upper level courses. Offered every year; taught in Spanish.
HISP-307 - Segundo Encuentro: Hispanic Studies Colloquium on Short Stories and Films
Offered: Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
An exploration of short stories and films using the main ideas and literary currents that have contributed to create the field of Hispanic Studies. We will particularly focus on a practical analisis of relevant contemporary short stories and films from Spain and Latin America in light of current literary, aesthetic and cultural theories. Films featured include Amores Perros, Los lunes al sol, La canción de Carla, etc. Designed particularly for freshmen and sophomores, but open to all students, this colloquium serves as a bridge to the Spanish-taught upper level courses. Taught in Spanish.
HISP-309 - Survey of Spanish Literature I: Humor and Horror
Offered: First SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
This course is a survey of some of the most representative works that have shaped the canon of Early Modern Literature in Spanish. Special attention will be paid to Humor and Horror, as two topics that are part of Hispanic literature from its origins. Novels and short stories to be read include Lazarillo de Tormes, Don Quijote, Cervantes and Zayas’ Exemplary Novels, La Celestina and Noches Lúgubres. The frame of the course will be established through different theoretical approaches to humor and laughter, and a study in depth of horror - a generic term that will include fantasy, witchcraft, necrophilia, etc.
HISP-310 - Survey of Spanish Literature II: The Struggle for Modernity
Offered: Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
Progressive Spanish writers and intellectuals have consistently felt out of place in Spain, whose traditional power structures for centuries resisted the advent of modernity. Still, Spaniards managed to produce texts, images, and films of astounding quality and innovation. This course studies a selection of outstanding Spanish plays, novels, poems, and short stories from the late 18th century to the present. Authors studied include Garcia Lorca, Sender, Becquer, Moratin, Perez Galdos, Rosalia de Castro, Gomez de Avellaneda, Unamuno, Larra, Garcia Morales, and others. Taught in Spanish.
HISP-317 - Survey of Latin American Literature I: Defining Latin America
Offered: First SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
After Columbus's discovery of America a 'new world' emerged. This course looks at the early writings by Spaniards and 'Americans' in the Spanish colonies and traces the development of regional and national literatures in the centuries that follow. Although broad in scope, the course focuses on three questions: How did Latin America differentiate itself culturally from Europe? What characterizes the New World criollo tradition? How are national literary canons constructed during the periods of independence? Taught in Spanish.
HISP-318 - Survey of Latin American Literature II
Offered: Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
Topic to be announced. Taught in Spanish.
HISP-320 - Reading Borges
Offered: First SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
Borges wrote, 'Let others boast of pages they have written, I take pride in those I've read.' Using Borges's notion that reading is one more form of writing or re-writing, this course embarks on an in-depth reading of this literary master's work in the context of his precursors and followers. Selections include poetry, short stories, essays and critical studies. Taught in Spanish.
HISP-334 - Spanish for Heritage Speakers
Offered: Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
Were you raised speaking Spanish but never studied it formally? This class is designed for you. The course addresses all four skills of language mastery: understanding, speaking, reading and writing but aims especially to expand vocabulary, correct common grammatical mistakes, and give students writing proficiency. Taught in Spanish.
No instructor consent required but you must be a 'heritage' speaker. Note: This course fulfills prerequisites for upper-division literature courses and may be counted for the major or minor.
HISP-340 - Spain and Yugoslavia in the 20th Century
Offered: Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
The 20th century histories of Spain and Yugoslavia run surprisingly parallel, but have resulted in widely different outcomes. Why? This course explores these and other questions by analyzing the interaction among nationalism, culture, and politics in both countries through sociological, historical, literary and visual materials, including novels and films. Special attention is paid to the politics of late state-building, the rise of competing nationalisms, civil wars and their legacies, dictatorship, collective memories, democratic transition (Spain), and state collapse (Yugoslavia). Taught in English.
HISP-345 - Topics in Spanish and Latin American Culture
Offered: Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
Topics to be announced.
HISP-346 - Literature and Exile in Spain and Latin America
Offered: First Semester, 2010-2011Credit Hours: 3 Hours
Since the history of 20th century Spain and Latin America is studded with dictatorships, for many writers leaving their country was the only way to regain their intellectual freedom. This course will analyze the effects of political exile on narrative, poetry, plays, and essays written in Spanish on both sides of the Atlantic, with a particular focus on issues of national identity, loyalty, and representation. Reading list includes Aub, Cernuda, Chacel, Cortázar, Dorfman, Goytisolo, Molloy, Neruda, Peri Rossi, Piglia, Reyes, Semprún, Sender, and Valenzuela. Taught in Spanish. Enrollment Limit: 15.
HISP-349 - Latin American Icons: Che, Evita, Frida, Pancho Villa
Offered: Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
What can a face mean? When and how does an image have a life of its own, beyond the person it belonged to? We will study the lives and afterlives of four celebrated and controversial Latin American icons, Pancho Villa, Eva Perón, Frida Kahlo, and Che Guevara. Topics will include: the overlap of Catholic and revolutionary ways of thinking; art, propaganda, and popular culture; feminist and anti-feminist language; and the international circulation of national icons. Taught in Spanish.
Prerequisite: HISP 304 or equivalent.
HISP-422 - Literature and Politics of Central America
Offered: First SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
This course presents cultural and literary responses to Central America’s neocolonial status in the twentieth century, including the CIA-sponsored Guatemalan coup in 1954, the Nicaraguan Sandinista Movement in the 1980s, guerrilla war in El Salvador and Guatemala, and post-war developments. Readings will include Asturias, Cardenal, Cortázar, Ramírez, Rey Rosa, and Rigoberta Menchú and the controversy around the genre of the testimonio. The course will also examine the Zapatistas in southern Mexico and the writings of Subcomandante Marcos. Taught in Spanish.
HISP-438 - Don Quijote in Contemporary Hollywood
Offered: Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
In contemporary Hollywood cinema there is an important presence of innovative metafictional devices first conceived by Cervantes, including characters addicted to fiction, authors who interact with their own creations, lovers trapped in their delusional dreams, and metafictionally altered stories. In this course we will read and discuss key passages and characters from Cervantes' Don Quijote Part I and Part II alongside films such as Natural Born Killers, Tropical Thunder, The Truman Show, Pleasantville, Don Juan de Marco, The Assassination of Jesse James, Fight Club and The Incredibles. Taught in Spanish.
HISP-440 - Music, Orality, and Literature in Hispanic Traditions
Offered: Second SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
The long-standing relationship between verbal art and music will be explored through examples taken from so-called high art, popular traditions, and folklore. Among the topics addressed are: how certain musical paradigms shaped literary aesthetics, the phenomenon of improvisation in music and verbal art, the conventions of Romanticism and the dissonance of Modernity in literature and music, the relationship between popular song and poetry, tradition and innovation in oraliture , practices of performance in literature and music. Taught in Spanish.
HISP-445 - Crime, Sex and Ghosts of the Past: Contemporary Spanish Fiction and Film
Offered: First SemesterCredit Hours: 3 hours
Spain's transition to democracy following Franco's death in 1975 was characterized by two contradictory phenomena: a sudden moral, sexual, and political liberation, and a collective "pact of oblivion" that indefinitely postponed any reckoning with the dictatorial past. This course studies the film and fiction of post-Franco Spain, rife with sex and crime but also haunted by the ghosts of history. Includes works by Martín Gaite, Vázquez Montalbán, Llamazares, Almodóvar, Medem, and Saura. Taught in Spanish.
HISP-505 - Honors
Offered: First Semester, Second SemesterCredit Hours: 2-6 hours
Consent of instructor required.
HISP-995 - Private Reading
Offered: First Semester, Second SemesterCredit Hours: 0.5-3 hours
Signed permission of the instructor required.
To register for a private reading, the student must obtain the signatures of the instructor and department chair on a private reading card and turn the card in to the Office of the Registrar.
