Spanish Graduate Courses
Note: Not all courses listed are offered every semester Students should check the current class schedule for current offerings
SPA 501 Introduction to Spanish Linguistics (3)
An introduction to the modern linguistic analysis of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics of contemporary Spanish. The course assumes no previous knowledge of linguistics but a good knowledge of Spanish is expected. Lecturing will be in Spanish. Students will have to take several quizzes and tests and write a 10-page term paper. LEC
Spanish 509 Special Topics 2: Spanglish (3)
Spanglish is one of the terms used to refer to a conversational strategy that native speakers of both Spanish and English oftentimes use in within-group linguistic exchanges. Far from being an oddity, varieties equivalent to Spanglish involving other languages are common around the world, oftentimes included in the wider set of code-switching phenomena. For some, Spanglish is the result of clumsy and ineffective learning, a threat to the beauty, dignity and unity of both Spanish and English languages, and therefore should be condemned. Yet others think that it is just the most natural way bilingual speakers have to communicate, a source of identity and pride, and it should therefore be cleansed from any negative connotations and even commended. We will examine both positions, and we will also see how from the perspective of modern linguistics we can see varieties like Spanglish as a privileged window into the grammar of both languages, a magnificent opportunity to investigate ways in which the grammars of multilingual speakers differ from those of monolingual ones, and moreover, a laboratory in which to observe known processes of language change in action. LEC
Spanish 510 Special Topics: Spanish Civil War (3)
This is a seminar on the history and representations of the Spanish Civil War. We will read historical work, biographical work, and fiction, and we will watch feature and documentary film. We will also get into contemporary debates on historical memory and reparation. This class will be of interest to any student of Spanish history or of Spanish contemporary society.
A number of films and documentaries will also be used as class texts, to be provided by instructor.
The courses, given the combination of readings, will be taught both in Spanish and English. Dr. Moreiras will accommodate students who do not speak or read Spanish and want to take either of the seminars.
SPA 511 Spanish American Novel 1: Pre 1940 (3)
Perhaps because our condition is postmodern and we live in a global economy, more than ever we have a need to find out who we are and how we got here. But only perhaps, because the truth is that this existential issue has always beleaguered thinkers. Rubén Darío, for one, lamented almost a century ago in his sonnet "Lo fatal" that there is nothing worse than not knowing "adónde vamos, ¡ni de dónde venimos . . .!" (where we're headed and whence we come).
For philosophical, ideological, and professional reasons, in this course I am interested in revisting 19th century novels - which traditionally have been referred to as "novelas de la tierra" or "novelas regionales" and which Doris Sommer has characterized as foundational fictions - to explore how the nation gets conceptualized through gender.
Our literary texts will consist of novels such as Clemencia by Ignacio Altamirano (México), Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos (Venezuela), Sab by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda (Cuba), María by Jorge Isaacs (Colombia), Amalia by José Mármol (Argentina), and La vorágine by José Eustasio Rivera (Colombia). We will also scrutinize selections from Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, Doris Sommer's Foundational Fictions, Anthony D. Smith's Nations and Nationalism in a Global Era as well as Ida Blom, Karen Hagemann, and Catherine Hall's Gendered Nations: Nationalisms and Gender Order in the Long Nineteenth Century. LEC
SPA 513 Contemporary Spanish American Novel: Magical Realism and Beyond (3)
Magical Realism is a term by which most of the literary world knows or presumes to
know Spanish American literature. In fact, Magical Realism began as a politicized term
with which Spanish American authors described their personal and political relationships
to both their nations and the writing process. Later, Magical Realism was the phrase
which powered the "Boom Period" of the 60s, during which non-Latin American
audiences came to know authors such as Gabiel García Márquez, Alejo Carpentier, Julio
Cortázar, and many others. In the years since, Magical Realism has grown into the
principal trait by which Spanish American literature is known and marketed, and the
category itself has grown from a region-specific genre into a super-genre that sometimes
is used to describe writing that is neither Spanish American, modernist, postmodernist,
nor stylistically atavistic.
In light of this and other acts of anachronistic appropriation, we must ask what Magical
Realism has come to mean in the academy today. We will examine the term from many
different perspectives: as genre, as writing style, as a "third world" form, as postcolonial
form, and in terms of cultural imperialism or neocolonial politics. In recent decades,
Magical Realism has influenced U.S. minority writers and it is key to understanding the
emergence of a new style of U.S. minority representational politics. It is for this reason
that in this course we will be looking at the Spanish American novel as a prototypical
American novel. By "American" we mean the Americas of the northern and southern
hemispheres, not only the United States. In studying the Spanish American novel as a
hemispheric artifact, this course investigates the development of the genre of Magical
Realism in Spanish American and Caribbean literature, and its appropriation by United
States minority writers. This course will therefore study narrative techniques ranging
from Magical Realism to the Post-Boom, and will address the interconnected political
space between history, the fantastic, race, and sexuality in Boom and post-boom
narratives. In its overall range the course covers the Spanish-speaking American novel
and considers the impact of this genre on U.S. Latino literature. We will read works by
Isabel Allende, José María Argudeas, Reinaldo Arenas, Miguel Angel Asturias, Alejo Carpentier, Ana Castillo, Julio Cortazar, Rosario Ferré, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Marquez, Juan Rulfo, and Severo Sarduy. In terms of the theory, we will be revisiting
essays by Gloria Anzaldúa, Homi Bhabha, Juan Flores, Néstor García-Canclini, Fredric
Jameson, Juan Carlos Monsiváis, Edward Said, Doris Sommer, Gayatri Spivak, and Lois Parkinson Zamora. The requirements for this course will consist of: a presentation and a 25 pp. research paper. The course will be taught in English.
For more information contact Prof. Ramón E. Soto-Crespo, rs55@buffalo.edu.
SPA 515 20th-Century Mexican Literature (3)
In order to examine the construction of "lo mexicano," this course proposes to survey 20th-century Mexican literature by reading major authors and principal literary works. Some of the writers we will read include Arreola, Berman, Carballido, Castellanos, Esquivel, Fuentes, Garro, Monsiváis, Pacheco, Paz, Poniatowska, Rulfo, and Usigli.
Each of the texts will provide the opportunity to analyze specific historical events, social issues, and/or aesthetic movements that mark the nation's identity. We will read literary and testimonial accounts that denounce the failure of the Mexican government and help to explain the people's distrust of their leaders. Two events largely responsible for this stance are the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the student massacre at Tlatelolco in 1968, thus, most of the texts will represent or focus on either of these two periods.
Octavio Paz's and Carlos Monsiváis's cultural assessments will serve as the bookends that sustain the examination of Mexico's identity through literature. We will also read essays on globalization to place Mexican literature in a world context. They can be found in The Cultures of Globalization, edited by Fredric Jameson and Masao Miyoshi (Durham and London: Duke UP, 1998). SEM
SPA 516 Caribbean Aesthetics (3)
This is a course on the history of ideas which will venture into the discussion of the complex and at times "unorthodox" (in the context of what Chatterjee would call an ethics of rationality) aesthetic values that affect all movement in the Caribbean world and its diasporas. Readings and discussions will help students develop an understanding of some of the most fundamental moments in Caribbean thought by exploring key issues in the history of what Anibal Quijano calls the "coloniality of power," questioning national mythologies, and exploring the divergences and commonalities of the discourses of Negritude, Creolité, metissage and mulatage. Taught in English and Spanish. SEM
SPA 518 Spanish American Theater (3)
In this course we will read selected plays published between 1938 and 1992 to trace the representation of feminine identity in 20th Century Spanish-American drama. The plays and theoretical readings should provoke questions such as, What constitutes identity? What is the relationship between subjectivity and identity? What are the role of race, class, gender, nationality, and/or the Other in the formation of identity? We will read plays by Sabina Berman, Emilio Carballido, Myrna Casas, Diana Raznovich, Rodolfo Usigli, Xavier Villaurrutia, Egon Wolff among others. The theoretical readings will derive primarily from Robyn R. Warhol and Diane Price Herndl's Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism as well as readings on Performance theory. LEC
SPA 524 Seminar in 19C Literature (3)
The course follows the literary history of Spain throughout the 1800’s, with examples from poetry, fiction, and drama. Special focus for the semester is the journey from Romanticism to Realism alongside Spain’s evolving sense of national identity. Students will write short papers on each work, choose several topics for in-class presentations, and write a final research paper of at least 12 pages. Periodic reading assessments will take place in class. Major authors to be studied are: Larra, Zorrilla, Bécquer, Pardo Bazán, Galdós, and Clarín.
Readings and class discussion in Spanish; final paper may be written in English or Spanish
SPA 527 The Comedia (3)
This course will trace the origins of the Spanish Theater from the late Middle Ages to its acme in the seventeenth century. The comedia, the dominant theatrical form of Spain's Golden Age, will be analyzed in the context of Spain's and Europe's social, intellectual, and cultural history. Special attention will be paid to the relation between the rise of this early modern form of theater and notions of truth and illusion. Authors will include Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, Cervantes, Tirso de Molina, and others. This course will be taught in Spanish. SEM
SPA 532 Introduction to Romance Languages and Literatures (3)
This course is now numbered under RLL 501
This course is required of all new graduate students. It aims to help graduate students begin developing the tools that will serve them in their graduate studies and ultimately in the academic profession in general. Topics and issues covered in class will be related to three areas: 1) research and writing methodology; 2) literary theory; and 3) professional development. Research and writing methodology will cover resources such as the MLA bibliography, research techniques, and writing strategies. Readings and lectures in literary theory will provide the student with a historical overview of movements and trends in twentieth-century literary theory with an emphasis on contemporary approaches. The portion of the course dedicated to professional development is designed to provide students with knowledge that will allow them to formulate goals and make informed decisions about the path they take during graduate school. LEC
SPA 533 Special Topics Borders and Margins in LA (3)
Borders and margins are not just lines in the ground separating nations
and regions; in many ways, Latin Americans have viewed the entire region
as a 'border culture,' or a 'space in-between' as the Brazilian critic
Silviano Santiago has put it. In this seminar we will examine 'border'
and 'margin' as both geographical locations and as conceptual
demarcations in Latin American thought. We will begin with a
consideration of the U.S.-Mexican border zone, before moving on to other
national contexts. Readings will combine critical theory and
literature/art in equal measure.
SPA 534 Semantics in Second Language Spanish Grammar (3)
Using a contemporary semantic approach, we will analyze in detail certain points in Spanish grammar that are problematic for the English-speaking, with a view to improving the way those points are presented to English-speaking students of Spanish in classroom instruction. We will use a theory of semantic roles to look at subjects and objects, conjugated pronoun constructions (including reflexives, passives, and impersonals), and the ser/estar contrast. We will also examine the verbal categories of aspect in its relationship with tense (focusing on the preterite/imperfectcontrast) and mood (focusing on the indicative/subjunctive contrast). Required student activities include attending class regularly, participating actively in discussions, writing three take-home tests that will emphasize problem solving and critical thinking, and writing a 10-12 page term paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor. The course will be taught in English and all readings will be in English. LEC
SPA 535 Gender in Mexican Film (3)
This course will examine the depiction and representation of women's issues in contemporary Mexican film. The focus is on how the domestic settings that figure in the films as well as the dramatization of gender relations reveal the nation's attitude toward rape, prostitution, love, adultery, women in the workforce, and motherhood.
To be able to discuss the above issues within the context of film, we will read texts on film that provide the vocabulary appropriate for the description and analysis of movie images. We will pay attention to how lighting, sound, structure, and narrative voice contribute to a feminine, a feminist or a masculinist point of view.
The theoretical component of the course will be informed by essays in the following texts: E. Ann Kaplan's Feminism and Film, Karyn Kay and Gerald Peary's Women and the Cinema: A Critical Anthology, Constance, Penley's Feminism and Film Theory, Patrice Petro's Aftershocks of the New: Feminism and Film, and Elissa J. Rashkin's Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream.
Some of the films we will watch include: "Pedro Páramo" (1967 or 1973), "El bulto" (1991), "Rojo amanecer" (1992), "Como agua para chocolate" (1992), "El Jardín del Edén" (1994), "Entre Pancho Villa y una mujer desnuda" (1995), "Cilantro y Perejil (1995), "Amores perros" (2000), "Demasiado amor" (2001), "Y tu mamá también" (2001), and "El crimen del padre Amaro" (2002). SEM
SPA 536 20th Century Spanish Literature (3)
A theme-focused survey course that explores the evolving relationship between literature and religion in Spain over the past 120 years. Beginning with Realism, we will observe the increasing ironization of the sacred through Decadentism and the early avant-gardes, the anti-Franco novel, and the contemporary scene. Treatments of the miraculous and the demonic in hte visual arts, including film, will also help us to theorize the spiritual in modern through postmodern Spanish. Authors include Galdós, Unamuno, Valle-Inclán, and Juan Goytisolo.
SPA 537 Special Topics: The Quijote (3)
This course reexamines Cervantes' early modern masterpiece as a narrative of and from the road. The Quixotesque utopia of knight errantry is quite literally a road dream. We will underscore this aspect of the novel by exploring connections with the rich filmic tradition of road utopianism including classics such as Easy Rider (1969), Thelma and Louise (1991), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), and others. The Cervantine road offers oblique ‘on the move’ vistas of his world and ours. Hence, we will focus on the road not just as motif or context but as central theme and place of destination while encouraging wide-ranging, workshop-style, interdisciplinary discussions on the cultural politics of modernity. Course assignments include oral presentations, a midterm, and a final essay. No final examination will be given.
SPA 538 Cervantes Not Quijote: Narrative Works (3)
This course will examine the lesser known works of Miguel de Cervantes. Reading works such as Persiles y Segismundo, la Galatea, and a selection of his Novelas ejemplares, we will address such questions as: Cervantes' role in the culture of a nascent modernity; the relation of his writings to traditional and dominant artistic and social values; and his importance for the development of European literature. LEC
SPA 541 Literature & Philosophy Studies: Borges & Philosophy (3)
We will explore Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges' reading of philosophy, on the one hand, and his "philosophical" reading, on the other. Our interest is not to decide whether or not Borges or the Borgesian text should be called either "philosophy" or "literature"; indeed, our point of departure is that Borges practices a particular kind of thinking, one that is both rigorous and, in its remarkable precision, impossible to discipline. We will read Borges alongside but also in the interstices of important philosophers and fundamental "philosophical" problems, including the work of Heidegger, Kant, Paul, Lacan, Nancy, and Derrida (among others) and questions of time, identity, and the political (among others). The seminar will conclude with a one-day symposium on Borges and philosophy. Borges texts will include Ficciones, El aleph, Otras inquisiciones, Borges oral. SEM
SPA 549 Spanish Sociolinguistics 2
This course is an introduction to sociolinguistic theory and research. We will study principles of how languages change and vary with particular emphasis on Spanish. These principles will be examined against social variables that affect the progress or delay of linguistic changes. Students will read excerpts of research conducted on Spanish changes and will also perform short research projects in which theses principles will be investigated. This course will be taught in Spanish.
SPA 552 Comparative Romance Linguistics (3)
The similarities and differences between the three major Romance languages will be examined from several standpoints, including their linguistic development from Latin and the historic or social factors that encouraged (and inhibited) their development.
The course will take up issues such as "natural" vs. "directed" language change, the construction of national linguistic norms, and the effects of institutions such as education and the media. "Sister" languages, such as Catalan and Occitan will also be presented. An introduction to the resources available in the library will prepare students to do their own brief comparisons of selected lexical items in the three languages. This course will be taught in English. LEC
SPA 555 Spanish Phonology (3)
We will look at the sound system of contemporary Spanish mainly from the viewpoint of generative theory but making special reference to sociolinguistic variation. The course takes the position that Spanish is a set of historically related dialects: we will look closely at dialectal variation in the Americas, including U.S. Spanish dialects. We will also examine the applications of phonology for the teaching of Spanish as a second language to native speakers of American English.
There will be several quizzes and at least three tests: one taken in class and at least two take-home. Tests will emphasize critical thinking and problem solving.
You will also have to write a 10-page term paper on a topic chosen in consultation with the instructor.
The course is taught in Spanish but paper and tests may be written in English. You may ask questions in English in class.
Dual-Listed with:
SPA 455
Reg. # 010502
SPA 556 Spanish Syntax (3)
Introduction to the contemporary semantically based analysis of Spanish sentence structure. We will look primarily at grammatical case and voice in the light of semantic-role theory. Topics will include role/case relationships in actives and passives, the semantic structure of pronominal constructions (reflexives, impersonal se and passive se), the semantic-role analysis of the ser/estar distinction, and the syntax and semantics of psych verbs (e.g. gustar). We will also look at the syntax and semantics of complex sentences with special reference to mood in dependent clauses (subjunctive vs. indicative in noun and relative clauses) and cleft constructions.
You will have to write at least three take-home exams emphasizing data analysis and critical thinking. There will be no paper and no final exam. The course will be taught in Spanish. Readings will be in English and Spanish. A good knowledge of Spanish is expected. LEC
SPA 628 20th Century Poetry (3)
This course will trace poetic expression in Spanish from the Generation of '98 (Unamuno, Machado, Juan Ramón) through the Generation of '27 (Salinas, Cernuda, Aleixandre, Guillén, Lorca). Avant-garde movements, such as Surrealism, will be studied, as well as currents in the post-Civil War and post-Franco periods. Though centered on poetry, the course will also consider Lorca's drama, and a novel by Unamuno, and will explore potential critical approaches to these works that derive from major literary theories of the 20th Century. In this way, this course serves as a review of or introduction to graduate-level literary analysis and bibliography, and counts as SPA 532 for students who wish to fulfill this requirement (those who have taken 532 are equally welcome).