SPAN101 is the first of a four-semester sequence in the Spanish Language Program. It is designed for students a) with no prior knowledge of Spanish, b) who have studied Spanish for one year or less in high school, and c) who have scored 1 or 2 on the AP Spanish Language exam. Students develop personal forms of expression and basic strategies for reading, listening, writing, and participating in everyday conversations. The course introduces students to the diverse cultures of the Spanish-speaking world through authentic materials (songs, films, poems, short stories, etc.), as well as activities that address a range of personal and immediate-needs topics and socio-cultural situations such as family life and daily routines. By the end of the semester, students can expect to have reached the Intermediate Low level of the ACTFL scale, and proceed to SPAN 102. The course consists of two 80-minute sessions per week with the lecturer and one 50-minute session with the language assistant. Limited to 16 students per section. This course may not be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Fall semester: Senior Lecturer Granda, TBD and assistants. Spring semester: Lecturer Narváez-Burbano and assistants.
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Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025(Offered as SPAN 105 and LLAS 105) SPAN 105 is the first of the two-semester Spanish Language course sequence for students from Spanish-speaking families. It is designed for students who a) have grown up speaking, listening, reading and/or writing Spanish with family or in their community and b) have placed into the course via the Spanish Department placement exam. In this course, students will celebrate their heritage by participating in cross-cultural exchange with other students and engaging with the cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking world through authentic materials and community connections. At the linguistic level, students will strengthen their bilingual range, working on the skills that are not learned interpersonally: critical thinking, reading, and writing in Spanish. Using a student-centered approach, the course will include collaborative brainstorming, free-writing, developing topics of personal importance, and peer and group editing in order to develop students’ writing proficiency and to build community. By the end of the semester, students can expect to have reached the Intermediate High level of the ACTFL scale, and proceed to SPAN 205. The course consists of two 80-minute sessions per week with the lecturer and one 50-minute session with the language assistant.
This course prepares Spanish heritage language learners (SHLL) for intermediate-level courses offered by the Spanish Department, including SPAN 205 (Finding your Bilingual Voice). Limited to 15 students per section. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish, though some assignments can be submitted in English.
Consent Required (students must identify as Spanish heritage language students). Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredSPAN 202 is the final course of the four-semester sequence in the Spanish Language Program. It is designed for students who a) have successfully completed SPAN 201, b) who have placed into the course via the Spanish Department placement exam, or c) who have scored a 4 on the AP Spanish Language exam. The course develops students’ ability to interact in culturally appropriate ways with native speakers of Spanish, negotiate situations that require problem solving, and exchange detailed descriptions, comparisons, and interpretations about authentic materials from the Spanish-speaking world. The course will use authentic texts from a variety of media, including film, literature, visual arts, music, and web-based texts. The course includes an online conversation partner program so students can practice their language skills with Spanish speakers around the world. By the end of the semester, students can expect to have reached the Advanced Low level of the ACTFL scale, and be ready to proceed to SPAN 301 (Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies), or to an immersive study abroad experience in any of Amherst College’s pre-approved programs in the Spanish-speaking world. The course consists of two 80-minute sessions per week with the lecturer and one 50-minute session with the language assistant. This course may be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 201 or Spanish Placement Exam. Fall Semester: Lecturer Narváez-Burbano and assistants. Spring Semester: Senior Lecturer Granda and assistants.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025(Offered as SPAN 205 and LLAS 205) Heritage learners of Spanish are students who have grown up speaking, listening, reading and/or writing Spanish with family or in their community. Because of their unique backgrounds, Spanish heritage language learners (SHLLs) are bilingual and bicultural. They function between a Hispanic and an American identity. This fluid and multiple identity can bring challenges, as SHLLs try to fit into both groups. With this in mind, through meaningful activities that focus on students’ experiences and emotions, this Spanish language course will center on bilingualism, specifically through writing, as a necessary means for identity formation. Because in narrating our stories with others, we enact our identities, this course will include an event open to the community that showcases our voices and talents.
Through this course, students will incorporate their personal experience as SHLLs into their coursework. Activities will foster critical thinking, and students will learn to analyze, read, discuss, write, and reflect on issues of language, culture, and identity. Using a student-centered approach, the course will include collaborative brainstorming, free-writing, developing topics of personal importance, and peer and group editing in order to develop students’ writing proficiency and to build community.
This course prepares Spanish heritage language students for advanced-level courses offered by the Spanish Department. Limited to 15 students per section. This course may be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish, though some assignments can be submitted in English.
Prerequisite: SPAN201, SPAN202 or placement exam.
Consent Required (students must identify as Spanish heritage language students). Spring Semester: Professor Granda.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2023, Spring 2025(Offered as SPAN 301 and LLAS 301) This course provides an introduction to the diverse literatures and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world over the course of six centuries, from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Students will learn the tools, language, and critical vocabulary for advanced work reading the canon of Hispanic literatures from Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean Basin, identifying aesthetic trends, historical periods and diverse genres such as poetry, narrative, theater and film. The syllabus will include a wide variety of authors of different national, political, and artistic persuasions and an array of linguistic styles. This course prepares students for advanced work in Spanish and for study abroad.
Requisite: SPAN 202, instructor permission or placement into the course via AP, SAT or placement exam score. Proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish are required. Limited to 20 students per section. Fall semester: Professor Schroeder Rodríguez and Visiting Professor Ferrari. Spring semester: Professor Infante.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025(Offered as SPAN 310 and SWAG 320) Although at times derided as abnormal “chicas raras,” Spanish women have carved out a particular niche in the history of Spanish literature. These novelists, poets, essayists and short story authors have distinguished themselves by tackling issues of sexuality, subjectivity, marginalization, sexism, and feminism head-on. But how do we define an escritura femenina in Spain and what, if anything, differentiates it as a gendered space from canonical “masculine” writing? This course examines the social, historical and cultural transformations women have undergone in Spain from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century. We will explore a lively variety of texts and literary genres by well-known authors such as Emilia Pardo Bazán, Carmen Laforet, Carmen Martín Gaite, Ana Rossetti and Dulce Chacón, while also widening our focus to Afro-Spanish voices who have traditionally been excluded. Students will create their own canon by becoming the editors of an Anthology of Spanish Women’s Writing. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: Spanish 301 or permission of instructor. Omitted 2023-2024. Professor Brenneis.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN-319, MUSI-142 and LLAS-319) The early twentieth century development and popularization of new technologies like the radio and the phonograph fomented a shift in Latin America toward popular music production that could reach an international, Spanish-speaking audience. Musical genres that Ángel Quintero Rivera terms “músicas mulatas” question boundaries between races, social classes, and nations. In this course, we will investigate how Latin American short stories and novels from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries represent these “músicas mulatas” as the site of different kinds of transgression and fusion. Specifically, we will study the possible functions and effects of incorporating el tango, el bolero, la bachata, la salsa, and el reguetón into literary texts. By reading a variety of voices, particularly those of Afro-descendent and women authors, we will pay special attention to the ways in which musicalized texts create and question representations of race and gender and seek to transgress borders of all kinds. To enrich our study of literature, we will learn about each of the featured musical genres through secondary readings, guest lectures, and several dance classes. Students will have the opportunity to annotate a text with links to musical intertexts and create a podcast, among other assignments. No prior experience with musicology or performance is expected. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: Spanish 301 or permission of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Lecturer Piazza.
(Offered as SPAN-321, LLAS-321 and ARCH-321) This course explores historical connections between violence and the built environment in the Americas, from architecture to wastelands, from monuments to mass graves. The class has a twofold objective. On the one hand, we will analyze critical issues concerning the production of the built environment, such as the intersection of race and space or the relationship between state architecture and historical oblivion. On the other hand, we will explore architectures and art projects that actively unsettle colonial legacies and seek to heal historical violence. We will study cases from Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, México and the US, among others. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisites: Spanish 301 or permission of the instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredTaught simultaneously at Amherst and Bowdoin, the course is designed as a cultural history of Hispanic civilization through its dictionaries. What authority do they exert? Who collects them? In what way do dictionaries change? The focus will be on the role words have played in history and their political, social, and commercial value. Starting with lexicons of indigenous, slave, and immigrant languages, students will engage in an in-depth exploration of figures like Antonio de Nebrija, Sebastián de Covarrubias, Andres Bello, and Maria Moliner. There will be a discussion of the asymmetrical relationship between Spain and Latin America and the importance of gender, media, sports, and cuisine. The Tesoro de la Lengua Espanola o Castellana, the Diccionario de Autoridades, the Diccionario de la Lengua Española, the Moliner, Larousse, and Clave will all be analyzed. Active research in compiling neologisms and other emerging words will be a feature of the course work. The endeavor will culminate in the publication of a scholarly book by Professors Boyle and Stavans on dictionaries in the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. Requirements: advanced and/or near-native language skills. Taught by Professors Margaret Boyle (Bowdoin) and Ilan Stavans (Amherst). Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2023-2024. Professor Stavans.
2023-24: Not offeredMany countries in the Spanish-speaking world were ruled by a dictator, autocrat or military junta over the course of the 20th century. This interdisciplinary course examines how writers, artists, filmmakers and activists have resisted the censorship, cultural repression and moral authority of dictatorships in Spain and Latin America. We will focus on the history of repressive regimes and the cultures of protest in Spain, Argentina, Chile and Guatemala through films, stories, artwork, poetry and other texts. Throughout the semester, students will mount their own digital exhibition incorporating cultural artifacts from different Spanish-speaking countries and time periods into a pop-up protest museum. Emphasis will also be placed on developing Spanish vocabulary, syntax and fluency to discuss and analyze the causes and effects of repressive regimes and the “subversive” movements that resisted them. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 330, SWAG 332, LLAS 330 and FAMS 338) How have Latin Americans represented themselves on the big screen? In this course we will explore this question through close readings of representative films from each of the following major periods: silent cinema (1890s–1930s), studio cinema (1930s–1950s), Neorealism/Art Cinema (1950s), the New Latin American Cinema (1960s–1980s), and contemporary cinema (1990s to today). Throughout the course we will examine evolving representations of modernity and pay special attention to how these representations are linked to different constructions of gender, race, sexuality, and nationality. We will conclude the course with a collective screening of video essays created by students in the course. The course is conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredThe food and flavors of a country are a suggestive reflection of part of its identity. This course examines the cultural and literary history of food in Spain and Latin America from the sixteenth century to the present as a means to explore the relationship between what we eat and how we define ourselves. This approach is also a productive lens to examine interconnected topics such as gender, race, religion, and social identity as they relate to foodways in the Spanish-speaking world. Primary sources will include literary texts, historical accounts, films, cookbooks, and paintings and will be supplemented by secondary critical texts. Through diverse readings, class discussions, and varied writing assignments, students will also hone their speaking, listening, reading and writing abilities in Spanish. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester: Professor Infante.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2023, Fall 2024(Offered as SPAN 335, LLAS 335 and FAMS 324) Latin American documentary filmmaking in the twenty-first century has been at the forefront of global developments of the genre. In this course we will explore a wide range of films that together provide an overview of the immense diversity in topics, styles, and cultures that contemporary documentaries address. During the first half of the course we will collaboratively select the films in order to reflect students' particular interests while aiming to cover all six major cultural spheres in Latin America: Mesoamerica, the Andean region, the Caribbean, Amazonia, the Southern Cone, and the Latin American diaspora. During the second half of the course you will have time to develop and work on your final projects, which could be a videoessay, a written essay, or a creative documentary project that dialogues with a film or films seen in class. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester: Professor Schroeder Rodríguez.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2014, Fall 2023(Offered as SPAN 342, LLAS 343 and SWAG 343) “Wild tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be cut out,” Chicana feminist theorist Gloria Anzaldúa wrote in the hybrid text Borderlands/La Frontera. She was referring to, what she called, the linguistic imperialism of English in the US Southwest. And yet she also carved out a third space for those subjects at the crossroads of multiple ways of being – the queer and the abject. In this course, we will examine cultural and literary texts that speak to the ways that race, gender, and sexual identity are conditioned by the historical development of geopolitical borders. We will pay particular attention to the US-Mexico Borderlands but we will also examine other places in which “borderlands” of identity exist. Course conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN This course will focus on Holyoke, MA as a case study of Latinx Studies and Puerto Rican Studies. Much of our work in the course will focus on Puerto Rico, but we will also familiarize ourselves with foundational work in the general field of Latinx Studies, taking care to place different migrant communities, cultures, and histories in conversation with one another. Students will also engage in collaborative learning projects with partners in the city of Holyoke and neighboring towns with substantial Latinx populations. The course will include students from Amherst College and Holyoke Community College. Class will be conducted in Spanish, but English may be used depending on work with community partners.
Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 6 students. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredLatin America produced some of the most socially engaged poetry of the twentieth century. In this course, we will ask ourselves how this poetry can help us imagine a truly liberated life for ourselves and our communities by challenging what Peruvian philosopher Aníbal Quijano calls coloniality of power, or the ongoing practices and legacies of Eurocentric colonialism in social organization and forms of knowledge. Authors will include Vicente Huidobro (Chile), Gabriela Mistral (Chile), Julia de Burgos (Puerto Rico), Pablo Neruda (Chile), César Vallejo (Peru), Roque Dalton (El Salvador), Haroldo de Campos (Brazil), Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua), Octavio Paz (Mexico), and Nancy Morejón (Cuba). Students will have the opportunity to work on their own poetry, on translations, and on a research project. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 360, BLST 382 [CLA] and SWAG 248) Historically speaking, discourses of mestizaje or racial mixture in Latin America, the Philippines, and the US-Mexican borderlands have implicitly or explicitly used “blackness” as a monolithic signifier connoting a perversity and backwardness to be rehabilitated by civilizational uplift. Students in this course will explore queer and trans texts that challenge this tradition and problematize the connection of the transracial to the transgender. Some of the theorists and authors we will engage include: Cathy Cohen, Fernando Ortiz, CLR James, Sylvia Wynter, Jessica Hagedorn, and Junot Díaz. While some course materials will be in English, the course will be conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course will explore the literature and culture of the Asian Américas – the diasporic and national literatures in Spanish by and about those of Asian descent in the Americas. We will explore the historical reasons for Asian migration to the Americas as the political result of liberal abolitionism. Thus “Asian American” identity will not be studied in isolation; we will explore how mestizaje, Indigeneity, Blackness, and Eurocentrism shaped the idea of "Asia" in the Americas. We will prioritize texts in Spanish. Some secondary materials will be assigned in English. Class and assignments conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 371 and ENST 371) In September 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico and laid bare the social inequalities that had been growing since the Great Recession of 2008 and before. But the Hurricane has also accelerated efforts to seek alternative sources of food and fuel and avoid a repeat of the post-hurricane shortages linked to an overdependence on food imports and a crumbling energy grid. Students in this course will analyze and evaluate how three such efforts have fared: one small grassroots organization, one large not-for-profit organization, and one government agency. The findings may have far-reaching implications beyond Puerto Rico, as centralized power grids throughout the world enter the end of their useful life, begging replacement with new innovative systems that do not contribute to climate change. Accepted students must commit to travel to Puerto Rico during the second and third weeks of January 2020, to acquaint themselves with the organizations we will be studying in depth during the Spring 2020 semester. At the end of the semester, students will share their findings with a diverse audience of stakeholders and interested parties. Course readings and discussions will be in Spanish and in English.
Limited to 12 students. Admission with consent of the instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as AMST 375, LLAS 375, SOCI 375 and SPAN 375) Over the past four decades, the Latinx student population at Amherst has increased more than seven-fold, from about 30 students per class in the 1970s, to over 200 per class in the last several years. As a community, however, we know very little about the subjective experience of Latinxs who live, study, and work at Amherst College. In this course, we will read and discuss different genres of scholarship that focus on the Latinx experience—empirical research, fiction, memoirs, and films—before proceeding to a series of workshops on how to conduct oral history interviews. Students will then apply this theoretical and practical knowledge to an exploration of the experiences of Latinx students, alumni, faculty, and staff in our community. These interviews will form the basis of a collectively-edited documentary designed to encourage cross-cultural dialogues within and outside the Latinx community, and in the process, increase awareness of the diversity of Latinx lives on our campus. Students of all backgrounds are welcome, and knowledge of Spanish or Spanglish is useful but not required.
Admission with the consent of the instructor. Limited to 12 students. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 380, ARHA 380 and LLAS 380) The class will explore the work of artists, art collectives, and community-based projects in Latin America and the U.S. from the 1960s onwards. We will look at how cultural agents “make worlds” to resist, denounce, and transform lives at war. Students will actively participate in both research and creative projects. We will focus on works from Colombia, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, Chile, and the U.S. Course conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Fall semester. Visiting Professor Ferrari.
Pending Faculty Approval
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2014, Fall 2023(Offered as SPAN 381, ARCH 381, ARHA 389 and LLAS 381) Antithetic to urban order and western culture, the desert has been a racialized space for the indigenous other in the Americas. Considered barbaric and lawless in the nineteenth century, today the desert is a militarized environment, a surveilled territory, and a site for nuclear extractivism. The desert has a visual history that speaks through different media, from oil painting to experimental cinema, from performative actions to thermal imaging and digital activism. This class will critically explore this unsuspected visual history of the Americas. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester. Visiting Professor Ferrari.
(Offered as SPAN 405, EUST 317, and SWAG 317) This course will examine the diverse and often contradictory representations of women in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spain as seen through the eyes of both male and female writers. This approach will allow us to inquire into how women represented themselves versus how they were understood by men. In our analysis of this topic, we will also take into consideration some scientific, legal, and moral discourses that attempted to define the nature and value of women in early modern Spain. Works by authors such as Cervantes, María de Zayas, Calderón de la Barca, and Catalina de Erauso, among others, will offer us fascinating examples and different approaches to the subject. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredThe last two decades have seen the popularization of the Kichwa concepts of sumak kawsay (vida armónica, life in harmony) and alli kawsay (buen vivir, good living) thanks to the former’s adoption as part of the constitution of Ecuador in 2008. Bolivia soon followed suit when it incorporated the analogous concepts of ñandereko (Guaraní for harmonious life) and suma qamaña (Aymara for buen convivir, good coliving) to its new constitution in 2009. This course will examine the various meanings and theorizations of these concepts in Andean and Amazonian philosophies, how they have been instrumentalized by the States of Ecuador and Bolivia, and how they are being reclaimed by communities who assert that the State is not honoring their constitutional right to life in harmony, nor its requisite practices of good living. With this historical and theoretical framework in mind, we will then explore how these concepts and practices help to make sense of a number of artistic texts (films, narratives, poems, songs, murals) by and for Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities throughout Latin America. For their final projects, students will have the option to write about one or more of these artistic texts, or produce an original artistic text aligned with the values of sumac kawsay/ñandereko and alli kawsay/suma qamaña. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 420 and EUST 340.) The Spanish Civil War lasted only three years, from 1936 to 1939, yet the conflict cast a long shadow over Spain’s twentieth-century history, culture and identity. Indeed, as a precursor to World War II, the war's effects were felt worldwide, and it became the inspiration for works of art and literature as varied as Pablo Picasso's Guernica, Pablo Neruda's España en el corazón, Guillermo del Toro's El laberinto del fauno and Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. This course will delve into the discord and violence of the war as well as to the anguish and catharsis of the literature, poetry and film it inspired. Through primary sources and historical accounts, we will understand the war’s causes. By studying texts and films that track the reverberations of the Spanish Civil War in the United States, Latin America and Continental Europe, we will trace the war’s effects. In addition, we will grapple with the diverse ways that lingering memories of the war have affected modern-day politics and culture, with particular attention to legacies of race, class and gender. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 426 and EUST 426) Spanish Antifa heroes, saboteurs, and spies have driven the longest anti-fascist resistance in Europe. Spaniards have been at the vanguard of anti-fascism from the time of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, to the fight against Nazi genocide during World War II, to opposition to the populist Trump-inspired Vox party of the twenty-first century. This course will consider the men and women of diverse left-wing political beliefs who risked their lives to put down fascist movements in Spain and throughout Europe. Through an examination of primary sources such as memoirs, photographs, and newspapers as well as contemporary films, graphic novels, television series, and social media, we will explore resistance tactics, international espionage, anti-fascism through the lens of gender, revisionist histories, and the long-lasting legal and social implications of attempts to thwart authoritarian oppression. This course will also consider the legacy of fascism and anti-fascism in Spain, tracking the influence on the present-day international Antifa and contemporary social justice movements. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite Spanish 301 or permission of instructor. Omitted 2022-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredSince the early 2000s many Latin American filmmakers have turned their attention to intimate spaces and situations, avoiding stories that are overtly political. This course will look at films within this tendency, to inquire how they still make an intervention in today’s Latin American political landscape. Some films focus exclusively on the personal emotions of the protagonists. Others pay attention to the social circumstances in which those emotions unfold. Students will reflect on the connections between these two approaches, with the support of theoretical readings. The class will look in particular at films dealing with experiences of loss and mourning, either from personal tragedy or from events that affected a whole nation. Most of the films will come from Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Perú, four countries where this tendency is tied to films that tackle critical political events from the late twentieth century. All films will be studied within the broader regional context. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredA thorough, in-depth exploration of the life and works of Mexican nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695), the most important Latin American writer and thinker of the colonial period and one of the region’s most influential figures overall. The focus will be on the three choices seventeenth-century colonial women faced: marriage, the convent, and the court. We will study churches, convents, and monasteries from religious, political, social, and dietary perspectives. There will be close readings of Sor Juana’s poetry, theater, philosophical disquisitions, autobiographical writing, and theological debates regarding Athanasius Kircher, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and René Descartes. Sor Juana’s afterlife as a feminist and contemporary pop icon will also be studied, as will similar Iberian and Latin American religious writers such as Santa Teresa de Jesús, Fray San Juan de la Cruz, Fray Luis de León, Juan Ruíz de Alarcón and Carlos de Singüenza y Góngora. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredAn in-depth, Talmudic exploration of the life, oeuvre, and influence of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), who redefined world literature and is arguably the most important Spanish-language writer after Cervantes. The course will trace his career from a shy, baroque poet in pre-modern Buenos Aires to a cosmopolitan intellectual who became the epicenter of Argentine culture before 1950 and a global phenomenon after he was awarded the International Publishers Prize in 1961. We will analyze his poetry, essays, and stories, especially "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote," "The Library of Babel," "New Refutation of Time," "Kafka and His Precursors," "The Argentine Writer and Tradition," "The Translators of The 1,001 Nights," "The Garden of Forking Paths," "Emma Zunz," "Tlön Uqbar, Orbis Tertius," "The Aleph," and "The Secret Miracle." Borges' politics as well as his interests in Gauchos, philosophy, mysticism, Shakespeare, Don Quixote, translation, English literature, Jewish motifs, and reading as an art will be contemplated. We will also look at his impact on an array of successors, from Gabriel García Márquez, Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, and Roberto Bolaño, to mathematics, The Matrix, and Chaos and Game Theories. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester: Professor Stavans.
(Offered as SPAN 485 and LLAS 485) Arguably the most influential popular form of cultural expression in Latin America, a single episode of any prime-time telenovela is watched by more people than all the accumulated number of Spanish-language readers of One Hundred Years of Solitude over time. The course will explore the historical origin and development of telenovelas as well as various production techniques, the way scripts are shaped and actors are asked to perform, the role of music and other sounds, etc. Each country in the region has its own telenovela tradition. We will look at Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, and the Spanish-language productions of Univisión and Telemundo in the United States, among others. But the main objective of the course will be to analyze the performative nature of emotions in telenovelas and also gender, class, and political tension on the small screen. And we will delve into the strategies various governments have used by means of telenovelas to control the population (“melodrama is the true opium of the masses,” said a prominent Mexican telenovela director), their use as educational devices, and the clash between telenovelas and fútbol in the region’s celebrity ecosystem. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Limited to18 students. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredThe senior seminar is offered every fall semester and fulfills the capstone requirement. It is designed for Spanish majors to reflect, integrate, and apply what they have learned and accomplished in the major. At the beginning of the semester, students will prepare a portfolio of work created throughout the major, including during their study abroad experience, to share and discuss with classmates. The rest of the semester will be devoted to individual or collaborative projects. Projects can take a variety of forms, including but not limited to a performance, a service learning project, an internship, a thesis, or an exhibit. Students writing a thesis may designate their thesis as their individual project. In all cases, students will report on their projects in writing as well as in person with classmates and in a public forum. Conducted in Spanish.
Open only to senior majors. Fall Semester. Professor Infante.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2022, Fall 2023, Fall 2024SPAN102 is the second of the four-semester sequence in the Spanish Language Program. It is designed for students who a) have successfully completed SPAN 101 or b) who have placed into the course via the Spanish Department placement exam. Students further develop strategies for reading, listening, writing, and participating in everyday conversations. The course expands students’ ability to engage with the cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking world through authentic materials and through activities that address a range of topics such as sports, pastimes, food, health, professions, clothing, and the environment. By the end of the semester, students can expect to have reached the Intermediate Mid level of the ACTFL scale, and proceed to SPAN 201. The course consists of two 80-minute sessions per week with the lecturer and one 50-minute session with the language assistant. This course may not be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 101 or Spanish Placement Exam. Fall Semester: Senior Lecturer Granda and assistants. Spring Semester: Visiting Professor Ferrari, Lecturer Narváez-Burbano and assistants.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025SPAN 201 is the third of a four-semester sequence in the Spanish Language Program designed for students who a) have successfully completed SPAN102, b) who have placed into the course via the Spanish Department placement exam, or c) who have scored 4 on the AP Spanish Language exam or 3 in the AP Spanish Literature Exam. The course develops students’ ability to narrate across various time frames, follow the main plot of narratives (including longer texts and feature-length films), and exchange basic descriptions, comparisons, and interpretations about authentic materials from the Spanish-speaking world. By the end of the semester, students can expect to have reached the Intermediate High level of the ACTFL scale, and be ready to proceed to SPAN 202. The course consists of two 80-minute sessions per week with the lecturer and one 50-minute session with the language assistant. Limited to 16 students per section. This course may not be counted toward the Spanish Major. The class will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 102 or Spanish Placement Exam. Fall semester: Lecturer Narváez-Burbano and assistants. Spring semester: Lecturer Piazza and assistants.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Spring 2025The Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, is a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. This interdisciplinary course will explore the origins of the Camino de Santiago through the Middle Ages, and its recent transformation into a cultural phenomenon. It will be divided into several units that focus on art and architecture, gastronomy, history, music, literature, philosophy, pop culture, religion and tourism. Major cities along the different pilgrimage routes will act as cultural “stops” to complement these topics. Primary sources will include historical documents, excerpts from medieval literary texts, poetry, and contemporary travel narratives. Secondary critical readings, films, music, maps, podcasts, and interviews with pilgrim-scholars will supplement primary sources. Other significant pilgrimage traditions beyond Spain will also be considered. The course will culminate in a trip to Spain, where we will walk a part of one of the Camino routes together. Throughout the semester, there will also be several hikes/walks on nearby trails or paths. Evaluation will be based on student discussion, research writing, and oral presentations. Although readings and films will be in English and Spanish, the class will be conducted in Spanish.
Limited to 15 Amherst College students.
Consent Required (application process due to the travel component).
Prerequisite: SPAN 202 or placement exam. Omitted 2023-2024.
Spring Semester: Senior Lecturer Granda.
2023-24: Not offeredThis course will explore the art of storytelling through the genre of the short story in Spain and Latin America. After a brief introduction to short fiction in medieval and early modern Spain, we will focus principally on the development of the short story from the nineteenth century to the present. Works studied may include short stories by authors such as Pardo Bazán, Valle Inclán, Matute, Gaite, Palma, Borges, Rulfo, Cortázar, Quiroga, and Valenzuela. Films and other visual materials will supplement the literary texts. Some of the themes examined throughout the course will include gender relations, love, power, justice, political resistance, the fantastic, and popular culture. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Spring semester: Professor Infante.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2020(Offered as SPAN-450 and EUST-450) As a global city with a local identity, Barcelona resides both literally and figuratively at the border between Spain and the rest of the Europe. This interdisciplinary course will explore the in-between space this vibrant city inhabits as a playground for tourists; a mecca for soccer; a terminus for immigrants from Asia, Africa, Latin America and the rest of Spain; and a fortress fiercely safeguarding the Catalan language and culture. You will study architecture, art, sports, literature, cinema, language and politics set amid the urban cityscape of Barcelona, focusing on the city’s role in the exportation of a unique identity beyond Spain’s borders. This course is conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 460 and EUST 264) A patient, careful reading of Cervantes' masterpiece (published in 1605 and 1615), taking into consideration the biographical, historical, social, religious, and literary context from which it emerged during the Renaissance. The discussion will center on the novel's structure, style, and durability as a classic and its impact on our understanding of ideas and emotions connected with the Enlightenment and its aftermath. Authors discussed in connection to the material include Erasmus of Rotterdam, Montaigne, Emerson, Tobias Smollett, Flaubert, Dostoyevsky, Unamuno, Nabokov, Borges, García Márquez, and Rushdie. Emphasis on race and colonialism. Conducted in Spanish.
Prerequisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 25 students. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offered(Offered as SPAN 465 and EUST 465) A vital question in today’s multicultural societies is how individuals with different identities—religious, racial, ethnic, etc.—can live and prosper together. This course will explore the literature, culture, and history of medieval and early modern Spain, paying special attention to how people with diverse backgrounds coexisted and interacted with each other. Examining the context of Spain during this time period will also serve as a means to help us think through issues of diversity in our world today. First we will look at the situation of medieval Spain where Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived side-by-side for centuries. Then we’ll turn to Spain’s exploration of the New World and how the diverse encounters that took place influenced Spanish culture. Finally, we will consider representations of other cultural minorities, such as gypsies, in Spain during the early modern period. Primary sources will include literary texts, historical accounts, legal documents, and maps and will be supplemented by secondary critical texts. Conducted in Spanish.
Requisite: SPAN 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2023-2024.
2023-24: Not offeredThe Department calls attention to the fact that Special Topics courses may be offered to students on either an individual or group basis.
Students interested in forming a group course on some aspect of Hispanic life and culture are invited to talk over possibilities with a representative of the Department. When possible, this should be done several weeks in advance of the semester in which the course is to be taken.
Fall and spring semesters. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015, Spring 2016, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2022, Fall 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2023, Fall 2024One single course.
Fall semester. The Department.
Other years: Offered in Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2025