Provides an introduction to the 1612 novel Don Quixote, widely celebrated as the first modern novel and translated across languages. Through study of the novel and its contemporary adaptations in literature, film, television, and popular culture, students will consider the lasting social, cultural, and political impacts of Miguel de Cervantes’s novel. Students will focus especially on the depiction of readers and books, consumption of information, and censorship. (Same as: LACL 1020)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

This course offers an introduction to the language and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. Students will learn general forms, structures, and vocabulary based on project-based learning where students acquire language through a rich content environment. As an entry-level course, this class is designed for students with little or no prior Spanish language experience. Three class hours per week, plus a required weekly conversation session with a learning assistant. This course prepares students for HISP 2203 (Intermediate Spanish I).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021.

This course is designed to develop student’s language skills based on project-based activities and to build cultural understanding of the diversity in various regions of the Spanish-Speaking world. The course practices specific grammar problems, multi-paragraph writing in Spanish, and discussions on increasingly complex topics through readings, audio and short-subject films, both fiction and non-fiction. Three class hours per week and one weekly conversation session with assistant. This course prepares students for HISP 2204.

Prerequisites: HISP 1102 or HISP 1103 or Placement in HISP 2203 or Placement in HISP 2203/2204 or HISP 1100 or Placement in HISP 1100/2203.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020.

This course is designed to develop student’s language skills based on project-based activities and building cultural understanding of the diversity in various regions of the Spanish-Speaking world. The course practices specific grammar problems, written compositions and discussions on increasingly complex topics through readings, audio and short-subject films, both fiction and non-fiction. Three class hours per week and one weekly conversation session with assistant. This course prepares students for HISP 2305.

Prerequisites: HISP 2203 or Placement in HISP 2204 or Placement in HISP 2203/2204.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020.

This course examines the history, politics, and cultures of the Hispanic World, from the 20th century to the present. Key moments include the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the Cuban Revolution, dictatorships in Chile and Argentina, and Latinx movements in the US. Through the study of a wide variety of literary and cultural icons from La Malinche and Octavio Paz, Pedro Almodóvar and Carmen Laforet, to Nancy Morejón, Julio Cortazár and Luís Valdez, students will reflect on individual experiences and collective movements. The course provides students with advanced practice in grammar, reading, speaking, listening, writing and research in Spanish. (Same as: LACL 2205)

Prerequisites: HISP 2204 or Placement in HISP 2305.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020.

Designed for students who were exposed to Spanish at home or had extended exposure in a Spanish-speaking community or country. Builds on the linguistic and cultural competence students already have in order to expand their language skills in a wide variety of contexts, with particular emphasis on writing skills in Spanish. Throughout the semester, students will engage in a critical exploration of the (socio)linguistic and cultural diversity of Latinx and diaspora communities in the US by looking at themes such as language and migration, language use and variation in multilingual communities, and language and identity, among other topics related to the dynamic situation of Spanish in the US Students will also strengthen their command of specific grammar points and achieve more confidence using Spanish through the implementation of projects in which they deepen their knowledge and understanding of communities while reflecting on their individual experiences. (Same as: LACL 2308)

Prerequisites: HISP 2204 or Placement in HISP 2308.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2024.

Examines theater and poetry in Spain and Latin America from the eleventh-century verses of Jewish and Muslim authors to the twentieth-century works of Nobel Prize winners. Through class discussions and critical analysis, students will discover how the structure, form, content, and performance of poetry and theater relate to a work’s aesthetic movement, historical context, and contemporary adaptations. Some of the topics for discussion include: religious conflicts and their influence in literary forms; the cultural and political implications of the colonization of the Americas, its legacy, and the resistance to it; the Baroque, its innovative aesthetic techniques, and its transatlantic influence; the mechanisms used by writers to subvert discourses of patriarchy; the importance of Indigenous cultures in the development of Latin American nations and cultural traditions; and the political and artistic relationships with the US and other European avant-garde movements. Conducted in Spanish. (Same as: LACL 2409, THTR 2409)

Prerequisites: HISP 2305 (same as LACL 2205) or HISP 2306 (same as LACL 2306) or HISP 2308 (same as LACL 2308) or Placement in HISP 2409 or 2410.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020.

Examines narrative forms and essays in Spain and Latin America from pre-Conquest times until the twentieth-century works of Nobel Prize winners. Through class discussions and critical analysis, students will discover how the structure, form, and content of narratives and essays relate to a work’s aesthetic movement, historical context, and contemporary trends in Hispanic cultures. Topics include religious conflicts and their influence in literary forms; the cultural and political implications of the colonization of the Americas, its legacy, and the resistance to it; the aesthetic and social renovation of Early Modern Spain, including the first modern novel, Don Quixote; the mechanisms used by writers to subvert discourses of patriarchy; the importance of Indigenous cultures in the development of Latin American nations and cultural traditions; and the political and artistic relationships with the US and other European avant-garde movements. Conducted in Spanish. (Same as: LACL 2410)

Prerequisites: HISP 2305 (same as LACL 2205) or HISP 2306 (same as LACL 2306) or HISP 2308 (same as LACL 2308) or Placement in HISP 2409 or 2410.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2023, Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020.

The course is designed as a cultural history of Spanish language and cultures through its dictionaries, across time periods (early modern to more contemporary) examining questions of power and authority, collection practices, and how dictionaries change over time. The class will approach asymmetrical relationships between Spain and Latin America, Spanish and Spanglish in the US, and the political, social, and commercial value of language in these contexts. Bringing in the vocabularies of indigenous, enslaved Africans and immigrant languages, students will engage in an in-depth exploration of lexicographers including Antonio de Nebrija, Sebastián de Covarrubias, Andres Bello, and Maria Moliner. Key works include: Tesoro de la Lengua Española o Castellana, the Diccionario de Autoridades, the Diccionario de la Lengua Española, the Moliner, Larousse, and Clave. Course is taught in Spanish and will feature opportunities for collaboration with Ilan Stavans (Amherst) and his students on this topic. (Same as: LACL 3307)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

Takes the Spanish Civil War as a case to study the way in which war in its many facets has been represented in cinema from the 1930s to the present. Examines how the subject of war is taken up by different genres: newsreel, documentary, adventure, drama, horror, fantasy, and romantic comedy. Analyzes films from Spain alongside examples from the United States, Britain, France, and Mexico, paying special attention to how the political dimensions of the Spanish war, in the international context of the fight against Fascism, are subject to different interpretations of the conflict’s significance for history. Conducted in English. Writing assignments in Spanish.

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2024.

Examines how cinema portrays urban spaces in Latin America, Spain and USA from an aesthetic point of view that facilitates discourses on Hispanic history and identity. It looks at the city (Barcelona, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Habana, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico DF and New York) as a cinematic setting for narratives on crime, immigration, political activity and romance, and how it conveys utopic or distopic views of physical and social urban development. Also considers how cities lend themselves as transnational subjects for directors who cross national boundaries, such as Luis Buñuel, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodóvar and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Conducted in English. Writing assignments in Spanish. (Same as: LACL 3217)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

Through the exploration of art, literature, architecture and the unique worldview of the ancestral Andean societies, this course will take a look at the different ways in which the three main countries in the Andes—Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia—have dealt with processes of social, political, and cultural modernization since the late nineteenth century until the present day. Readings will include works by Peruvian, Bolivian, and Ecuadorian writers to examine modernist, avant-garde and postmodernist aesthetics. Students will analyze how internal migration to the cities of Lima, Quito and La Paz has reconfigured them, changed their urban dynamics, and impacted the economy and the natural environment. One example students will engage with includes architecture from iconic Bolivian architect Freddy Mamani ,who invented the construction of the Cholets in the city of El Alto, Bolivia. Cholets offer a unique way of connecting urban space to Aymaran identity (an identity that is very connected to the land in Boliva). Students will also address the issue of migration and the reconfigurations of Andean identities in the United States, through the works of Bolivian author Edmundo Paz Soldán and the Ecuadorian-American writer Ernesto Quiñónez and his experience living in Harlem. Taught in Spanish. (Same as: LACL 3215, URBS 3211)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

Studies the main topics, techniques, and contributions of Colombian Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez as presented in “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Explores the actual locations and the social, cultural, and literary trends that inspired the creation of Macondo, the so-called village of the world where the novel takes place, and the universal themes to which this imaginary town relates. Contemporary authors include Fuenmayor, Rojas Herazo, and Cepeda Samudio . (Same as: LACL 3218)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2021.

Explores the concept of madness and the varying ways in which mental illness has been represented in twentieth-century Latin American fiction. Readings include short stories and novels dealing with the issues of schizophrenia, paranoia, and psychotic behavior by authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Carlos Fuentes, Cristina Rivera Garza, and Horacio Quiroga. . Also studies the ways in which certain authors draw from the language and symptoms of schizophrenia and paranoia in order to construct the narrative structure of their works and in order to enhance their representation of social, political, and historical conjunctures. Authors include César Aira, Roberto Bolaño, Diamela Eltit, and Ricardo Piglia, . (Same as: LACL 3219)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

This course explores a range of literary and cultural texts related to the theory, practice and experience of medicine, health and healing in the early modern Hispanic world. Students will analyze how early Spanish literature impacts our understanding of contemporary health practices and examine how health histories provide insight into racial and ethnic health disparities and general inequities in health care systems. Topics include drug trials, herbalists and apothecaries; health and spiritual practices; gardens and gardeners; diet and food; healer and patients; and race, ethnicity, gender and medicine. The course provides an introduction to the topics of narrative medicine and the health humanities. Course is taught in Spanish. (Same as: LACL 3220)

Prerequisites: Two of: HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) and HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2021.

Who speaks in a text? What relationship exists between literature and identity? How can we portray ourselves in specific political contexts? Addresses these and other questions by studying contemporary Southern Cone literary texts that deal with problems of subjectivity and self- representation in poetry and novels. Concentrates on texts that display a literary “persona” in contexts of violence and resistance (the dictatorships of the 1970s) and in more contemporary Latin American ones. Some authors include Borges, Gelman, and Peri-Rossi. Films and contextual historical readings used. Taught in Spanish. (Same as: LACL 3225)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409 and THTR 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409 and THTR 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2021.

What kind of stories do bodies tell or conceal? How does living in a gendered and racialized body effects the stories told by women? How do bodies and their stories converge with History or complicate historical “truths”? These are some of the questions addressed in this study of contemporary writing by women from the Hispanic Caribbean and the United States Latinx/Chicana communities. Feminists of color frame the analysis of literature, popular culture and film to guide an examination of the relation of bodies and sexuality to social power, and the role of this relation in the shaping of both personal and national identities. Theorists include Alexander, Barriteau, Curiel, Mendez and Segato. Novelists include Álvarez, Buitrago, García, Indiana Hernández, and Santos-Febres. Taught in Spanish with readings in Spanish and English. (Same as: AFRS 3226, GSWS 3226, LACL 3226)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

Questions what is meant by "avant-garde": how it was manifested in the Hispanic world in the first half of the twentieth century; how contemporaneous politics shaped or became shaped by it; how this relates to the world today. Focuses on poets such as Aleixandre, Garcia Lorca, Borges, Neruda, Huidobro, Storni, Lange, Novo, and Vallejo, while also considering a wide array of manifestos, literary journals, films, and other art forms from Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Brazil. Taught in Spanish with some theoretical and historical readings in English. (Same as: LACL 3227)

Prerequisites: Two of: HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) and HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

Did feminism exist in the early modern period? Examines key women authors from the early Hispanic World, considering the representation of gender, sexuality, race, and identity in distinct political and social contexts. Focuses on Mexican author Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695) and Spanish author María de Zayas (1590-1661), alongside other prominent women writers from the period. Students read short stories, essays, poems, and personal letters. Conducted in Spanish. (Same as: GSWS 3231, LACL 3231)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409 and THTR 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

Why does Mexican literature have so many ghosts as characters? What distinguishes the representation of ghosts in Mexican literature from their representation in American gothic literature? In this seminar we will read contemporary Mexican literature through the figure of the ghost. I argue that the ghost in Mexican literature allows us to think and analyze a variety of topics such as immigration (US-Mexico), exile, politics, trauma, race and environment. Readings may include works by Rulfo, Fuentes, Tario, Nettel, Luiselli, Mendoza, Herrera, and Bicecci. The course is conducted in Spanish. (Same as: LACL 3234)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409 and THTR 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2023.

An investigation of the short story as a literary genre, beginning in the nineteenth century, involving discussion of its aesthetics, as well as its political, social, and cultural ramifications in the Spanish-speaking world. Authors include Pardo Bazán, Borges, Cortázar, Echevarría, Ferré, García Márquez, and others. (Same as: LACL 3237)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

An examination of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges’s work, focusing not only on his short stories, poems, essays, film scripts, interviews, and cinematic adaptations, but also on the writers who had a particular influence on his work. Also studies Latin American, European, and United States writers who were later influenced by the Argentinian master. An organizing concept is Borges’s idea that a writer creates his own precursors. (Same as: LACL 3239)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022.

Explores the production of Romantic images of Spain and their lasting influence on literature from the nineteenth century to the present. Works by Spanish Romantics (de Castro, Becquer, Espronceda, Zorrilla) and those by others, mostly writing in English, for whom Spain is a romanticized backdrop (Byron, Dos Passos, Hemingway, Irving, Longfellow), are examined in light of the aesthetic and cultural foundations of the movement in Europe (historical hindsight, the political dissent, finding national identity). Also discussed are the resulting Romantic archetypes (Don Juan, Carmen, bandits and bulls) and the way in which these arise and evolve through interaction and contact. Readings in English and Spanish, discussions and required writing in Spanish.

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021.

How do artists distinguish their contemporary moment from the past? What challenges does it pose to literature and film? Building on ideas by Agamben, Benjamin, and Didi-Huberman, explores these questions in the context of contemporary Argentinean, Chilean, and Uruguayan poetry, short stories, novels, and films. Topics include post-dictatorship societies, text/image dynamics, new forms of subjectivity, human/post-human interactions, and economic and bio-political violence, as seen in works by Sergio Chejfec, Cristina Peri Rossi, Nadia Prado, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Pedro Lemebel, Fernanda Trías, and others. Taught in Spanish. (Same as: LACL 3250)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

In 1970, the Chilean Salvador Allende became one of the first Marxists in the world to be democratically elected president of a country. His attempted reforms led to years of social unrest. In 1973, a right-wing military coup led to what would be General Augusto Pinochet’s seventeen years of brutal dictatorship. This course discusses that period of Chilean (and Latin American) history through locally produced sources, both from the social sciences and the arts, with a focus on literature (Bolaño, Meruane, Lemebel, Neruda, Lihn) and cinema (Ruiz, Larraín), with the goal of understanding the ways in which Latin American nations deal with their historical past with regard to issues of memory, collective memory, postdictatorial political negotiations, human rights, and social reconciliation. (Same as: LACL 3252)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

The 1960s Latin American Boom changed world literature, opening global book markets to writers of the postcolonial world and their distinctive styles. Yet it centered on male writers. “A New Boom?” explores the conditions favoring the last decade’s apparent “explosion” of Latin American women writers in world literature. Discussions focus on key authors and the context of their works, their themes, and aesthetic innovations, and the market forces affecting the dissemination of women’s cultural production. Topics include the ambitions of twenty-first-century women in Latin American cities, and the obstacles they face (i.e., violence and marginalization); the role of editors and other stakeholders in featuring women’s voices; the place of readers in advancing new tastes and sensitivities; and the intersection of gender with race, ethnicity, sexuality, education, and other factors fostering the inclusion of some writers over others. Readings include Melchor, Ojeda, Quintana, Reyes, and Shweblin. Course will be taught in Spanish. (Same as: GSWS 3257, LACL 3257)

Prerequisites: Two of: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409 and THTR 2409) and HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2024.