Romance Languages and Literatures
Romance Languages and Literatures offers vibrant programs in French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Our language courses have long been popular with undergraduates, including those interested in international travel and those who anticipate a global dimension to their future careers. All of our classes focus on culture writ large: we study great texts, and we do so with an eye toward gender roles, traditions, communities, individual freedom, social obligations, and many other topics of critical importance today. We offer concentrations in French, Italian, Spanish, and introductory Portuguese, as well as a composite major in Romance Languages.
Our undergraduate programs in French, Italian, and Spanish include a compelling series of language, literature, culture, and civilization courses that introduce students to the global Hispanic, Francophone, and Italophone communities. The curriculum affords students the opportunity to become fluent in a foreign language, enrich their historical and cultural understanding, and acquaint themselves with influential intellectual, literary, and artistic traditions.
Students also benefit from linguistic and cultural immersion opportunities through our many summer, semester, and year-long study abroad programs. These programs offer unique possibilities to combine foreign language training with other interests, including participating in business internships in Paris; pursuing fieldwork in Cameroon; or studying art history in Italy, literature in Madrid, or Andean culture in Ecuador. These experiences lead to a variety of career paths, including international law, international business, medicine, journalism, and graduate studies in political science, international relations, history, anthropology, art history, comparative literature, French, and film studies. To prepare our students to take full advantage of such opportunities, our faculty provides an innovative range of courses that combine the study of literature with contemporaneous developments in philosophy, science, music, art, and theory.
For undergraduates interested in cross-language study, students may elect to major in Romance Languages and Literatures. This major requires advanced coursework in French, Italian, and Spanish, with one of the three languages as the focus of primary emphasis.
Please visit the Undergraduate Degree Details & Requirements page of the Romance Languages and Literatures website for additional information.
Contact Info
Phone: | 314-935-5175 |
Email: | rll@wustl.edu |
Website: | http://rll.wustl.edu |
Chair
Ignacio Infante
Associate Professor in Comparative Literatures
PhD, Rutgers University
Directors of Graduate Studies
Tili Boon Cuillé
Professor of French and Comparative Literature
PhD, University of Pennsylvania
Javier García Liendo
Associate Professor of Spanish
PhD, Princeton University
Directors of Undergraduate Studies
Joe Barcroft
Professor of Spanish & Applied Linguistics
PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Erika Conti
Senior Lecturer in Italian
PhD, Washington University
Seth Graebner
Associate Professor of French
PhD, Harvard University
Rebecca Messbarger
Professor of Italian
PhD, University of Chicago
Department Faculty
William Acree
Professor of Spanish
PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Elizabeth Allen
Teaching Professor of French
PhD, Columbia University
Marisa Barragán-Peugnet
Senior Lecturer in Spanish
MA, Saint Louis University
J. Andrew Brown
Professor of Spanish
PhD, University of Virginia
Amanda Carey
Teaching Professor of Spanish
MA, Arizona State University
Heidi Chambers
Senior Lecturer in Spanish
MA, Washington University
David Cortés Ferrández
Lecturer in Spanish
PhD, University of Kentucky
Nina Cox Davis
Professor Emeritas
PhD, John Hopkins University
Lionel Cuillé
Teaching Professor of French
PhD, Ecole Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Lyon
Rebeca Cunill
Senior Lecturer in Spanish
PhD, Florida International University
Elena Dalla Torre
Lecturer in Italian
PhD, University of Michigan
Nathan Dize
Assistant Professor of French
PhD, Vanderbilt University
Mark Dowell
Lecturer in Romance Languages and Literatures
MA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Rebeca Fromm Ayoroa
Senior Lecturer in Spanish
ABD, Princeton University
John F. Garganigo
Professor Emeritus
PhD, University of Illinois
Andisheh Ghaderi
Lecturer in French
PhD, University of British Columbia
Kat Haklin
Lecturer in French
PhD, Johns Hopkins University
Pascal Ifri
Professor Emeritus
PhD, Brown University
Vincent Jouane
Senior Lecturer in French
PhD, Washington University
Stephanie Kirk
Professor of Spanish
PhD, New York University
Silvia Ledesma Ortiz
Senior Lecturer
MA, Saint Louis University
Tabea Linhard
Professor of Spanish
PhD, Duke University
Stamos Metzidakis
Professor Emeritus
PhD, Columbia University
Allison Milner
Lecturer in Romance Languages and Literatures
PhD, University of Houston
Mabel Moraña
William H. Gass Professor in Arts & Sciences
PhD, University of Minnesota
Eloísa Palafox
Associate Professor of Spanish
PhD, Michigan State University
Nelson Pardiño
Lecturer in Spanish
MA, Florida International University
Maria Gloria Robalino
Assistant Professor of Spanish
PhD, Stanford University
Ignacio Sánchez Prado
Thurston and Van Duyn Professor in Humanities
PhD, University of Pittsburgh
Paolo Scartoni
Lecturer in Romance Languages and Literatures
PhD, Rutgers University
Nancy Kay Schnurr
Senior Lecturer in Spanish
MA, Middlebury College
Joseph Schraibman
Professor Emeritus
PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Michael Sherberg
Professor Emeritus
PhD, University of California Los Angeles
Julie E. Singer
Professor of French
PhD, Duke University
Elzbieta Sklodowska
Randolph Family Professor in Arts & Sciences
PhD, Washington University
Harriet A. Stone
Professor Emeritas
PhD, Brown University
Akiko Tsuchiya
Professor Emeritas
PhD, Cornell University
Colette H. Winn
Professor Emeritas
PhD, University of Missouri-Columbia
Courses include the following:
French
FRENCH 1010 French Level 1: Essential French 1
This course immerses students in the French language and Francophone culture from around the world, focusing on rapid acquisition of spoken and written French as well as listening and reading comprehension. Songs, games, skits, videos, chats, and debates provide a rich cultural context for the themes of the course, including identity, self, and family; school and university life; French cafe culture; and travel. Interactive web-based practice at home helps students prepare to apply their knowledge in the classroom. By the end of the semester, students are able to present on real or imaginary journeys in French-speaking countries. While not required, it is strongly recommended that students also enroll in French 1011, a one-credit, pass-fail practice culture class. 3 credits.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 1011 Essential French 1 Workshop
Application of the curriculum presented in French 101D. Pass/Fail only. Grade dependent on attendance and participation. Students must be enrolled concurrently in French 101D.
Credit 1 unit. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 1020 French Level 2: Essential French 2
This course encourages students to continue their exploration of French and Francophone language and culture through intensive and interactive activities that help solidify their acquisition of oral and written communication skills. Songs, games, skits, videos, chats, and debates provide a rich cultural context for the themes of the course, including living quarters, neighborhoods, and cities; technology and social media; shopping and commerce; French food culture; and nature and the environment. Prerequisite: Fr 101D or equivalent. (Recommended for students with 2-3 years of high school French [7th and 8th grades together count as 1 year]. Director: Ghaderi
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 1021 Essential French 2 Workshop
Application of the curriculum presented in French 102D. Pass/Fail only. Grade dependent on attendance and participation.
Credit 1 unit. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 1050 Advanced Elementary French Practice Session
Application of the curriculum presented in French 102D or French 105D. For students with 2-4 years of high school French. Pass/Fail only. Grade dependent on attendance and participation.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 1053 Advanced Elementary French Workshop
Working vocabulary for the Institute taught to emphasize real-life situations abroad. Only for students who have completed Fr 102D and 105D in Fall 2003 and WHO PLAN TO ATTEND FRENCH SUMMER LANGUAGE INSTITUTE. Credit/No Credit.
Credit 1 unit. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 1100 First-Year Seminar
Taught in English. This small-group seminar is devoted to the reading and study of other texts, such as films, paintings, and so on, as well as discussion and writing. Topics vary but have an interdisciplinary focus. Prerequisite: AP in English, French, or History, or permission of instructor. Does not substitute for any other French course.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 1995 French Coursework Completed Abroad
This course is for 1000 level study abroad credit.
Credit 12 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 1996 French Elective
This course is for 1000 level transfer credit
Credit 0 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
FRENCH 2010 French Healthcare
This course provides an introduction to French for Health Professionals as well as a survey of the French public health system. By acquiring a specialized vocabulary, students learn to interpret interactions between doctors and patients in a variety of medical settings. At the same time, they learn about public health policies and their application in the city of Nice. Through extensive discussions with experts in the field of medicine and public health, students will gain authentic expertise in a universal health system considered by the WHO to be one of the best in the world. Taught in French with readings in English. Prereq: approximately three years of high school French or two semesters of college French (the equivalent).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC
FRENCH 2016 Conversation, Culture, Communication 2: French Culture Through French Film
This course enables students to pursue your exploration of French culture through French film. Though not a history of French cinema, it introduces some of France's most celebrated actors and directors. We focus on excerpts that illustrate important life themes, including childhood, coming of age, existential crises, the search for happiness, the need for laughter, the threat of crime and violence, the complexities of love, and attitudes toward death. Students are asked to contrast their expectations of how such themes are to be treated with the way in which the French choose to portray them. Students write film reviews as though they were, alternately, an American or a French critic. As a final project, they write their own screenplay and imagine how it might be filmed in France. By the end of the course, they will have begun to view French culture with a French eye. Prerequisite: French 201D or the equivalent. May be taken before or after Frrench 215.
FRENCH 2020 French Level III At the Summer Institute
This Summer Institute course focuses on the major features of French 201D. Students will improve speaking, writing, and reading skills in French by combining study of grammatical forms with exercises designed to mirror many experiences they encounter while in France. The location abroad and contact with French host families and other French people will facilitate the student's learning experience. Students enrolled in this course will also take French 353, and will be prepared to enroll in French 307D upon their return to St. Louis. Open only to students attending the Summer Institute in France. Prereq: French 102D or 105D.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
FRENCH 2030 Intermediate French 1
This redesigned, interactive course explores the richness and diversity of the Francophone world and important contemporary issues such as social justice, inequalities, and the influence of media on society. Using an innovative approach based on lived experience, students will strengthen their abilities and accuracy in speech and writing and will considerably expand their vocabulary. Multi-media activities include films, readings, songs, virtual museum tours, and group projects. Prerequisite: Fr 102D or equivalent. (Usually recommended for students with 3 years of high school French [7th and 8th grades together count as 1 year]). 3 credits.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 2040 Intermediate French 2
In this second semester of the intermediate language sequence, students deepen their knowledge of the Francophone world and refine their oral and written expression, preparing them for the 300 level language, literature, and culture courses. Through discussion of films, radio, television, newspaper articles, and a novel, students broach controversial topics including family values, the business world, art and entertainment, science and technology and the environment. Prerequisite: Fr 203D or equivalent. (Usually recommended for students with approximately 4 years of high school French [7th and 8th grades together count as 1 year]). 3 credits.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 2140 Medical French
In this introductory course to the Français Professionnel de la Santé track (French for Medical Professionals), students will be exposed to medical terminology and practices as well as to health-related issues in France and the Francophone world (Quebec, Haiti, West and North Africa). Using an interactive approach based on real life situations, students will learn to perform various medical tasks such as writing a prescription, advising a patient, or presenting a humanitarian project to potential donors. Medical vocabulary and pre-professional oral and written expression will be enhanced throughout the course. Students will acquire the necessary tools to perform their tasks, preparing them for further coursework in the FPS track, the Diplôme de français professionnel de la santé, and the France for the Pre-Med study abroad program in Nice. Prereq: Fr 203D or equivalent (this class can replace Fr 204D).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 2995 French Course Work Completed Abroad
This course is for 2000 level study abroad credit.
Credit 12 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 2996 French Elective
This course is for 2000 level transfer credit.
Credit 0 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
FRENCH 3015 French Culture and Civilization: The New Face of France
We will study the life and culture of France with special emphasis placed on the changes that are slowly but radically transforming French society: the increasing influence of the European Union; the influx of immigrants from Africa and other parts of the world; the growing role of Beurs and other French citizens born of foreign parents; the increasingly dominant position of women; the globalization of French culture, technological progress, etc. We will also concentrate on developing vocabulary and improving written and spoken French. Lectures, discussions, TV newscasts, films and internet. Prereq: Fr 201D (taken prior to Fall 2019) or Fr 204D, or placement by examination.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 3016 Conversational Fluency
This course, meeting as one of two in the Washington University Summer Program in Dakar, Senegal, will focus on teaching the skills necessary for oral fluency in French. It will draw its content from a teaching collection of short stories from around the French-speaking world (Gaasch, James, ed. Diversité: La nouvelle francophone), as well as from specificially Senegalese texts (Birago Diop, Les Contes d'Amadou Koumba, and newspaper articles as appropriate). Prerequisites: French 201 or equivalent; enrollment in the WU Summer Program in Dakar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD BU: IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
FRENCH 3070 Cultural Expression
This course enables students to reinforce and refine their French written and oral expression while exploring culturally-rich contexts and addressing socially-relevant questions. Students develop linguistic mastery, expand their vocabulary, and improve their communication skills through themed readings, films, and interactive activities. FR307D is essential for further study of French language, literature, and culture. Prereq: French 204 or the equivalent. (Usually recommended for students with 5 years of high school French [7th and 8th grades count as 1 year]). Director: Haklin TOPIC FALL 2024: Invitation au voyage. Travel and tourism have long shaped cultural production in French, inspiring writers, artists, and travelers alike to traverse the globe and imagine the world beyond one's doorstep. This course invites students on a journey across the francophone world as we revisit attractions from Paris to the Moon. Through the exploration of various media from short stories and films to songs and street art, we will embark on imaginary expeditions, exotic excursions, spiritual pilgrimages, and touristic treks. These quests will offer us an opportunity to deepen and enrich our cultural expression in the language.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 3100 Practical and Commercial French
Students develop their reading and writing proficiency and aural-oral communication in areas such as banking, retailing, and advertising. Extensive use of the Internet keeps students up-to-date about European and international issues in the world of business and economics. May replace Fr 308D for students who attend the IEB/Paris program. Prereq: Fr 307D. Required for participation in the Internship in European Business Program.
Credit 3 units. BU: IS
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 3111 Culture and Public Health in Contemporary France
Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. How are we to understand these ideals in the context of contemporary France? To what extent do they apply to immigrants, to the underprivileged, to the dependent elderly? How are these traditional French values reflected in public health policy? In order for students to better understand French values and how they are transposed into public policy, this course examines a certain number of fundamental tenets: the Republic, citizenship, secularity, taking examples from key episodes in French history. It also calls upon health specialists to explore what is being done to improve public health for all, and especially for an aging population which constitutes, in today's France, the most important challenge. Following are some of the themes which will be discussed: the loss of autonomy of the elderly, handicapped people, the attitude in France toward alternative medicine, how the French deal with emergencies, measures of prevention and basic health education. An anthology of texts will be provided to stimulate thought on these difficult problems which concern all of us. Open only to students enrolled in the Nice Pre-Med program.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
FRENCH 3193 Healthcare in France: Observational Internship
French 3193 offers students a real-world, behind-the-scenes experience of the French healthcare system. For four hours every weekday morning, students shadow physicians at the CHU Hôpital - Pasteur (centre hospitalier universitaire, university-affiliated teaching hospital) in Nice, France. In addition to the shadowing internship (stage d'observation), there is a required discussion session on Mondays from 1:00pm-2:00pm and students will attend one guest lecture per week given either by a medical professional at the CHU de Nice or another speaker whose work pertains to health cultures in France (generally on Thursdays, time TBD). Daily attendance at the internship, as well as at weekly discussion sessions and guest lectures is mandatory. As part of their work for course credit, students also maintain a daily observation journal and vocabulary notebook to record their reflections and insights gained throughout the duration of the internship and through the series of guest lectures. The course culminates in an oral presentation and written report detailing the benefits and challenges of the internship. Washington University and the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures have partnered with the CHU Hôpital - Pasteur for more than three decades, ensuring that students are placed in an internship aligned with their studies. Prerequisite: French 321/322 In-Perspective or French 308. Offered only in Nice.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
FRENCH 3200 Advanced Conversation: The Art of French Cooking
This class explores both historically and experientially the fine arts of French cooking. Students will investigate food culture from various perspectives, including recipes from the chefs of kings, famed literary homages, excerpts from contemporary writers, films, and cooking shows. They will present online food blogs or videos sharing their attempts to master an aspect of the historical, regional, or contemporary food culture we have studied; cooking is optional, but creativity is a plus. Topics to be explored include Terroir; the slow food movements; La table d'hote; the role of the cafe and the market in French and Francophone cooking; and reflections on our own national food cultures. Students will gain the necessary vocabulary and cultural knowledge to be able to converse about cuisine with ease with people from any Francophone country, preferably over a long meal. Prereq: Fr 307D.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 3210 Topics I: in Perspective
Focusing on topics of cultural and social importance, this course will offer students the opportunity to learn about defining moments in the French tradition. The specific topic of the course will vary from semester to semester, and may include works from different disciplines, such as art, film, gender studies, history, literature, music, philosophy, politics, science. Prereq: Fr 307D. SEC 06: An introduction to some of the other literatures in French: the literary traditions and cultural contexts of Francophone countries in North and sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Vibrant and productive cultures around the world have interacted with the French language and its literature to produce highly diverse texts of their own. We will study some of them, focusing on issues like cultural adaptation, colonialism, and civilizing missions and the responses to them. We will also consider the varying meanings of the term Francophone, from conservative to liberal, and examine the ways in which contemporary mainland France has been transformed by the Francophone presence. Prereq. Fr 307D
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 3220 Topics II
Focusing on topics of cultural and social importance, this course offer students the opportunity to learn about defining moments in the French tradition. The specific topic of the course will vary from semester to semester, and may include works from different disciplines, such as art, film, gender studies, history, literature, music, philosophy, politics, science.Prereq: Fr 307D.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: ETH EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 3252 French Out of France: Introduction to Francophone Literatures
An introduction to some of the other literatures in French: the literary traditions and cultural contexts of Francophone countries in North and sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean. Vibrant and productive cultures around the world have interacted with the French language and its literature to produce highly diverse texts of their own. We study some of them, focusing on issues like cultural adaptation, colonialism, and civilizing missions, and the responses to them. We also consider the varying meanings of the term Francophone, from conservative to liberal, and think about its implications for the study of French literature as a whole. Finally, we examine the ways in which contemporary mainland France has been irrevocably transformed by the Francophone presence. Works by Kourouma, Césaire, Kateb, and Lopes. Prereq: Fr 307D.
Credit 3 units. BU: IS
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 3500 Undergraduate Seminar in French Literature and Culture
An exploration of a variety of cultural icons, objects, myths, and traditions that define the French experience throughout the centuries. Topics vary. Prereq: French 308. SECTION 01. LITERATURE, ART, AND HISTORY OF THE FRENCH MIDDLE AGES. In France the Middle Ages is a period of intense artistic and literary creation despite an often brutal history. Feudal struggles, the Hundred Years' War, the Crusades, frequent epidemics, and famines add a tragic cast to daily life. Yet this period witnesses the birth of literature written in French (CHANSONS DE GESTE, courtly romances and poetry, theater), a tradition rich with knights and damsels in distress, stories of love and conquest. Cities are built, as are castles and cathedrals. Botanical gardens are planted. Elaborate wall tapestries and paintings begin to decorate the homes of lords and churches. France discovers the art of the book in the form of illuminated manuscripts. Men and women develop a taste for clothing and jewelry. The course explores this fascinating history by examining celebrated examples of the period's literature and art. It includes a visit to the medieval collection of the St. Louis Art Museum and the film VISITEURS DU SOIR.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Summer
FRENCH 3501 In Depth:
This course will cover special topics in French culture.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD BU: IS
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 3502 Cultural Studies: Literature, Art, and History of the French Middle Ages
An exploration of a variety of cultural icons, objects, myths, and traditions that define the French experience throughout the centuries. Theme Fall, 2002: LITERATURE, ART, AND HISTORY OF THE FRENCH MIDDLE AGES. In France the Middle Ages is a period of intense artistic and literary creation despite an often brutal history. Feudal struggles, the Hundred Years' War, the Crusades, frequent epidemics, and famines add a tragic cast to daily life. Yet this period witnesses the birth of literature written in French (CHANSONS DE GESTE, courtly romances and poetry, theater), a tradition rich with knights and damsels in distress, stories of love and conquest. Cities are built, as are castles and cathedrals. Botanical gardens are planted. Elaborate wall tapestries and paintings begin to decorate the homes of lords and churches. France discovers the art of the book in the form of illuminated manuscripts. Men and women develop a taste for clothing and jewelry. The course will explore this fascinating history by examining celebrated examples of the period's literature and art. It will include a visit to the medieval collection of the St. Louis Art Museum and the film VISITEURS DU SOIR. Prof. de Courcelles's professional commitments in Europe will require her to be absent for several weeks during the semester. During the weeks without scheduled classes students will complete an independent project exploring one aspect of the course. In addition there will be short papers and/or exams. Prereq: Fr 308D or permission of Professor Stone.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 3530 Project Plus
This Summer Institute course combines 1) a course that examines French culture as it is represented in the evocative history of French châteaux, the arts, and contemporary lifestyle; 2) the student's project; and 3) the student's experiences as part of the community abroad (excursions, visits, group discussions). In class students gain background for appreciating the primary sites of the Institute: in the Loire Valley, Paris, and Brittany. The classroom experience is discussion-oriented, with small writing assignments and readings. The project is an individual research program that students conduct with a French native on a particular aspect of French culture. In the past students have dealt with serious topics such as the deportation of the Jewish community in Amboise during World War II; with less grave subjects such as the work of a local wine grower or goat cheese producer, and the culinary repetoire of French and American families; and current topics concerning the political situation in Europe and the euro. Following weekly conferences with the teaching staff, students present a formal report on their experiences to an audience comprised of other members of the group and the students' host families. Students at the Institute are expected to speak French in all group settings. Assignments in this course level-appropriate (students enrolled in French 385 will complete longer papers and projects than those enrolled in French 202; expectations for conversations are likewise adjusted accordingly). Required of all students attending the Summer Institute in France.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
FRENCH 3600 Thinking-It-Through
Thinking-It-Through courses provide students with long views of contemporary issues. Cross-cultural perspectives from the French and Francophone world, past and present, help us to think creatively about the most pressing problems we face today. The subject -- which is of social, cultural, and/or political interest -- will change each semester. Beginning with a watershed moment in history, students will consider how the topic in question evolved over time by interpreting related forms of cultural representation and expression in order to develop an informed critical perspective on current debates. Prerequisite: French 308.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 3610 Thinking-It-Through II
Thinking-It-Through courses provide students with long views of contemporary issues. Cross-cultural perspectives from the French and Francophone world, past and present, help us to think creatively about the most pressing problems we face today. The subject -- which is of social, cultural, and/or political interest -- will change each semester. Beginning with a watershed moment in history, students will consider how the topic in question evolved over time by interpreting related forms of cultural representation and expression in order to develop an informed critical perspective on current debates. Prerequisite: French 308 or In-Perspective.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 3700 French Social History
Studying L'HISTOIRE DES MENTALITES, this course explores how the concept of sickness, the perception of medicine, the role of the doctor, etc. evolved throughout the centuries. Texts are supplemented by a series of lectures offered by doctors in different specialties. Students complete a project on one area of related research. Open only to students enrolled in the Nice pre-Med Summer Program.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
FRENCH 3701 In-Depth: Paris, Capitol of Modernity: A Digital 19th Century
The French assert that the world learned to be modern in 19th-century Paris. Even though this is not entirely true, the Paris we observe today owes a great deal to 19th-century interventions in the city's physical fabric. Our ideas about modernity are informed by the ways in which the French learned to observe and describe the radical changes in their capitol. This course will examine maps, guidebooks, urban descriptions, and fiction to see how Paris changed in the century that brought us urban modernity, including anonymity, city crowds, cycles of boom and bust, hugh-scale public works, energy and anomie. It will also introduce students to some of the tools for digital scholarship and the presentation of academic work to non-academic audiences. Students will collaborate in the creation of a textual database on Paris monuments, and learn to present their research on urban sites via ArcGIS's Story Maps. Prerequisite: French 308 or In-Perspective.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 3702 In-Depth: Subtexts and Subterfuges
What persuades us that we understand a situation -- that we know the players, their intentions, and the effects of their actions? Do we rely on a parent's, lover's, or leader's moral authority or on our own sense of justice? Are we motivated by the coherence of their proposals or by our own emotional needs? All of the above? How, then, do we sort through layers of argument to detect ulterior motives and censored thoughts? Our class will focus on subtexts: hidden meanings, innuendo, ambiguity, veiled hints, omissions, and outright lies. We will consider how storytelling works to elicit particular responses in personal and commerical ads, travel brochures, cookbooks, political speeches, and street art. Tales of seduction by Perrault (Puss in Boots), Laclos (Dangerous Liaisons [excerpts]), and Proust (Swann in Love [excerpts]) along with Haneke's film of suspense and surveillance (Hidden) will focus our attention on techniques of camouflage and detection. The subtexts in these works will inform our own (thriller?) subplot of contemporary life: a creative project to top off the semester. Prerequisite: French 308.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 3703 In-Depth: A Passion for Things
Imagine a collection of prized objects. What motivates a collector to acquire and display them? How do these objects allow us to understand the past as it defines our own heritage and that of others, what we choose to preserve or erase? These questions ground our study of the pleasures of collecting. A passion for things can be empowering, but it can also signal exploitation. What happens when the desire to possess extends to a person--when a person becomes the thing possessed? The passion to possess implies the power to dispossess, to take from others the property, privileges, and promises that were theirs. We will focus on three sites of power in which collections figure prominently: the court of Louis XIV at Versailles; the museums, department stores, and world's fairs of 19th-century Paris; and the world of objects in 20th-century poetry and photographs. The class will examine objects that speak to the relations between men and women; kings and subjects; humans and nature; ideas of freedom and efforts to suppress it. Authors and artists include Perrault, Lafayette, Duras, Baudelaire, Zola, Ponge, Vuillard, Caillebotte, Cartier-Bresson, and others. Prereq: In-Perspective or Fr 308.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 3705 In-Depth: France and the Muslim World
France today has more Muslim citizens than any other country in Europe, and this fact puts the country's relationship with Muslims, both within and beyond its borders, constantly in the news. Starting with Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, we will examine the wide involvement of France in the affairs of Muslim countries: its presence in Egypt and Lebanon, and most notably its colonization of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, which had an irreversible effect on French culture today. We will also consider the anthropology and cultural productions (literature, film, and art) of French people of Muslim origin. Given the influence of francophone Muslim religious scholars, we can not only speak of France and the Muslim world, but investigate France in the Muslim world. What futures become imaginable, when we see Muslims as an integral part of French culture, and France as part of the global Muslim community? Assignments will include writing for non-academic audiences, and the creation of a StoryMap presentation in ArcGIS. Prereq: In-Perspective or Fr 308.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 3720 The Art of Health in Nice
This interdisciplinary course explores Nice and the South of France as inspirational locations for health, healing, and wellness. Recently designated a UNESCO world heritage site as the 'winter resort town of the Riviera,' Nice has long beckoned tourists, artists, writers, and health seekers with its cosmopolitan coastal location and vibrant landscapes. Through the lens of human well-being, we will examine various French and francophone art forms-including the visual, literary, culinary, horticultural, athletic, and therapeutic arts- and their enduring connection to the unique cultural and geographic context of the South of France. Academic excursions (included in program cost) to gardens, markets, museums, and villas will stimulate our senses and bring to life the places discussed in readings, illuminating the dynamic interplay between creativity and health in this captivating region. We will study works by the following artists, thinkers, and writers: Alain, Barthes, Brillat-Savarin, Cézanne, Chagall, Colette, Cousteau, Escoffier, Giono, Grimod de la Reynière, Malle, Matisse, Maupassant, Pagnol, Smollett, Van Gogh, Varda, and Vigo, alongside readings drawn from history,medicine, philosophy, and sociology. Prerequisite: French 321/322 In-Perspective or French 308. Taught only in Nice.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
FRENCH 3740 In-Depth: Science Fiction
What we now call science fiction emerged from early tales of voyage and discovery, whose authors envisioned other times, places, customs, and perspectives. It flourished in the fantastic and futurist tales that first arose in France but were popularized in Germany, England, and America. An outgrowth of the scientific and the industrial revolutions, it informed the genres of opera, painting, and the novel before reaching the silver screen. Drawing on theories of the uncanny, we will consider how we determine whether stories are governed by the laws of nature (madness, dreams, coincidence) or the supernatural (ghosts, sylphs, devils). We will then explore when and how the Romantic realms of the gothic gave way to the dystopian worlds of science fiction that inform not only contemporary film but our current perception of reality. Readings by Cyrano de Bergerac, Voltaire, Cazotte, Balzac, Maupassant, Verne, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Zola, and Leroux; films by Resnais, Godard, and Jeunet. Prereq: In-Perspective or Fr 308.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 3750 In Depth:
Narrative medicine is an approach grounded in the recognition that patients live and communicate their embodied experiences as stories. This approach underscores the need for medical practitioners to cultivate skills of observation, analysis, storytelling, and cultural competency -- skills that are traditionally developed in humanities coursework. In this course, students will hone their competencies in observation, close reading, and written and oral expression in French through readings of medical narratives. Texts will include Jean-Dominique Bauby, Le Scaphandre et le Papillon; Molière, Le Medecin Malgre Lui; Michel de Montaigne, De L'Experience; Marguerite Duras, La Douleur; and excerpts from works by René Descartes, Honoré de Balzac, Émile Zola, Olivia Rosenthal, and Philippe Lançon. Whether considering works of art, patient testimonials, or classic works of literature, we will observe carefully, describe and understand what we see, tell stories, and attend to the details of the stories that others tell. Prerequisite: French 308 or In-Perspective.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 3760 Cinema and Society: Feminist Filmmaking
Did you know that the inventor of narrative fiction film, and perhaps the only female filmmaker from 1896-1906, was a French woman? This course introduces students to French and Francophone cinema through the lens of the feminine. In this herstory of French-language film, we will explore works by female directors as well as representations of women and girls on the silver screen from cinema's silent origins to the empowered voices of the #MeToo era. In tandem, we will engage with key ideas from feminist critics like Simone de Beauvoir and Françoise d'Eaubonne. Class discussions will take an intersectional approach, addressing feminism's connections with the following topics: girlhood and adolescence; race and ethnicity; post-colonial cultures; gendered spaces/places and the environment; LGBTQ+ identities; motherhood and domesticity. Our corpus includes classics from the French tradition as well as understudied films, running the spectrum from drama to documentary, to coming-of-age narratives and cult favorites, including works by Chantal Akerman, Yamina Benguigui, Alice Guy, Céline Sciamma, and Agnès Varda, among others. Prereq: In-Perspective or Fr 308.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS Art: CPSC BU: IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 3795 In Depth: Care Work
In this course we will study what it means to care for and about others, both within and beyond medical and institutional environments. Examining French and Francophone literary and cinematic representations of care, popular and scholarly discourses, and the testimonials of care workers, we will explore the question of care across difference: How does the labor of care bring to light (and rely upon) disparities in gender, class, age, and race, especially in colonial, postcolonial, and globalized contexts? What are the implications of feminist theories of a gendered ethics of care? What relations can care work forge between the human and more-thanhuman worlds? How does care work expose the vulnerabilities of patient and caregiver alike? This course is taught entirely in French and counts toward the French for the Health Professions (FPS) track and the minor in Medical Humanities. Prerequisite: one In Perspective course
FRENCH 3900 Undergraduate Independent Study
Prereq: Fr 201D and permission of the Director of Undergraduate Study.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 3901 Internship Practicum
Intended for students studying on a Washington University Program or a Washington University approved program abroad, this course combines internship experience with research and a RAPPORT DE STAGE (final report).
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 3995 French Coursework Completed Abroad
This course is for 3000 level study abroad credits.
Credit 12 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
FRENCH 3996 French Elective
This course is for 3000 level transfer credits.
Credit 0 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
FRENCH 3999 Independent Study
Prereq: permission of the Director of Undergraduate Study and the instructor, Fr 325C, 326C or equivalent, and competence in oral and written French. Students may not receive more than six units of credit for independent study. Credit variable, maximum 3 units a semester.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 4000 Intensive Translation for Graduate Students I
The first part of a two-semester course sequence in reading and translating French. For graduate students in the humanities, social and natural sciences. Nongraduate students may enroll with permission of the department. Must be followed by Fr 401.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
FRENCH 4010 Intensive Translation for Graduate Students II
Continuation of Fr 400. For graduate students in the humanities, social and natural sciences. Prereq: Fr 400; credit for Fr 400 is contingent on completion of Fr 401.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
FRENCH 4050 Special Topics in French Language and Literature
Undergraduate seminar. Topics vary. May be repeated for credit. Prereq: Fr 325C and 326C (or, for students who have completed the Paris Business Program, completion of or concurrent enrollment in either course).
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 4110 Intensive Writing in French: Timely Topics
This course enables advanced students to refine and develop their writing skills and to develop specialized vocabularies based upon current issues in the Francophone world chosen in light of their interests (Global Health, International Relations, Anthropology, Political Science, etc.). They will analyze the rhetorical strategies used in contemporary cultural debate and write creative, persuasive, and analytical compositions that prepare them to apply for internships and pursue careers in international medicine, business, law, diplomacy, and the arts. Students will complete a series of short papers, each with required revisions. Meets WI requirement. Prereq: Fr 307D, Fr 308D, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS, WI EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4131 Advanced French and Translation
This course fosters an in-depth knowledge of the French language and accuracy in its use. It employs a comparative approach (linguistic and cultural) initiating students into the art of translation from English to French and from French to English and sensitizing them to the problem of cultural transfer. Students will acquire practical training, cultivating skills advantageous in the workplace by drawing on a wide variety of documents to develop translation strategies. Genres include fiction, autobiography, journalism, advertising, and correspondence spanning different eras, regions, and registers. This cours satisfies the college's writing intensive requirement. Prereq: In-Perspective or Fr 308.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS, WI EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4150 The 19th-Century Novel: From Realism to Naturalism to Huysmans
In this seminar we will read some of the great realist novels of the nineteenth century, by the four masters of the genre: Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, Zola. We will also examine Huysmans's A REBOURS, which was written in reaction to the excesses of Realism. We will determine what characterizes the realist novel and how it has evolved from Balzac to Zola. We will consider its theoretical orientation, but we will also focus on the major themes it addresses: the organization of French society throughout the nineteenth century, Paris vs. the province, love, money, ambition, dreams, material success, decadence, etc. Prereq: Fr 325 and 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates. 3 units.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4151 The Nineteenth-Century Novel
GRADUATE STUDENTS REGISTER FOR THIS SECTION.Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4161 Special Topics in 19th-Century Literature
Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4174 Travel in the Renaissance and the Literature of Discovery
Improved modes of transportation under the king Francis I facilitated travel in the Renaissance. Men and women were able to view famous cultural monuments on their continent and explore parts of the world where no one had ventured before, returning home with vivid tales of distant lands and exotic peoples. With the advent of the printing press, such fascinating stories were made available to a wider audience. This course examines this literature of discovery, paying special attention to the multiple genres that flourished at the time (historical narratives, diaries, correspondences, travelogues, elegiac poetry, adventure novels) as well as the historical and cultural contexts of these works. Other questions addressed include national identity and cultural differences, cultural interactions and influences, international relations, the impact of humanism, and the concept of CURIOSITAS. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4178 Literature of the 16th Century
Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4191 The French Islands: From Code Noir to Conde
The French have been dreaming about the tropics ever since transatlantic trade became possible in the sixteenth century, and literature in French has reflected these dreams ever since. Closer to our own period, writers from the French Caribbean have written themselves into the French canon, winning prestigious literary prizes. This course will link these two phenomena by studying literature from and about the tropics from the 18th century to the present. In our readings, we will attempt to see the ways in which the literature from and about France's island possessions has contributed to the forming of cultural and political relations between France and the islands, but also among the islands and within the Americas. Almost all texts available in English for students not majoring in French; main seminar session taught in English with weekly undergraduate preceptorial in French. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326. One-hour preceptorial for required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4192 Dark Humor: Francophone Literature From West Africa
In 1960, most of the French colonies in Africa gained independence in a largely peaceful transfer of power. Since then, this development has been viewed alternatively as the triumph of self-determination, and as a hollow act undermined by neo-colonial French ministries, multinational companies, and corrupt governments. Media today commonly adopt a highly pessimistic tone when speaking of these phenomena, but literature from West Africa provides alternative ways of looking at the region, which today includes over 140 million French speakers. Reading authors such as Kourouma, Kane, Tansi, Tchicaya, and Lopes, we will consider the ways that literature enters into dialogue with political discourses represented both as tragedy and as farce. The main seminar (section 01) is taught in English; undergraduates also register for a weekly discussion (section A) conducted in French. Prereq: for undergraduates, Fr 325, 326, Thinking-It-Through, or In-Depth; for graduates not in French, reading knowledge of the language.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4200 20th-Century Literature II
Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4201 The Novel in the Feminine (Le Roman au Feminin)
Informed through feminist criticism (Beauvoir, Cixous, Kristeva), this course examines the deconstruction of the novel as a traditional genre by twentieth-century women writers such as Colette, Nathalie Sarraute, Marguerite Duras, Marguerite Yourcenar, Annie Ernaux, and Mariama Bâ. We place special emphasis on the representation of the writing woman in the text itself and on the issue of écriture féminine in its socio-cultural context. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4210 The 20th-Century Novel
In this seminar we examine the evolution of the French novel in the twentieth century. We closely read five great novels, by Proust, Gide, Céline, Robbe-Grillet, and Ernaux. We determine what characterizes the twentieth-century French novel and how it has evolved from Proust to Ernaux. We consider its technical aspects but will also focus on the major themes it addresses: love, art, memory, time, death, and the general problem of the human condition. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4211 The Novel of the 1930s: The Human Condition and the Meaning of Life
Most French novelists of the 1930's were no longer satisfied simply to entertain their readers, to bring formal innovations to their writing, to depict society, or to represent human consciousness. Economic transformations, technological advances, and the unspeakable horrors of WWI challenged traditional beliefs. Authors therefore dedicated themselves to examining the human condition and the meaning of life. In this seminar we will read five major novels of the period by Saint-Exupéry, Mauriac, Malraux, Céline, and Sartre. We will determine how each author approaches the fundamental questions of human existence and what, if any, answers he provides. Prereq: Fr 325 and 326 (or, for students who have completed the Paris Business Program, completion of either course). One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4220 French Theater From 1800 to the Present
We study selected plays of Hugo, Musset, Feydeau, Jarry, Claudel, Giraudoux, Anouilh, with particular attention to Romanticism, Symbolism, Existentialism, and absurdist drama. Close attention will be paid to the socio-political, philosophical and aesthetic contexts within which these plays were written, performed and received by the public. Videos of selected scenes will also be shown and serve as points ofdeparture for several classroom discussions, as will various influential critical theories about the nature and structure of modern French theater. Prereq: Fr 325 and 326. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4221 Topics in French Literature: The Voyage of Self-Discovery
In our modern interconnected society, it is not always easy for young people to define who they really are or to discover and fulfill their potential, but it is encouraged and facilitated through education, travels, social contacts, and even technology. But it was not always so. In earlier times, individuals were often constrained by the prevalent social and moral values of their worlds and had a much harder time discovering their persona or fulfilling their needs and aspirations. This seminar explores the issues of self-discovery, initiation, and self-realization in the modern novel, including Balzac's EUGENIE GRANDET, Stendhal's LE ROUGE ET LE NOIR, Falubert's MADAME BOVARY, Mauriac's THERESE DESQUEYROUX; and Phillippe Grambert's UN SECRET. Prereq: Fr. 308.
Credit 3 units. Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4240 19th- and 20th-Century Poetry
Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4250 19th-Century Poetry
Reading and analysis of poetry of the three major 19th-century schools: romantic, parnassian, symbolist. Emphasis on textual explication. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4260 Avant-Garde Poetry of the 20th Century
Study of French avant-garde poetic movement of the early 20th century, with emphasis on Futurism, Cubism, Dadaism, and Surrealism. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4270 Literature of the 17th Century I
UNDERGRADUATES ONLY REGISTER FOR THIS SECTION Prereq: Fr 325, 326, Thinking-It-Through, or In-Depth or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4271 French Classical Theater
A study of works by Corneille, Molière, and Racine. We consider how the theater contributes to the rise of absolutism in France in the seventeenth century. The depiction of kings and the role of primogeniture; the function of sacrifice; the marginalization of women; the glorification of Ancient Rome; Orientalism; tensions between family and State; and the rise of the bourgeoisie in these plays suggest how the dramas played out on stage mirror the historic spectacle of the court over the course of the century as it develops an increasingly centralized authority culminating in the image of an all-powerful Louis XIV. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4280 Literature of the 17th Century II
This seminar examines critical points of intersection in the 17th century. All connections engage texts as well as images. We will explore the expansion of knowledge as reflected in the mapping of bodies (anatomy), cities, and countries; humans in relation to animals; commerce and the rise of the bourgeoisie that challenges the privileges of the aristocracy; the splendors of nature and culture as manifest in the magnificent Versailles gardens, the tulip craze, and landscape painting; the lure of the exotic as part of everyday experience; and links between art and science. These topics will allow us to situate classical France in relation to the periods that precede and that follow it: the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. We will view the French monarchy in relation to both Italy, whose art provided much inspiration, and Holland, where the prosperity of merchants supported an art market that included Vermeer, de Hooch, and other celebrated Golden Age painters, all who are so unlike the artists who flourished under Louis XIV. Works will include Corneille's Horace and Surena; Racine's Berenice and Phedre; Descartes's Discours de la Methode; La Bruyère's Caracteres; Lafayette's Princesse de Cleves; Pascal's Pensees; Graffigny's Lettres d'Une Peruvienne; extracts from the Encyclopedie; art by Le Brun, Poussin, Patel, Bernini, Vermeer and his contemporaries, and Boucher; anatomical drawings by Vesalius; as well as maps and cityscapes. Prerequisites: French 325C and French 326C.One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD Art: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4281 Order in the Court: Classical Struggles During the Reign of Louis XIV
Beginning with a study of Versailles, we examine the spectacular dimensions of artistic production under Louis XIV, including architecture, visual arts, and landscapes, in addition to literature. The recent historical novel L'ALLEE DU ROI, which details the romance between the king and his mistress and then second wife Mme de Maintenon, and the MEMOIRES of Saint-Simon help to set the stage for us to appreciate the intrigues at court. Situating the king at the head of a hierarchical and orderly court structure, we examine some of the less harmonious elements of court-dominated life offered in representations by Corneille (SURENA), Molière (LES FEMMES SAVANTES), Racine (MITHRIDATE, PHEDRE), La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère, La Fontaine, Mme de Sévigné, Pascal. We consider the ways in which the court assures its power through primogeniture, the right of the eldest born son to inherit power, as well as through strict codes of etiquette and the generosity of the crown to its loyal and productive followers. We examine how these factors are insufficient to protect the monarchy against the contravening forces of political ambition, family struggles, the emerging role of women, religious faith, and the devastating effects of war and disease. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4310 Literature of the 18th Century I
Prereq: Fr 325 or 326. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 4311 Voices of Dissent: Enlightenment Principle and Social Protest
The eighteenth century saw a rise in overtly moralizing texts, on the one hand, and unapologetically immoralist philosophies on the other. We focus on texts that avoid these extremes, allowing multiple voices to be heard. With the aid of excerpts from Genette, Bakhtine, Todorov, and Barthes, we identify the voices of dissent in several eighteenth-century genres, including satire, the tale, the novella, the philosophical dialogue, theater, autobiography, and the epistolary novel. By reading authors such as Voltaire, Montesquieu, Prévost, Diderot, Cazotte, Rousseau, Beaumarchais, and Charrière, students come to appreciate a third tendency in eighteenth-century texts that is crucial to our understanding of the Enlightenment: the tendency to validate conflicting perspectives. We consider whether a moral can be derived from a text that consistently questions the voice of authority. We analyze the implications of such questioning in the years before the Revolution. Finally, we consider the extent to which the overzealous censorship laws of the period may have obliged authors to couch socially controversial ideas in narrative forms that seem to deny their own assertions. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4312 Literature of the 18th-Century I
GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY REGISTER FOR THIS SECTION. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4320 Literature of the 18th Century II
Prereq: Fr 325, 326, Thinking-It-Through, or In-Depth.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 4321 Art, Revolution, and Society
This course examines major eighteenth-century aesthetic treatises and literary texts that explore solutions for aesthetic quandaries. Authors include d'Alembert (PREFACE A L'ENCYCLOPEDIE), Rousseau (DISCOURS SUR LES SCIENCES ET LES ARTS, LETTRE A D'ALEMBERT), Diderot (ENTRETIENS SUR Le Fils naturel, LE PARADOXE DU COMEDIEN, LE NEVEU DE RAMEAU), Cazotte (LE DIABLE AMOUREUX), Beaumarchais (LE BARBIER DE SEVILLE, LE MARIAGE DE FIGARO), Staël (DE LA LITTERATURE, CORINNE). These works allow us to study some of the major insights into the aesthetics of music, painting, and the performing arts with an eye to how these aesthetic revolutions expanded the scope and influenced the form of the French language and literary texts. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4331 Women of Letters
We investigate the representation of women in eighteenth-century texts. Why did the novel and epistolary fiction became so closely associated with women as writers, heroines, and readers in the course of the century? Why were women considered exemplary and yet, at the same time, a threat? The eighteenth century saw the last of the salons led by women well-versed in philosophy, literature, art, and politics. It saw the reinforcement of the opposition between the public and the private sphere. Woman was the incarnation of the ideal of liberty and yet excluded from the Rights of man. Rousseau praised women's role as nurturers and peace-makers but cast into doubt their capacity for genius. Literary texts that feature women became a sparring ground for two of the century's major literary trends: SENSIBILITE and LIBERTINAGE, for a woman's sensitivity was thought to contain the seeds of virtue and licentiousness. We investigate philosophical discourses on the senses and emotions and political discourses on republican responsibility. We read these texts in conjunction with the literary works of men and women authors, including Prévost, Marivaux, Graffigny, Riccoboni, Diderot, Rousseau, Charrière, Laclose, Sade, and Staël. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4341 Enlightenment Energy: Comedy, Eroticism, and the Grotesque
In this course we will examine works in which the comic, the erotic, and the grotesque--base urges that eighteenth-century audiences deplored yet found entertaining--made inroads into the literature of the time. The Enlightenment was highly suspicious of impulses and intuitions that challenged or escaped the bounds of virtue, sentiment, and reason. French philosophes debated whether genius lay in the supreme mastery or the spontaneous creation of art, whether talent was inborn or could be acquired through practice. Reading texts that span the long eighteenth century, by authors such as Molière, Marivaux, Crébillon fils, Voltaire, Diderot, Restif de la Bretonne, Beaumarchais, Sade, and Hugo, we will investigate how the satirical, the bawdy, and the profane served as the wellspring of Enlightenment inspiration, giving rise to visions of an ideal society. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4351 Philosophical Fictions
The French Enlightenment witnessed a veritable explosion of short fiction, including philosophical, oriental, moral, and libertine tales bearing such self-conscious titles as A THOUSAND AND ONE FOLLIES and THIS IS NOT A TALE. Though written by the literary elite and not considered children's literature, the genre enjoyed widespread popular appeal and had the power to shape mentalities. Often satirical in tone, these tales served to convey and question contemporary political, philosophical, scientific, religious, and moral trends. They inspired some of the most vivid illustrations of the day and were often circulated as part of the literary underground. We will read works by Crebillon fils, Voltaire, Diderot, Cazotte, Charrière, Sade, and Staël alongside excerpts from French cultural history on eighteenth-century mentalities, salons, and print culture. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4360 Romanticism
This course studies pre-romantic themes in the works of Madame de Staël and Chateaubriand and of their evolution in the poems of Lamartine, Musset, and Vigny, the theater of Victor Hugo, and the novels of George Sand and Victor Hugo. Emphasis is placed on the emergence of a littérature du moi (literature of the self), the redefinition of the place of the artist in society after la bataille romantique, and the stylistic innovations that lead to modernism. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4390 17th-And 18th-Century Theatre
This course will trace the development of French drama from the Classical Age through the Enlightenment. We will read major plays of the seventeenth century by Corneille, Moliere and Racine, as well as plays by Marivaux and Beaumarchais from the eighteenth century. We will also explore the debates surrounding the theatre by writers such as Diderot and Rousseau. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4391 Classicism/A-Classicism
Among the hallmarks of seventeenth-century, French classicism celebrated reason, order, balance, and a power often associated with the great achievements of Ancient Greece and Rome. Reason, however, coexisted with dreams and madness; order encountered threats both political and sexual; disharmony persisted despite longings for justice; and depictions of Antiquity flourished alongside those of the Orient, the exotic other world of the East. The course explores these a-classicisms, or countervailing forces, by studying the challenges that ground the struggles and seductions in dramas by Corneille, Molière, and Racine as well as in the novels of Madame de Lafayette. We read Graffigny's LETTRES D'UNE PERUVIENNE, Prévost's MANON LESCAUT, Laclos's LIAISONS DANGEREUSES to understand classicism retrospectively, through the a-classicism of the eighteenth Century's treatment of identity, alienation, desire, and societal tensions. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4392 Commemorating the King
The court of Louis XIV at Versailles was remarkable for its grandeur, its consolidation of power, and its celebration of the Sun King. Arguably, all aspects of court life were regulated by the crown and all things produced--whether wars or monuments; art or science; novels or histories--were tributes to the king. All reflected a certain ideology of commemoration, that is, an implicit or explicit validation of the monarch's privilege and prestige, both for his contemporaries and for posterity. We will explore how authors (including Louis XIV, La Bruyère, La Rochefoucauld, Perrault, La Fontaine), artists (Lebrun, Rigaud, Poussin, Félibien), and historiographers/memorialists (Racine, Saint Simon) support the ambitions of the crown through their works. Modern critics Elias, Marin, Burke, and Merlin will guide our research into the activities of the royal family, the ideology of absolutism, and the role of art in affirming the power of Versailles as we continue to memorialize it through surviving texts, monuments, and images. Prereq:Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4410 From Symbolism to Surrealism
This course presents a survey of major French dramatic works from the late 1800s to the mid-20th century, including both innovative plays and theoretical treatises by celebrated writers such as Maeterlinck, Villiers de l'Isle-Adam, Jarry, Apollinaire, Breton, Vitrac and Artaud. It examines how in running contrary to other important movements of their general time period (e.g., Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism) these works constitute major examples of what will come to be widely known as Modernism. Attention will also be paid to the ways in which these types of plays gave rise to later forms of theater, like those found in Existentialism and the Théâtre de l'Absurde. Prereq: Fr 325 or Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent Washington University transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4430 Contemporary Francophone Literature
A general survey of Francophone literature. This seminar examines representative texts of Quebec, Acadia, Africa, and West Indies. Authors to include Antonine Maillet, Louis Hémon, Michel Tremblay, Gérard Leblanc, Anne Hébert, Maryse Condé, along with the influential poets of négritude, Senghor and Césaire. This course counts towrds the seminar requirment for the major. Prereq: Thinking-It-Through or In-Depth.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4440 Modern Francophone Poetry
The first half of this course consists of close readings of the founders of NEGRITUDE: Césaire, Senghor, and Damas. While the political and historical impact of these poets is discussed in some depth, we analyze their poetry primarily in terms of its aesthetic value and concerns. We study American influences such as jazz and the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance along with French influences. The second half of this course focuses on the contemporary poetic scene in Africa and the Caribbean. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4470 The Medieval Literary Arts
How do medieval French writers understand the structures and functions of the human body? What kinds of bodies are considered disabled? Are womanhood, childhood, and old age construed as disabilities? in this course we will read texts of varied genre--farces, saints' lives, fabliaux, poems, romances, journals and chronicles--as we consider how, if at all, disability exists as a social or literary construct in the Middle Ages. Texts include Philippe de Beaumanoir's MANEKINE, Courtebarbe's TROIS AVEUGLES DE COMPIÈGNE, Guillaume de Machaut's VOIR DIT, and the farce LE GARÇON ET L'AVEUGLE; excerpts from Jean de Meun's ROMAN DE LA ROSE, from the OVIDE MORALISÉ and from Christine de Pizan's MUTACION DE FORTUNE; and poems by Rutebeuf, Deschamps, and Molinet, as well as critical and theoretical texts from the emerging discipline of disability studies. Texts will be available in modern French; no prior study of Old French language is necessary. This course counts towards the seminar requirment for the major. Prereq: Fr 325 or Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4480 From Arthur to the Grail
Conducted in English. A broad survey of the Arthurian legend: its origins, its elaboration in French, English, and other medieval literatures, and its expression in modern literature (especially English and American) and in the visual arts, film, and music. All readings available in English. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4490 Old French
To enable students to read Old French, this course offers a brief presentation of grammatical concepts and forms; close reading, translation, and discussion of selected medieval texts. Knowledge of Latin useful but not essential. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4500 Women and the Medieval French Literary Tradition
The Middle Ages constitute a beginning--a period when new languages and literatures came into being, along with Romanesque book-illumination and stained glass, Gothic cathedrals, Gregorian chant, Troubadour song, crusades for the Holy Land, and quests for the Holy Grail. Medieval French Literature is therefore a new literature, defining itself against antique models and its own rich multilingual, highly visual, and oral culture. This course provides an overview of this diverse and fascinating French literary tradition while focusing on the status of women in the literary production of the Middle Ages. Particular attention is given to women's role in the creation of texts as authors and patrons. We also examine how gender roles are constructed and challenged through the literary representation of female characters. Readings include examples from major genres: Marie de France's LAIS, Chrétien de Troyes's LANCELOT, Rutebeuf's VIE DE SAINTE ELYSABEL, the anonymous AUCASSIN ET NICOLETTE, as well as Fabliaux, poetry of the Trouvères and Trobairitz, excerpts of the ROMAN DE LA ROSE, and works by Christine de Pizan. All readings and discussions are in modern French. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4510 French Literature of the Middle Ages I
French literature from the beginning to 1250. The course emphasizes CHANSONS DE GESTE, courtly romance and lyric, and early drama. Most works read in modern French. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4520 French Literature of the Middle Ages II
Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4530 History of the French Language
Study of phonetic and morphological evolution of the French language with side glances at historical events that shaped this development. No previous knowledge of Latin necessary. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4550 Intersectional Identities in Medieval France
Were medieval French identities intersectional? What cultural evidence is there -- in literature, theatrical performance, the visual arts, and the artifacts of everyday life -- for such identity categories as race, sexuality, or disability? In this course, we will investigate medieval French imaginaries of the racialized, gendered, classed, and abled/disabled body, seeking to do the following: (1) understand the systems of power and privilege that undergirded medieval identities; (2) critique the contemporary perception of medieval Europe as an all-white, male-dominated space; and (3) explore how contemporary critical identity studies can deepen our comprehension of medieval culture and how medieval materials can offer new insights into contemporary identity formations. This course will be taught in English, with a weekly discussion section in French for undergraduates enrolling for French credit. Prerequisite: French 325, French 326, Thinking-It-Through, or In-Depth.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4560 Romance Philology
Study of the evolution of the major Romance languages from their common Latin origins. Knowledge of classical Latin not required, but acquaintance with phonetics of at least one Romance language extremely helpful. Conducted in English. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4580 Nature, Landscape, and Travel in the Middle Ages
Through an examination of the concept of nature in the Middle Ages, the course analyzes the importance of the presence or absence of landscapes in medieval literature, including CHANSONS DE GESTE, courtly romances, ROMAN DE LA ROSE, accounts of travel and pilgrimages, poetry, and theater. We examine the movements of medieval men and women from one place to another; their concepts of the relation between the nature and culture; their emotions when confronting nature; the various means they use to describe space and travel; the function of nature and landscapes within individual works. Each text is situated within the general framework of the history of the language and the ltierature of the period. The thematic focus of the course is informed through theological, philosophical, and anthropological perspectives essential to an appreciation of all medieval texts. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4581 Sacrifice and Service: Masculinity and the Medieval French Literary Tradition
The Middle Ages constitute a beginning: a period when new languages and literatures--along with Gothic cathedrals, Troubadour song, Romanesque art, crusades for the Holy Land, and quests for the Holy Grail--come into being. By focusing on the notion of service, we will study how medieval society establishes a hierarchy of power that encompasses religious, feudal, and courtly relationships. Particular attention will be given to the construction and testing of gender roles. What are men and women asked to sacrifice? Whom and what are they supposed to serve? How do the concepts of honor and heroism motivate the service of knights and heroines to their king and God? Texts to include: LA CHANSON DE ROLAND, LA QUETE DU SAINT-GRAAL, LA VIE DE SAINT ALEXIS, LE JEU D'ADAM, Béroul's and Thomas's versions of LE ROMAN DE TRISTAN, Chrétien de Troyes's LE CHEVALIER AU LION OU YVAIN, Rutebeuf's MIRACLE DE THÉOPHILE, and Christine de Pizan's famous poem on Jeanne d'Arc. All readings in modern French. Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial for required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4590 Writing North Africa: Francophone Literature of the Maghreb
With statues of colonizers coming down around the world, France reckons with its colonial legacy in North Africa. Ever since their conquest of Algiers in 1830, the French have been fascinated by writing from across the Mediterranean. Beginning with nineteenth-century French travel narratives about Algeria, the colonial era defined ideas of the exotic. As Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia gained independence from France in the mid-twentieth century, North African authors often wrote their own literature in the language of their former colonizer. These authors and their contemporary descendants continue to create and challenge the ideas of postcolonial francophone literature today. The main seminar sessions are taught in English, with additional required weekly undergraduate discussions (section A) in French. Prerequisites: for undergraduates, French 325 or 326, Thinking-It-Through, or In-Depth; for graduates not in French, reading knowledge of the language.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 4610 Topics in French Literature and History:
How genre affects both the production of a given literary text and its perception by the reader. Representative texts from different centuries and movements. Prereq: Fr 325C and 326C (or, for students who have completed the Paris Business Program, completion of either course). One-hour preceptorial for undergraduates only.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4680 Topics in French Literature: Disability Studies, Before Disability
How do medieval and Renaissance writers understand the structures and functions of the human body? What kinds of bodies are considered disabled? Are womanhood, childhood, and old age construed as disabilities? In this course we will read texts of varied genre--farces, saints' lives, short comic tales, poems, romances, journals, essays, and chronicles--as we consider how, if at all, disability exists as a social or literary construct in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. We will also read critical and theoretical texts from the discipline of disability studies, interrogating the applicability of this largely modern-focused approach to premodern societies. Course taught in French. Texts will be available in modern French; no prior study of the Middle Ages or of Old French language is necessary. Prerequisites: French 325, 326, Thinking-It-Through, or In-Depth. This course counts towards the French for Medical Professionals track. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 4711 Mourning in Haitian Culture
The French Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales defines a reposoir as an altar adorned with flowers and ornate foliage erected during a funeral procession onto which a priest places the holy sacrament in a moment of rest. In Haiti, repozwa has multiple meanings: it can refer to a person who provides a safe harbor, a mother or a matriarch, an archive or a repository, it can also designate a resting place where the remains of a person and the memories associated with them lie in repose. In this course, we will examine how Haitian literature - memoirs, novels, poetry, and theater - acts as a repozwa in all of its valences and how it can assist those left behind in their process of mourning. This course counts toward the seminar requirement for the major. Prerequisite: Thinking-It-Through or In-Depth. 3 units
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4830 Gender and Genre
A sampling of the diverse contributions made by French women to literary history, this course examines what prompted women to write in the 16th century; what they wrote about; which genres they chose; how these women were viewed by their contemporaries; etc. Prereq: Fr 325 or Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
FRENCH 4930 Selected French Writers
Prereq: Fr 325 and Fr 326 or one of these courses and the equivalent WU transfer literature course from Toulouse or Paris. One-hour preceptorial required for undergraduates.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
FRENCH 4995 French Coursework Completed Abroad
This course is for 4000 level study abroad credits.
Credit 12 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 4996 French Elective
This course is for 4000 level transfer credits.
Credit 0 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
FRENCH 4997 Honors
To be considered for graduation with Honors, students must: (1) participate satisfactorily in two 400-level literature courses and (2) enroll in Fr 495 and submit an Honors Thesis approved by the Department at least two months before graduation. Prereq: 3.0 grade point average. Qualified students should consult the Department.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
FRENCH 4998 Honors
To be considered for graduation with Honors, students must: (1) participate satisfactorily in two 400-level literature courses and (2) enroll in Fr 495 and submit an Honors Thesis approved by the Department at least two months before graduation. Prereq: 3.0 grade point average. Qualified students should consult the Department. Pass/Fail.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
Italian
ITAL 1000 Elementary Italian
Taught in Italy at the Italian Summer Language Institute.
ITAL 1010 Elementary Italian in the Everyday World, Level I
This course stresses the rapid acquisition of spoken ability, with attention to the development of reading, writing, and listening skills through contextualized learning and engagement with culturally authentic materials. Designed for students with no prior knowledge of Italian or minimal experience in another Romance language.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 1015 Introductory Italian for Visual Arts
Students learn methods of effective communication, the rapid acquisition of spoken ability, and a working vocabulary for the visual arts: drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, the museum, etc. Students will also learn beginning reading and writing skills.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 1017 Elementary Italian
This is a beginning language course stressing rapid acquisition of spoken ability with some attention to the development of reading, writing, and listening skills as well. It is designed for students with no prior knowledge of Italian or minimal experience in another Romance language.
ITAL 1020 Elementary Italian in the Everyday World, Level II
Continuation of Ital 101D. This sequence stresses effective communication and the rapid acquisition of spoken ability with increased attention to the development of reading, writing, and listening skills. Prerequisite: Ital 101D or placement by examination.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 1030 Elementary Italian 101 and 102
Taught at the Italian Summer Language Institute in Italy and in-house.
Credit 3-6 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 1060 Accelerated Elementary Italian in the Everyday World, Level I
This course is designed especially for students with previous language study. It moves at an accelerated pace toward the acquisition of spoken ability, with attention to the development of reading, writing and listening skills through contextualized learning and engagement with culturally authentic materials.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 1070 Accelerated Elementary Italian in the Everyday World II
Continuation of Italian 106D. Designed for students whose previous study of French or Spanish will enable them to grasp the principles and rules of Italian grammar more efficiently. Emphasis on all four language skills: speaking. listening, reading, writing. Prereq: Italian 106D or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Summer
ITAL 1100 First-Year Seminar: Italy's Invention of the Modern Museum
This course traces the development in Italy of what we know as the modern museum. Unfolding chronologically from the Renaissance to the current day, the course will examine the origins and rise of art, natural history, science, and national museums across the peninsula from Rome to Venice, Florence to Naples. We will study the establishment of the early public art museums epitomized by the Vatican Museums, the Uffizi Gallery, and the Capitoline Museums. We will examine the impact on national and cultural identity of Fascist propaganda museums instituted under Mussolini's regime, and we will conclude with an examination of extraordinary new museums in Italy, such as the interactive MUSME (Museum of Medicine) in Padua, and the MEIS (National Italian Judaism and Shoah Museum) in Ferrara. Art Curators, and Museum directors will visit our course.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 1101 First-Year Seminar: Italian Literary Culture: Identity, Subjectivity, Audience
In this course we'll sample eight centuries of Italian literary culture by reading some of its greatest works. While familiarizing ourselves with key Italian authors (and some outliers); we'll also work to clarify our thinking about three problems: (1) identity (How does each work express an idea of italianness? What other elements of identity, such as gender or religion, are in play? Why do authors sometimes conceal their true identities by using a nom de plume?); (2) subjectivity (How does the author or narrator establish their place in the world?); (3) audience (For whom does the author write? Is the author's audience the same as the narrator's? How do authors make their writings available to others?). Authors studied include Boccaccio, Petrarch, Vasari, Galilei, Collodi, Ginzburg, Ferrante. Three short papers. Class conducted in English with readings in English.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 1102 Refracted Light: How Others View Italy
Throughout the centuries Italy has both enjoyed and suffered the fascinated gaze of foreigners, who have written about it, painted it, made music and films about it. Drawing principally on prose writings from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, in such varied genres as the short story, the novel, the mystery novel, travel writing, and the memoir, this course will examine the images of Italy that non-Italians project. Beyond learning about Italy, students will consider their own idea of Italy, examine their own frame of reference and cultural biases, interrogate a variety of stereotypes, and ponder how well one can truly understand a place as an outsider or reader. Authors studied include Stendhal, Dickens, James, Forster and Mann, and James, as well as such contemporary writers as Michael Dibdin and Shirley Hazzard.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
ITAL 1996 Italian Elective
This course is used for transcribing 1000- level ITAL elective units.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
ITAL 1999 Independent Study
This is an independent study course for credit.
Credit 0.5-5 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 2010 Intermediate Italian in the Everyday World, Level III
This course aims for students to achieve intermediate proficiency in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Focus is placed on vocabulary building and increased facility with Italian grammar through interactive exercises and the use of authentic materials, such as readings and videos. Regular compositions and exams as well as a final exam. Prerequisite: Ital 102D or higher.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 2017 Italian Level III
This is our third-semester course, open to students who will have completed Italian 102D and/or 107D before or in Spring 2013. The course offers an extensive review of basic grammar structures as well as a guided introduction to reading, and lessons in contemporary Italian culture.
Credit 5 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS
Typical periods offered: Summer
ITAL 2150 Conversation/Culture
This course examines Italian culture through a focus on a particular theme or themes. The course consists of units focusing on practical experiences and real-life interactions. As students advance through each unit, they develop collaborative projects such as skits, presentations, multimedia, and artwork.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
ITAL 2700 The Italian Play
Reading, study, and performance of one or more Italian plays. Emphasis on improving pronunciation and diction, with the stage as a classroom and the performance the final examination. Prerequisites: two years of college Italian or equivalent, and permission of instructor. Enrollment limited. Credit/No Credit only.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
ITAL 2800 Sex in Italian Culture and Media
From XIXth century hotbed of sexual tourism to XXist century idyllic scenario of Guadagnino'ssteamy romance Call Me by Your Name, Italy has been cast globally as an imaginary site of sexual freedom. Throughout the 20th century, Italy's sexual culture and mores have been shaped more by a climate of discretion, secrecy, and scandals than by overt identity politics. However, between the early 70s and the first Rome Pride in 2000, an Italian movement of sexual activism featuring activists, writers, and artists have impacted globally the ways in which we experience and talk about bodies, desires, and sexual identities nowadays. How do we think, represent, and talk sex in Italian culture? What is queer about Italian culture and how does queer translate into Italian language? This course introduces students to the study of Italian cultural productions on sexuality between discretion and identity politics spanning early sexological work, accounts of homosexuality under Fascism, transessualita Italian-style, sexual manifestos, photographic archives, AIDS fiction, LGBTQI films and YouTube videos, transnational queer comedies, drag king performances, etc. The class is taught in English with no prerequisite necessary. No Final.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
ITAL 2900 The Culture of Food in Italy
This interdisciplinary course will provide students with an introduction to Italian culture presented through an exploration of one of Italy's most appreciated aspects around the world: its food. A major focus will be on understanding the extraordinary significance of food in the definition of Italianness and the influence of gastronomy in the creation of national identity. Some of the questions that will guide our exploration will be: how has Italian cuisine changed from antiquity through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, from the political unification in 1861 till today? How do national identity and national cuisine relate? How can food become a tool of political power? How do different products, preparation methods, and consumption patterns, determine the Italian approach towards food that has become renowned (and often misrepresented) all over the world? Students will learn through a combination of lectures, class discussions, presentations, hands-on experiences, and interactions with representatives of the Italian food scene in St. Louis. Texts will include excerpts from literary works (such as Boccaccio's Decameron and Collodi's Pinocchio), academic articles, food magazines and blogs, cookbooks, interviews, and films/documentaries. Students will have the opportunity to increase their vocabulary, review and practice major grammar structures, and improve their conversational and presentational skills in Italian. The course will be taught in Italian. Prereq: Italian 201D
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 2996 Italian Elective
This course is used for transcribing 2000-level ITAL elective units.
Credit 0 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
ITAL 2ABR Italian Coursework Completed Abroad
This course is for 2000 level study abroad credit.
Credit 0.5-12 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3010 Oral Communication I
Designed to offer students an opportunity to practice and refine their conversational skills while expanding their practical vocabulary. Wide variety of topics for discussion; brief oral reports. Regular homework assignments with emphasis on web-based research and learning. Prereq: Italian 201D.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3070 Advanced Italian in the Everyday World
The course aims at reinforcing and developing advanced grammar structures and writing abilities through the study of a variety of media centered around the theme of humor. Have you ever laughed . . . in Italian? Materials include literary excerpts, short stories, film, television clips, and songs. Our focus will be on grammar and syntax as the bases to understanding contemporary Italian humor. Essential for further study of Italian language and literature, this course must be taken before or concurrently with Ital 323C and 324C. Prereq: Ital 201D, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3080 Grammar and Composition II
A continuation of Italian 307D, this course features advanced lessons in Italian syntax and vocabulary and an introduction to the analysis of poetry and theatrical texts, with the goal of improving both reading and writing in Italian. The basis of our work will be a series of readings having a common theme, desire requited and unrequited. We will think about what poets desire, how they give verbal expression to it, and how the success or failure of their pursuit informs their writing. Likewise we will look at how playwrights exploit this theme as a plot device. Readings include poetry by Petrarch, Michelangelo, Tasso, and Montale, as well as two comedies. Grammar exams and regular composition assignments; final exam. Essential for further study of Italian language and literature, this course must be taken concurrently with Italian 323C or 324C. Prereq: Ital 307D or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
ITAL 3090 Transmedia Italian Culture: Stories, Interpretation, Performance
This course examines contemporary Italian culture through a variety of genres and media, which may include short stories, graphic novels, blogs, zines, essays, news articles, podcasts, film, music, and so on. Strong emphasis will be placed on writing. Throughout the course, students will produce their own analyses of key questions defining Italian culture through the production of multimedia pieces that combine writing with such interpretive vehicles as film, music, and digital photography. This course is in Italian, and it aims to expand students' writing and analytical skills in Italian as well as their cultural competence. No final.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3190 Advanced Conversational Italian
Designed to offer students with strong proficiency in Italian an opportunity to practice and refine their conversational skills through the study, rehearsal and performance of theatrical scenes or an Italian comedy from the repertoire of such chief literary figures as Machiavelli, Goldoni, Pirandello, Natalia Ginzburg and Dario Fo. Prereq: Ital 215, or placement by examination.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3200 Independent Study
This course is for independent study credit.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3220 Topics
This course examines Italian culture through a variety of genres and media. Students will produce their own analyses of key questions defining Italian culture through the production of multimedia pieces that combine writing with such interpretive vehicles as film, music, and digital photography. This course may be taken concurrently with Italian 3070, 3090, 3230, 3240 or 3270.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3221 Topics: The Jewish Experience in Italy
This course will examine the social and political history of the Jews of Italy from the period of Italian unification through the end of the Second World War. We will look through two different prisms: first, the constant of Jews' minority status in a Catholic country at a time when Church doctrine was hostile to them and second, their changing status during significant moments in the brief history of the Italian monarchy. Under the latter rubric we will study the rehabilitation of the Jews under liberal political philosophies, their problematic relationship with Fascism, and finally the arrival of the Holocaust in Italy and efforts to defend Jews against Nazi genocide. We will approach these topics wherever possible through primary texts, including essays, memoirs, and novels. Reading knowledge of Italian is not required. Readings in English; some readings in Italian for Italian majors. Discussion in English. Prerequisite for Italian majors: Italian 307D; no prerequisite for students in other majors. Three five-page papers. PLEASE NOTE: THE L75 5221 CROSS-LISTING COURSE IS FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS ONLY.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3222 Topics: Fascism and Resistance: Past and Present
A multidisciplinary course focusing on a significant aspect of Italian culture. The topic will differ from semester to semester and may draw on art, film, history, gender studies, literature, music, philosophy, politics, science. A multidisciplinary course focusing on a significant aspect of Italian culture. The topic will differ from semester to semester and may draw on art, film, history, gender studies, literature, music, philosophy, politics, science. Did the Fascist ideology end in 1945 or does it persist today? Was Italy mostly a Fascist nation or a stronghold of the anti-Fascist movement? How are World War II, Italy's Fascist past, its anti-Semitism, and civil war being remembered (or forgotten) to this day? In this course, you will try to answer these and other questions by looking at the many aspects of Italian literary culture during the Fascist regime and post-war years. You will read Resistance poetry, Fascist propaganda, novels of the literary Neorealism, Primo Levi's personal narratives, and the writings of female partisans. You will then explore how Italy's complicated past is being dealt with at both the individual and the collective level, and how the tragedy of World War II is being represented and re-imagined in Italian contemporary fiction, films, graphic novels and children literature. You will consider issues such as the relationship between testimony and memory, between history and fiction, and how notions of post-memory, forgiveness, and revenge shape this particular literary production and Italy's national identity. Class discussions and readings in English. Selected readings and assignments in Italian for Italian majors and minors. Course taught in Italian; readings in Italian.
Credit 3 units. BU: IS
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3223 Topics: Rome
A multidisciplinary course taught in Italian that focuses on a significant aspect of Italian culture. The topic will differ from semester to semester and may draw on art, film, history, gender studies, literature, music, philosophy, politics, and science. This course will explore a variety of texts in which Rome features as the protagonist. A historic center of Western civilization and authority, of Christianity, cultural resplendence and degeneration, the city of Rome is a palimpsest of history, myth, and symbolic meaning. We will examine the myriad ways in which the capital city has been conceived across the centuries.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3224 Topics: From Basilisks to Botticelli: The Birth, Development and Politics of Museums in Italy
This course investigates the rise and cultural authority of museums in Italy from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. The course unfolds chronologically, beginning with the distant precursors and etymological roots of the museum in ancient Alexandria and Rome. We trace the origins of the museum in the art collection and patronage that surged during the Renaissance, including the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Curiosity Cabinet with its fossils, mythical basilisks, gems and weapons and church displays of religious and classical art. We will study the establishment during the Enlightenment in Italy of the first public art museums epitomized by the Vatican Museums, the Uffizi Gallery and the Capitoline Museums. We will conclude by examining the impact on national and cultural identity of Fascist propaganda museums instituted under Mussolini's regime. No prerequisites.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3230 Italian Literature 1: Genre and Gender in Italy, 1200-1600
This course traces the evolution of narrative and lyric genres in Italy from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance, with a particular focus on men as writing subjects and the women they constitute as objects. We will focus on such topics as how male poets formed lyric communities, the conflicting dynamics of love and misogyny, the notions of the real and the ideal in the representation of women. We will also look at how women writers both adapted to and wrote back at the dominant discourses of their time. Authors studied include Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Lorenzo il Magnifico, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Castiglione, Veronica Franco. Prereq: Ital 201D. Previous or concurrent enrollment in Ital 307D or 308D recommended.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3231 Italian Literature I - Writing Intensive Seminar
This course traces the evolution of narrative and lyric genres in Italy from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance, with a particular focus on men as writing subjects and the women they constitute as objects. We will focus on such topics as how male poets formed lyric communities, the conflicting dynamics of love and misogyny, the notions of the real and the ideal in the representation of women. We will also look at how women writers both adapted to and wrote back at the dominant discourses of their time. Authors studied include Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Lorenzo il Magnifico, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Castiglione, Veronica Franco.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, WI BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3240 Italian Literature II: The Making of Modern Italy, Texts and Contexts
This course examines key political, social, cultural, and religious aspects of Italian life from Galileo's condemnation in 1633, through the Risorgimento, Fascism, and the birth of the modern Republic, to the increasingly multicultural Italy of today. The overarching theme of this course is the pervading question of Italian identity, or italianita. We will study a variety of male and female, native born and immigrant authors, visual artists and cultural critics.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3241 Italian Literature II - Writing Intensive
Framed by the age old questions of Italian national identity and language, this introductory literature course undertakes a chronological survey of the history of Italian literature from the 1600s to the present day. We will study select works by major authors, including Galileo Galilei's heretical dialogues, the realistic comedies of Carlo Goldoni, poems and essays by the Romantic poet Giacomo Leopardi, the revolutionary dramas of Luigi Pirandello, the Futurist's celebration of speed, war and technology in the visual and literary arts, and the postmodern fiction of Italo Calvino.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, WI BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
ITAL 3270 History of the Italian Language
In this course we'll trace the evolution of Italian from its very earliest written manifestations to its increasing internationalization in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We'll study the natural evolution of Italian up until the sixteenth century, its codification as a literary language during the sixteenth century, the debates over the institution of a national language that coincide with the unification of Italy in the nineteenth century, the recovery of dialects as literary languages in the twentieth century, and the more recent incorporation of words and phrases originating outside of Italy. Along the way we'll come to understand the reasons why we study a particular form of Italian in school, and we'll consider the implications of these choices not only for our own learning but for Italian literature and its sense of nationhood.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3300 Italian Food, Italian Culture
This course will provide students with an introduction to Italian culture presented through an exploration of one of Italy's most appreciated aspects: its food. We will examine the relationship between Italian food and Italian culture through readings, films, tasting experiences, and interactions with the local Italian food scene. We will look at food in its social and cultural context through a multi-disciplinary approach - history, anthropology, sociology, and literature. A major focus will be on understanding the extraordinary significance of food in the definition of Italianness from an Italian, as well as from an American perspective. No knowledge of Italian is required: readings and discussions will be in English, but students with prior knowledge of Italian will have multiple opportunities to improve their linguistic skills.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3320 Topics in Film Studies: Italian Cinema
This course studies the influence of film on Italian culture. We will consider the trajectory of Italian film from its origins to the present day. Specific areas of discussion may include: cinema as a revolutionary aesthetic; mass culture versus high art; neorealism; literary adaptation; and cinema as political resistance and vehicle for social justice. The course will also work collaboratively with the Italian Film Fest of Saint Louis in the development of materials, class discussion, and student engagement. Two to three hours of film-viewing plus three class hours a week. Taught in English.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3340 Topics in Italian Cinema
A companion to Italian 332, this course focuses on a select topic in the history of Italian cinema, such as the work of a single director or a significant cinematic movement. Course conducted in English. Italian majors read in Italian, others in English translation. Prerequisite for Italian majors: Italian 307D. Prerequisite for non-majors: Italian 332, Film 220, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. BU: IS
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3360 Writers in Revolutions
Course description TBD.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3500 Topics: Global Italy: Race, Gender, Migration and Citizenship
Traditionally represented as a land of emigrants and exiles from the south, 21st-century Italy has become the destination of many immigrants and a place of encounter of different cultures and races. In Cara Italia [Dear Italy], a rap hymn by the famous artist Ghali, Italy is both a dear and a contested space of belonging where many children of migrants feel both at home and out of place. Exploring the cultural and historical roots of this feeling, the course asks the following: What does it mean to culturally belong? Why are certain people denied the status of Italian citizens? What does it mean to be Black in Italy? How are interracial younger generations reshaping Italy and Italian-ness? This course is an introduction to cultural productions at the intersection of migration, race, gender, and citizenship in contemporary Italy. In the course, students will critically engage a variety of issues such as the relation between Italian colonialism and recent migration, border politics and civic mobilization, gender struggles and networking, xenophobia and racism, and social protests and activism. Although African migration and Italians of Afro-descent are at the core of the course, students will also explore representations by/of other migrant communities such as the Asian and the Albanian ones. The course will be conducted in English, and screenings will be in the original language with English subtitles.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3520 Italian Institute Project
Course description TBD.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3995 Italian Coursework Completed Abroad
This course is for 3000 level study abroad credits.
Credit 12 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 3996 Italian Elective
This course is for 3000 level transfer credit.
Credit 0 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
ITAL 3999 Independent Study
Undergraduate independent study at the 3000 level.
Credit 6 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4040 Senior Independent Study in Italian
This is an independent study course for senior level students.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4080 Disease, Madness, and Death Italian Style
Italian literary history teems with representations of illness, insanity, and death. From the ghastly 1348 plague that frames Boccaccio's Decameron to the midday madness of errant Renaissance knights, from 16th-century tales of poisoning and 19th-century Pirandellian madmen to the contemporary scourge of mafia killings, disease, madness and death are dominant facts of reality, points of view, symbols, and cultural characteristics of Italian poetry and prose. This course undertakes a pathology of these tropes in Italian literary history and seeks to understand their meaning for the changing Italian cultural identity across time and the Italian peninsula. We will read primary literary texts and view excerpts from films alongside articles focused on the cultural history of medicine, religion, and criminal justice. Taught in English. No Final.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4100 Mamma Mia! Motherhood, Maternity, & the Female Reproductive Body in the Italian Cultural Context
This course explores representations of motherhood, maternity, and the reproductive female body in medical texts and anatomical models, art, literature, government policies, religious doctrine, the criminal courts, and film and media in Italy from the Middle Ages to the present day. As the epicenter of the Catholic Church, an ancient hub of medical science and innovation, the birthplace of Fascism, a European center of feminist separatism, and a modern democratic republic currently led by a rightwing woman prime minister, the first woman to hold the office, Italy has generated among the most influential and contested archetypes of maternity and the maternal body in Western culture. This course takes a micro historical and plurimedial approach. Each week of the semester we will closely examine specific textual and/or visual artifacts-from trial documents to wax anatomical models, paintings to canonization procedures, propaganda films to literary texts-to explore the question of maternity in and across Italian time and space.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4280 The New Sicilian School
The unification of Italy in the mid-19th century led to the creation of a new Sicilian School, the first since that of the court poets associated with Frederick II in the 13th century. These new Sicilian writers have given us many narrative masterpieces, focusing on common concerns such as the island's identity over two millenia and the impact of Italian nationalism; the rise of bourgeois culture and the decline of indigenous patriarchal structures; the rule of law and the role of the Mafia; and the politics of language. Authors studied include Verga, Pirandello, Vittorini, Brancati, Tomasi di Lampedusa and Sciascia. Course taught in Italian or English.
ITAL 4300 Divergent Voices: Italian Women Writers
This course engages the fictional and political works of Italian women writers from the seventeenth century to the present day. We will read one of the acclaimed Neapolitan novels of Elena Ferrante, who is considered by many to be the most important Italian fiction writer of her generation. We will examine a cloistered Venetian nun's defiant 1654 indictment of the misogynist society that forced her into the convent. We will confront the reality of a woman writer who in 1901 was compelled to choose between her child and her literary career. Among other contemporary writers, we will study the humorous and radical feminist one-acts of playwright Franca Rame. Taught in English. No Final.
ITAL 4330 Literature of the Italian Enlightenment
This course aims to explore the spectrum of intellectual and literary discourse of the Italian Enlightenment by examining a wide array of texts and genres. Readings will include selections from Enlightenment and popular periodicals, scientific tracts on human anatomy, women's fashion magazines, the reformed theater of Carlo Goldoni, as well as Arcadian poetry, and literary criticism. We will study the rise and characteristics of coffee culture during this age. We will pay special attention to the woman question, which stood at the center of eighteenth-century Italian intellectual discourse, and which was critical to the contemporary drive to define the enlightened nation-state. The class will be conducted as a workshop in which students and instructor collaborate in the realization of course goals. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English. Prereq. Ital 323C or Ital 324C.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4370 Caffe, Cadavers, Comedy, and Castrati: Italy in the Age of the Grand Tour
Taught in English. With French libertine philosopher the Marquis de Sade, German novelist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Romantic poet Lord Byron, and other illustrious travelers of high birth and good fortune who sought finishing enrichment by making their Grand Tour to Italy from the mid-eighteenth through the early nineteenth centuries, we will explore the richness and variety of Italian life and culture as depicted by both Grand Tourists as well as their Italian interlocutors. Chief among our destinations will be Venice, Bologna, Florence and Rome. Attractions typical of the early modern Tour will circumscribe our journey. Coffee houses first appeared in the eighteenth century and, in ways strikingly similar to their function today, became the real and symbolic centers of social, intellectual and civil exchange. We will explore eighteenth-century coffee culture through comedies and Enlightenment and popular journals that took them as their theme, as well as through a study of the coffee houses themselves, a number of which are still in existence. Theaters, concert halls, gaming houses, literary and scientific academies, galleries, churches, and universities will be part of the standardized itinerary we will follow. During the period, anatomy and physiology attained new legitimacy as crucial scientific disciplines and we will visit both the anatomical theater at the University of Bologna, where the annual Carnival dissection took place, as well as the first museum of anatomy and obstetrics founded in the Bolognese Institute of Sciences in 1742 by Pope Benedict XIV. We will visit archeological excavation sites, in particular Pompeii, first unearthed in 1748. Fashion, an obsessive preoccupation of the day, will also be a point of interest in our travels. Through primary and recently published secondary sources we will also encounter the remarkable authority of Italian women unmatched anywhere else in Europe at the time. Prereq: at least one 300-level literature course. Readings in Italian or English.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
ITAL 4420 Literature and Fascism
The course features a historical approach to Italian literature from 1930-1950. We will focus on life under the fascist dictatorship, wartime partisan resistance, issues of censorship, and literature as propaganda. Course conducted in English; readings in the original or, if necessary, in translation.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
ITAL 4580 Genres in the Renaissance.
Examines how the philological discoveries of Renaissance and Baroque period culture. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4620 Prose Writers of the Sixteenth Century
In this course, we will read Machiavelli's Prince and Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, among other Renaissance best sellers.. We will study these works for their influence from their own time to today. We will also consult some secondary readings to help us understand the place of each in the political and cultural landscape of Renaissance Italy. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4730 Machiavelli and Guicciardini
The development of modern political science in 16th-century Italy. We will address questions of both theory and methodology in Machiavelli's and Guicciardini's political visions. We will also pay close attention to the Florentine context of their work, as well as to the influence of historical examples, both classical and contemporary, in the development of their analyses. Finally, we will ask how the examples they set, and the theories they promulgate, can have resonance in addressing political questions in our own age. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English.
ITAL 4800 Senior Seminar in Italian
Undergraduate seminar; topics vary. Required of all majors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4810 Dante
This course features an in-depth approach to Dante's Inferno, the first, and in many ways the most famous, of the three parts of the Divina Commedia. We'll study the structure of the poem as well as the structure of Dante's Hell, his verse form and use of the vernacular, his notion of sin and punishment and its relation to the theological traditions of which he is an heir. Because so much of the poem is rooted in and extends Dante's autobiography--literary, sentimental, and political--we'll also read two other important texts by him, his early Vita nuova (New Life) and his political treatise, Monarchy. Reading knowledge of Italian helpful but not required. Course conducted in English.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4830 Boccaccio: Decameron
The unrivaled master of late medieval Italian prose, Boccaccio is also a strikingly modern author whose works address such questions as the relationship between literature and history; God and man; storyteller and audience; gender, language, and power; literature and truth. With these and other concerns in mind, we will read his masterpiece, the DECAMERON, a collection of 100 tales set in the Black Plague of 1348. We will then contrast it to his late CORBACCIO, ostensibly a misogynist novel but a text that finally resists such a flattening judgment. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English. Prerequisite: 3 units of literature.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4850 Ariosto: Orlando Furioso
A close reading of this Renaissance masterpiece with attention to questions of structure and sources, the themes of love and madness, the representation of court life. Readings in Italian or English; discussion in English.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4910 Postmodernism
This course explores the complex significance of Italian Postmodernism through an examination of the theoretical arguments and literary works that have shaped the cultural and political debate of the past fifty years. Students will study, among others, the critical theories of open work (Umberto Eco), literature as lie (Manganelli), and weak thought (Gianni Vattimo) that developed from the neo-avant-garde movement of the 1960s. Analysis will focus on the novels of four authors who have had a defining influence on Italian postmodern thought and narrative forms: Carlo Emilio Gadda, Italo Calvino, Luigi Malerba, and Umberto Eco. Course conducted in English; Italian majors read in Italian, others in English translation. Prereq for Italian majors: Ital 307D, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4920 The Italian Detective Novel
The detective novel has an unusual and exceptionally brief history in Italy. Only within the past 35 years has an Italian version or, more precisely, subversion of the genre emerged and come to dominate the Italian literary scene. Prominent Italian writers such as Italo Calvino, Umberto Eco, Leonardo Sciascia, and Luigi Malerba have deconstructed the conventions of the detective novel in order to portray the disorder and arbitrary meaning of the postmodern world. This course will explore the history of the anti-detective novel in Italy, and the philosophical and political questions the genre evokes. Readings in Italian and English. Conducted in English.
Credit 3 units. Art: HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
ITAL 4950 Senior Honors
This course is for seniors in the honors program.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
ITAL 4952 Honors
This course is for seniors in the Honors program.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
ITAL 4995 Italian Coursework Completed Abroad
4000 level Italian Coursework Completed Abroad
Credit 12 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
ITAL 4996 Italian Elective
This course is for 4000 level transfer credit.
Credit 0 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
Portuguese
PORTUG 1020 Elementary Portuguese
Course description TBD
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
PORTUG 1500 Portuguese I
Introduction to Portuguese language. The course emphasizes acquisition of communicative ability. It also covers basic grammar points through reading and writing activities. Classes are taught entirely in Portuguese. No prior experience in the language is required.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
PORTUG 1510 Portuguese II
Introduction to Portuguese language. This second course in the Portuguese program emphasizes acquisition of communicative ability. It also covers basic grammar structures through reading and writing activities. Classes are taught entirely in Portuguese. Prereq: Port 101 or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
PORTUG 1600 Portuguese for Romance Language Speakers I
Intensive and accelerated course especially designed to take advantage of students' knowledge of Spanish and/or other Romance Languages and to promote a more rapid learning of Portuguese. Classes are taught entirely in Portuguese and stress oral communication, basic use of grammar, reading and writing skills. Proficiency in Spanish or another Romance Language is required. 3 units.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
PORTUG 1610 Portuguese for Romance Language Speakers II
This course offers a sequence in the learning process initiated in L37 103. It is a fast-paced class designated for students with proficiency in Spanish and/or other Romance Languages, and its objective is improving conversation, writing, and reading skills. Prereq 103 or permission of instructor. 3 units.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
PORTUG 2000 Reading and Conversation I
The goal of this course is to review and to enhance the content learned at the basic level. Through culturally relevant readings and related conversational activities, students are expected to enrich their vocabulary, gain fluency, and improve both reading comprehension and writing skills. Prereq: two college semesters of Portuguese or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
PORTUG 2010 Reading and Conversation II: Intermediate Portuguese
This course is a continuation of Port 215, therefore an intermediate level in the Portuguese section. Its main goal is to improve students' reading proficiency, as well as to provide a class environment in which conversational skills can be practiced and made into a solid foundation. In addition, the class will provide tools to expand vocabulary and promote a cultural understanding of Brazil and other Lusophone countries. Prereq: Port 215 or permission of instructor
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
PORTUG 3999 Undergraduate Independent Study
Prereq: Permission of the Department.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
Spanish
SPAN 1010 Elementary Spanish 1
Beginning language program stressing acquisition of spoken ability together with attention to the development of reading, writing, and listening skills. In addition to three hours of class, students complete weekly, assessed independent learning activities with multimedia resources. Students must have no prior expirence with Spanish.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 1020 Elementary Spanish 2
Second semester of the beginning language program stressing acquisition of spoken ability together with attention to the development of reading, writing, and listening skills. In addition to three hours of class, students complete weekly, assessed independent learning activities with multimedia resources.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
SPAN 2010 Intermediate Spanish I
The first half of a two-semester intermediate level sequence. Reviews basic knowledge and introduces advanced skills in grammar, reading, writing, culture, and vocabulary.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 2020 Intermediate Spanish II
The second half of a two-semester intermediate level sequence. This class continues to review basic knowledge and to introduce advanced skills in grammar, reading, writing, culture, and vocabulary. Prereq: Span201E, or placement by examination.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 2990 Undergraduate Independent Study
Prereq: Span 201D and permission of the department.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 2996 Spanish Elective: 2000-Level
This course is used for transcribing 2000-level SPAN elective units.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
SPAN 3020 Cultures and Communication in the Spanish-Speaking World
This course is the first part of a two-semester advanced-level sequence. Through the study of a variety of media (i.e., written, visual, aural, and digital), students will develop linguistic and cultural competence and gain a general understanding of contemporary issues of interest in Spain, Latin America, and the United States. Discussion of a wide array of cultural and linguistic materials will serve as the basis for an exploration of the diversity of the Spanish-speaking world. The course focuses primarily on speaking skills. It is designed to prepare students to proceed to higher-level Spanish courses and to build written and oral proficiency. This course replaces Span 307D and is a prerequisite for several study abroad programs. Prerequisite: Span 202 or placement by examination.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3021 Language and Culture for Heritage Speakers of Spanish
This course offers an approach to the linguistic and historical study of different cultural productions in various Spanish-speaking communities in the United States and other Spanish-speaking countries. The materials and structure of the course are designed for students whose cultural roots are, to some degree, Latin and who have grown up in Spanish-speaking environments, so course materials focus on autobiography and identity. This course offers students a multidisciplinary way of working at points where linguistic and literary analysis runs parallel to other forms of cultural production and to the historical narrative of Latinx culture in the United States. Prerequisite: placement by examination.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3030 Cultures and Communication in the Spanish-Speaking World II
This course is the second part of a two-semester advanced-level sequence. Through the study of a variety of media (written, visual, aural, and digital), students will develop linguistic and cultural competence and gain a general understanding of contemporary issues of interest in Spain, Latin America, and the US. Discussion of a wide array of cultural and linguistic materials will serve as the basis for an exploration of the diversity of the Spanish-speaking world. Course content is organized thematically into five units: Youth Cultures, Food Culture, New Indigeneity, Environment, and Public Health. The course focuses primarily on writing skills. It is designed to prepare students to proceed to higher-level Spanish courses and to build written and oral proficiency. Fromm Ayoroa in charge.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS BU: IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
SPAN 3110 Hispanic Culture and Civilization I
Study of aspects of the political, social, and cultural life of contemporary Spain and Portugal, and their historical development. Class discussion; readings with compositions. Conducted in Spanish. May be repeated for credit.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
SPAN 3122 Advanced Conversation in Spain
Designed to offer students with advanced skills in Spanish an opportunity to refine their ability to discuss a variety of topics. Various media such as films, television, newspapers, and other modes of communication will be used for oral presentations and some writing.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LS BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
SPAN 3130 Chilean Contemporary Culture
This two-week course will provide a panoramic view of Chilean contemporary culture, focusing on the years from 1988 to the present. We will examine the representation of current issues in literature, the arts, and the media, and study topics such as governmental institutions, the constitution of 1980, the economy, the role of the Catholic Church, public policy concerning culture, etc. The course will meet three hours a day, and there will be several guest lecturers. Conducted in Spanish. Requirements: two short papers, short reports in class of the news or a cultural activity students have attended, and participation in class discussions. Course includes an all-day cultural excursion on Saturday (it includes a visit to one of Neruda's houses, a history museum, etc.).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3154 A View From the Southern Cone: Perspectives on Art, Literature and Culture
This course will deal with current issues of cultural, social, political and literary importance related to the Southern Cone. We shall study selected texts from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay as well as contemporary films and drama productions. This course will seek to determine what specifically can be expressed about national identity, globalization and the environment as these countries face the twenty-first century. Course requirements include four short essays and a final exam. This course is taught in Santiago, Chile, as part of the Washington University Chile Program. May be repeated for credit. Conducted in Spanish.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3181 Spanish Culture and Civilization
This course is intended to acquaint students with important aspects of Spanish culture, including history, civilization, society, politics, and the arts, dating from the first invasions of the Peninsula to the present. Students will gain an awareness of the ethnic, cultural, and aesthetic diversity of Spain, as a country of multiple autonomous regions, by working with written texts, other media, and by visits to various locations. The broader aim of the course is to enable students to engage with and to analyze Spanish culture from an intellectually critical perspective and knowledge of its sociohistorical distinctiveness. Requirements include active participation within all classes and excursions, presentations, and various written assignments. This course is taught in Madrid, as part of the Washington University Carlos III Program. Conducted in Spanish.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3200 Debating Cultures: Latin(x) America in the Streets
So much of life in Latin America -- and in many Latinx communities across the United States -- happens in public space: in the streets, to be precise. Picture street food vendors in Mexico City, outdoor produce markets lining squares across Lima, Rio de Janeiro's world-famous carnival celebrations, or politicians addressing thousands in Buenos Aires's Plaza de Mayo. Economic transactions, social interactions, political legends and mass political movements, religious processions, festivals and spectacles, and public art all depend on the streets. In this course, we will focus on the incredible diversity of activities that define and give meaning to public life in Latin America and the Latinx diaspora. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded oral communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3202 Debating Cultures: How Spanish Works
This course offers an introduction to the study of the Spanish language as a science. It focuses on the main linguistic subsystems: the sound system (phonetics and phonology), the formation and use of words (morphology), and the formation and structure of sentences (syntax). When working with each linguistic subsystem, students are provided with opportunities to reflect on and improve their own abilities in Spanish, such as with regard to how mood (indicative versus subjunctive) and aspect (preterit versus imperfect) work in the Spanish verbal system. Similarities and differences between Spanish and other languages, such as English, are highlighted. The course also provides students with an introduction to the history of Spanish in its evolution from Latin as one of many Romance languages (a diachronic view) and an exploration of various regional varieties of Spanish today (a synchronic view). The goals of the course include understanding linguistics and Hispanic linguistics as cognitive sciences; understanding language acquisition and use as neural processes; disentangling linguistic rules and linguistic variation from pedagogical rules and stigmatization; and applying one's knowledge of linguistics in general and Hispanic linguistics in particular to practical issues and challenges. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded oral communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3203 Debating Cultures: Extraordinary Lives
This course studies Latin America through the lives of its people. We will take biographies as sites where individual dreams and struggles intersect with global, national, and local structures of power and cultural flows. Through various cultural objects and media (film, literature, music, and social media), we will approach the extraordinary yet everyday luchas of Latin Americans in cities and rural areas. We will contextualize each life within the region's political, economic, racial, and gender historicities. The biographies we will discuss may include but are not limited to domestic workers, taxi drivers, street vendors, wrestlers, musicians, folklore dancers, college students, rural teachers, political and ecological activists, influencers, indigneous YouTubers and filmmakers, LGBTQIA+ communities, and transnational immigrants. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded oral communications component, and it is taught in Spanish.Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3204 Debating Cultures: Mediated Politics in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay
This course explores the intertwined history of media, culture and political struggle in the region known as the Southern Cone, which encompasses Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. We will discuss the role that media have had in shaping the experience of modernity as well as fostering nation formation in these countries. The course will address the political uses of different types of media, covering a wide spectrum of cultural production (literature, music, comic, political cinema, television, internet) and following a long-term chronological approach, from 19th-century print media to recent YouTube production. In doing so, the course engages with questions of technology, identity, memory, gender, indigenous, and working-class cultures, and it draws special attention to the possibilities and limits that grassroots movements found in different types of media. Course materials may include the Argentine comic Mafalda, the Afro-Uruguayan newspaper Nuestra Raza, and Rodolfo Walsh's non-fiction literature, as well as telenovelas and indigenous radio. As part of the course, students will engage in active research on the interplay of media and political struggle in the region. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded oral communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC BU: BA, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3210 Debating Cultures: Representations of Gender Violence in Modern Iberian Literatures and Cultures
The landmark law against gender violence in Spain, which was passed under the Socialist government in 2004, became the rallying point for feminist activists, even as it generated a vigorous backlash from among conservative sectors of Spanish society. More recently, the La Manada gang rape case in Pamplona in July 2016 provoked national outrage, and, together with the #MeToo and the #NiUnaMenos movements in the United States and Latin America, a global feminist movement was mobilized to protest sexual assault, femicide, and all other forms of gender-based violence. We will consider the works of 19th-century through present-day Spanish women writers, jouranlists, and filmmakers, including Emilia Pardo Bazan, Carmen de Burgos, Rosa Montero, Carme Riera, Lucia Etxebarria, Isabel Coixet, Iciar Bollain, and Roser Aguilar, who have spoken out against gender violence in a variety of fora. Their works will serve as points of departure for exploring the social and cultural causes and dynamics of gender-based violence as well as the ways in which Spanish women have responded to this problem in their writings, film, and other forms of representation. Our analysis will be informed by the larger historical framework of the development of feminism in Spain as well as by the recent global movement against gender-based violence. Course assignments will consist of daily readings, film viewings, group oral presentations, quizzes, discussion forum posts, and a final project that is orally based; students are also expected to engage actively in class discussions and in small group work. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded oral communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3211 Debating Cultures: Inclusion & Expulsion, Memory, and Erasure in the Hispanic World
In this course, we will analyze and discuss the ways in which the Hispanic world has lived, regulated and represented its great religious and cultural diversity. As we progress in our understanding of these multifaceted and varied responses, we will examine the two most important ethical choices that the Hispanic peoples of both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have had in front of them at different points in time: (1) the choice between inclusion and exclusion; and (2) the concerted decision to either memorialize or forget history and the consequences of having chosen to exclude or include certain individuals, ideas, religions or cultural aspects of society. The consideration of these two choices -- as they appear represented in laws, texts and images -- will help us acquire the ability to better understand the challenges and dilemmas that the various Hispanic peoples have encountered in the past and the decisions they continue to make in the present moment when confronted with diversity. Each module of this course will be anchored by an official document or policy that rubber stamped the decision to include, exclude, remember, or forget those who were different because of their origins, their religion, their language, their way of living, or their political choices. Examples of these laws or decrees are the Capitulations of Granada, the Edict of Expulsion of 1492, the New Laws of the Indies, the laws of land confiscation of the 19th century, the persecutions and censorship of the dictatorial regimes in both Spain and Latin America, and the recent Spanish law for the recovery of historical memory. Also, each module will begin in the past and end in the present, with an exploration of the contemporary consequences of those laws and policies. These diachronic studies will contribute to inform the analysis of both social issues and cultural artifacts, and they will enrich the class presentations and discussions. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded oral communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3212 Debating Cultures: Latin American Soundscapes
This course explores Latin America through its sound cultures from the beginning of the 20th century to the present. Diving into aural, literary, and scientific archives, we will discuss how sound produces meaning beyond visual and written cultures, articulates experience, and mobilizes political and cultural change. We will study sound, beats, speech, music, and noise through various cultural objects and media (novels, poems, essays, anthropological studies, journalism, films, radio, records, and digital cultures). We will contextualize these objects in the region's political, economic, racial, and gender historicities. We will examine the interplay of national identity, popular culture, aurality, and modernity in a variety of case studies: folklore (national and American folkloric missions), indigenista operas, indigenous radio and shamanism, the Latin American new song movement (the 1960s and 1970s), rock and youth cultures, cumbia, reggaeton, avant-garde and slam poetry, and the noises of Latin American megacities and protests. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded oral communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3213 Debating Cultures:Redes/ Networks: Digital Cultures in 21st-Century Spain
This is a discussion-based course that examines from interdisciplinary and collaborative perspectives the new digital cultures emerging in Spain during the first two decades of the 21st century. Shaping and connecting an innovative series of creative, political, artistic, and social redes or networks, the emergence of new digital media has radically changed the cultural forms produced and circulated in Spain today. How do these different digital networks function, in what ways are these redes formed, and to what extent have they changed the material, ideological, and social ramifications of culture in the 21st century? The course explores a wide range of cultural materials specifically connected to particular redes or digital networks emerging in Spain in the last two decades. The materials studied will range from digital literatures--such as poetry (Alex Saum-Pascual), graphic novels (Fernandez Mallo), alternative forms of literary and cultural journalism--to music (Rosalia), visual arts (Varvara & Mar), cinema (Chus Gutierrez, digital shorts from notodofilmfest), as well as the generation of new forms of social activism (such as the #8M feminist movement) and alternative political communities (15-M). We will also examine in particular the role of new media platforms (YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook) in the contemporary production and circulation of digital culture. Students will have a strong, mandatory and graded oral component. Course taught in Spanish. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS BU: BA, HUM
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3214 Debating Cultures: Migration in the Spanish-Speaking World
In this course we will study how migration shapes and transforms societies, cultural products and practices in the Spanish-speaking world. We will explore questions pertaining to border crossing, displacement, identity, and community in different historical periods and in diverse geographical contexts. We will move chronologically and thematically and also pay close attention to the different ways in which our authors choose to tell their stories. The course is divided into 10 section that correspond to specific places, both real and imagined. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3215 Debating Cultures:Love, Actually: (Re)imagining Love in Latin American and Latinx Literature
If you are inclined to trust the polls, according to a worldwide survey conducted by Gallup in 2014, Latin Americans are the most emotional people on the planet. In this course we will test this assertion by critically exploring one of the most intense and complex of human emotions: love. We will look at multidimensional and contradictory facets of love-from passion, desire, and happiness to solitude, betrayal and revenge, from family blood ties to bonds of community and patriotism, from motherhood to miscegenation-as they are reimagined in a wide range of 20th and 21st century literary works, performances, films, artwork, music, and popular culture from across Latin American and Latinx diasporic communities. Love as affect and existential experience invariably intersects and becomes interwoven with such important dimensions of the socio-historical framework as ethnicity, class, gender, sexual identity, nationality, exile, and spirituality. In addition to poems, essays and short narratives by authors representing several Latin American countries and their diasporas (Neruda, Mistral, Quiroga, Storni, Benedetti, Garro, Castellanos, Fuentes, Morejón, Poniatowska, Ocampo, Borges, Cortázar, Bobes, Bahr, Vega Serova, Paz Soldán, Obejas, and Meruane, among others), we will examine academic research on the subject of love, blending insights from psychology, sociology, history, anthropology, religion studies, neuroscience, and philosophy. This focus on interdisciplinary approaches will encourage students to seek their own insights grounded in their experiences and areas of expertise and to perceive love as a complex human condition that encompasses a plurality of socio-cultural expressions and unique individual relationships. This course is conducted in Spanish and has a strong, mandatory and graded oral component. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3216 Debating Cultures: Afro-Latin Americans in Film and Television
This course explores the representation and self-representation of Latin Americans of African descent in film and television. We will discuss, among other things, slavery, race, politics of representation, agency, and Afro-Latin American culture, history, and religion. Students will learn to analyze filmic art. The course will have a strong, mandatory and graded oral component.Students will watch two films and have two short readings per week. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC BU: BA, HUM
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3217 Debating Cultures:Unveiling the Secrets of Fantasy, Magic, Mystery in Latin America
In this course we will explore a variety of Spanish American discourses (short fiction, essays, films, artwork) built around the unveiling of secrets, mystery, fantasy, and magic through the art of detection, whereby the reader or a viewer becomes engaged in the process of sleuthing, either alone or alongside the fictional figure of a detective. We will explore the creative and versatile ways in which Spanish American writers and artists make use of existing aesthetic paradigms-such as magical realism, literary gothic, fairy tales, science fiction, surrealism, film noir, and detective fiction, among others-as they adapt them to the diverse political, economic and socio-cultural realities of their countries. In many of these discourses, overarching themes of imagination, dreams, madness, criminality, and metaphysical search become intertwined with gendered sensibilities and heterogeneous perspectives profoundly embedded in socio-political realities. Some of the mysteries and crimes that often elude detection and punishment have to do with corruption and state-sanctioned violence, as it happens in the cases of systemic violence in Colombia, of the plight of the disappeared persons under the dictatorial regimes of the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile), or the systemic corruption surrounding narcotrafficking. Authors to be studied include Borges, Ocampo, Cardenal, Casey, Quiroga, Valenzuela, Cortázar, Rulfo, Paz Soldán, Téllez, García Márquez, Schweblin, Dávila, Vega Serova, Benítez Rojo, Bahr, and Enríquez, among others. This course is conducted in Spanish and has a strong, mandatory and graded oral component. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3218 Debating Cultures: Youth and Counterculture in South America
This course will explore South American cultures from their most provocative and insurgent expressions, lifestyles, and identities. Focusing on the Andes (Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia) and the South Cone (Chile, Argentina and Uruguay) regions, we will study a conjunction of cultural producers that used their rebellious nature as part of their art. How did they represent the youth of their societies? How did they respond to the status quo? How have they used the flows of globalization, media, and revolution? By exploring literature, music, cinema, and performance, we will discuss the sociopolitical impact of these works, which includes poetry performances to punk albums. In addition, we will emphasize the role of the youth as producers and consumers, as opposed to the politics of adults and institutions. By covering the long sixties to the present, this course will discuss the transformation of these movements and subcultures and how they impacted the sociocultural processes of their regions, both nationally and transnationally. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3219 Debating Cultures: Broken Promises and Resilient Bregas: Snapshots of Puerto Rican Culture
The end of WWII and the advent of the Cold War brought heightened global attention to the Caribbean. While Cubans rid themselves of the Batista dictatorship, embraced socialism, and entered the USSR's realm of influence, Puerto Rico's importance for the U.S. as a showcase of capitalist modernization increased exponentially. Bad Bunny and reggaeton, Lin Manuel Miranda, and JLo wouldn't exist without the events and policies set in motion in Puerto Rico in the 1950s and 60s. This course will offer entry points into Puerto Rico's complex and often contradictory culture, with the goal that students develop a critical understanding of the leading social, political, and historical processes that have shaped the island's cultural production over the past 70 years. We will explore topics such as colonialism and neocolonialism, migration and diasporic communities, environmental and social justice, globalization and neoliberalism, and the intersection of race, class, gender, and identity formation. We will study works from island-born and Puerto Rican Diaspora cultural producers. Materials will include short stories and poems, films, podcasts, pop culture and sports icons, comics, performances, and historical essays. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3220 Debating Cultures: How Spanish is Used
This course examines how the Spanish language is used in context with emphasis on variation across linguistic subsystems-the sound system (phonetics and phonology), vocabulary (lexis), sentences (morphosyntax), meaning (semantics), and language in use (pragmatics)-and Spanish applied linguistics. Module 1 includes a concise overview and review of basics about linguistics, Hispanic linguistics, the nature of each linguistic subsystem, the history of the Spanish language, and characteristics of present-day regional varieties of Spanish. Module 2 focuses on semantics and pragmatics, complemented by an exploration of variation in vocabulary throughout the Spanish-speaking world, such as how the English word popcorn may translate as palomitas, canguil, cancha, pochoclo, among various other options, depending on the Spanish-speaking region in question. Module 3 introduces students to sociolinguistics as applied to the Spanish-speaking world, beginning with key concepts such as sociolinguistic variable and concluding with student-led analyses of samples of Spanish day-to-day interactions, emphasizing the legitimacy and value of variation in light of what might be relegated as standard. Module 4 explores a selection of other areas of Spanish applied linguistics, which include teaching Spanish as a second or heritage language and dual immersion programs with Spanish and English in the United States. Students in the course are provided with opportunities to improve their own abilities in Spanish, such as regarding context-appropriate usage, and to apply their knowledge in practical ways to a range of issues and challenges related to the Spanish language today.Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, LS, SSC, SC Art: SSC EN: S
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3221 Debating Cultures: Media, Materiality and Cultural Production in Greater Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico
This course is an invitation to explore the complex mediatic landscape of Greater Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century. What did an early Spanish-language press look like in the United States? What are the connections it holds with the United Farm Workers publications later in the twentieth century? How did these publications interact with other platforms, such as Spanish-language radio? What are the political and cultural implications of hearing or seeing in the present-day militarized border zone? These are just some of the questions that we will collectively attempt to answer as we approach the cultural and artistic practices of the region. The course will deal with print, visual and aural culture, and you will have the chance to explore material such as Spanish-language newspapers, border ballads, radio, performance art, digital art and activism, among many others. We will discuss issues like ethnic identity, language, race, citizenship and gender, as they intersect with cultural production and its mediality. Moreover, you will become familiar with transnational frameworks for the study of culture, critically engaging with the work of border studies exponents such as Gloria Anzaldu'a and Ame'rico Paredes. This overarching approximation of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is meant to encourage a comprehensive understanding of the cultural processes of the borderlands: its fluctuations, as well as the continuities it maintains with present-day border culture. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3222 Debating Cultures: Poetics of Extinction: Extraction, Violence, and Possible Futures in Latin Americ
The increasing anxiety regarding multiple axes of violence has become a major referent for contemporary literature across Latin America. While there are international discussions and treaties to reduce our carbon footprint on the planet and deliver a livable space for the future generations, the landscape seems to be completely different for countries that depend on the extraction of fossil fuels and other resources to move their economies. This course aims to be a window to some of the ways in which contemporary writers are portraying and criticizing the duality of extraction and violence that leads to extinction, and some of the possible futures they propose while we develop our own possibilities with their help. Here, the idea is that we will see extinction in a broader sense looking at efforts to erase, suppress, and control in the name of consumerism and individual enrichment. We will explore the relationship between the extraction and usage of natural resources, the harm caused onto human and non-human bodies, and the physical, emotional, and economical violence women and other feminized individuals suffer. Some of the topics we are going to engage with include indigeneity and sovereignty, environmental and social justice, ecofeminism and ecocriticism, neoliberalism, counter-market literary practices, technology, and the overall intersection of gender, class, and race through the intertwined triad of capitalism, coloniality, and patriarchy. Materials will include short stories, poems, music, films, podcasts, performances, and essays. Among the authors to be studied, we include Isabel Zapata, Liliana Colanzi, Verónica Gerber Bicecci, Lorena Cabnal, Yásnaya Aguilar Gil, Verónica Gago, Gabriela Damián Miravete, Julieta Paredes, Daniela L. Guzmán, Cristina Rivera Garza, Gladys Tzul Tzul, and others. This course will have a strong, mandatory, and graded oral communications component and is taught in Spanish.Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3223 Debating Cultures:Art of Recycling: Remix, Appropriation, & Eco-Narratives in Latin America & Spain
Some of the most disruptive and controversial artistic and literary works of the 20th and 21st centuries reuse previous materials and known works. These practices of recycling and appropriation have reopened great theoretical and socioeconomic debates: Is it ethical to create a work of art by recycling parts of other works? In these times of remakes and remixes, what gives originality and value to a work of art today? What are the legal limits of appropriation and intellectual property? In our course, we will discuss these questions by analyzing a varied corpus (music, cinema, literature, photography, and other plastic and visual arts) of contemporary works and authors that are recycling the canon and rewriting the current laws of how art and literature work in the Latin American and Spanish context. At the same time, the importance of the aesthetics of recycling coincides with a historical moment in which the ecological crisis is at the center of public debate. For this reason, we will also analyze how Climate and Weird Fiction in Spanish are creating ecological narratives to denounce, among other topics, the extractivism of the planet's resources and propose new sustainable ways of relating to our environment. This course will have an important practical dimension, so students will have the opportunity to experiment with different forms of artistic intervention. The course will be taught entirely in Spanish, with a strong and graded oral communication component. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3224 Debating Cultures: Race, Migration, and Coloniality in Mediterranean Crossings
Taking as a point of departure the cultural and religious diversity of medieval Iberia, this course takes a postcolonial approach to the study of migrant cultures in contemporary Spain. The course studies migrants both as objects of representation and as producers of culture. From filmmakers to literary writers, thinkers on both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar produce narratives about migration that invite us to reflect upon how immigrant communities are racialized, how religion becomes entangled with far-right politics, and how Spain's colonial legacies shape immigrants' lives. The materials studied include film (Chus Gutiérrez) and literary texts (Najat el Hachmi). As part of the course, students will discuss the interplay of cultural production, history, and politics. Students will be encouraged to think about the relevance, and limits of, prevailing and emerging concepts such as Orientalism (Said), andalucismo (Hirschkind), migration studies, and Mediterranean studies. This course will have a strong writing and oral communication component. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3225 Debating Cultures: Escritoras, Guerrilleras Y Artivistas: Central American Womens Legacy in Art and
Debating Cultures: Escritoras, guerrilleras y artivistas: Central American Women's Legacy in Art and Politics. This course will examine Central American history through the lens of women's struggles and their literary and artistic production. The class will start with readings from Marxist writers like Carmen Lyra and proto-feminists who contributed to the prestigious journal Repertorio Americano. The students will be introduced to Prudencia Ayala, the first Latin American woman presidential candidate and her political platform. They will also learn about women's contributions to revolutionary culture during the twentieth-century civil wars, such as testimonio and participation as war reporters. Finally, we will discuss contemporary artivism forms such as music, performance, visual art, and Central American film. We will investigate the causes and motivations for women's struggles and creative political participation. The course will be taught entirely in Spanish, with a strong and graded oral communication component. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3226 Debating Cultures: Gender and Feminism in Contemporary Latin American Fiction
This course will explore the innovative feminist theory and fiction written by Latin American women and feminine-identifying writers in the twenty-first century. We will read and debate a broad range of texts together to think critically about how gender is represented in fiction and to practice doing feminist or gender-focused readings of literary works. During the first part of the class, we will explore major contemporary trends in Latin American feminisms, examining their key themes and differences and using their insights to analyze and critique the ways gender categories are constructed and mobilized in society. We will then transition to reading fiction, using the critical tools we have developed through reading and discussion to analyze the content and form of novels and short narratives. These stories will help us open a dialogue about how gender and feminist concepts are represented in fiction and intersected by dynamics of race, class, sexuality, memory, violence, family, care, and identity. By the end of our course, you will have the skills and conceptual foundation necessary to craft, write, and present your own original analysis of a fictional text through the lens of gender and/or feminism, and to apply these approaches to any literary or artistic work you may encounter outside the classroom. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3227 Debating Cultures: Afrodescendants in Comic Books and Graphic Novels
This course will explore the representation of people of African descent in comic books and graphic novels from Spain and Latin America. These will include comic books about Afro-Latin Americans and black Spaniards as well as comic books and graphic novels by black artists and writers from these regions. Students will learn how to engage academically with these two literary genres while reading and conducting research about the histories and cultures of Afrodescendants in the Iberian world. Topics of discussion will include: race, slavery, representation, and black resistance. Prior or concurrent enrollment in Spanish 303 is required. Students who have taken more than two Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Researching Cultures class.
SPAN 3310 Hispanic Art/Arte Hispano
This course focuses on the most important movements, artistic expressions and its representatives of the art history of Latin America and Spain. From the Pre-Columbian art of the Mayas, Aztecs and Incas, to the syncretism of Post-colonial Latin American art, the Mexican Muralism and the self-reconstruction portraits of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo to the Chicano Art in the U.S.A. From the Medieval paintings of religious Spain, to the criticism of the Spanish nobility by Diego Velazquez, the Spanish Civil War of Guernica by Pablo Picasso, to the Surrealism of Salvador Dalí and Antonio Gaudi. The students will visit the St. Louis and the Kemper Art Museums. Prereq: Span 303 or 308E. In Spanish.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3501 Undergraduate Seminar in Spanish Literature and Culture
Taught in Spanish. Topics vary. Can be repeated for credit. This course can be counted as one of the three surveys required to obtain a Spanish major. Prereq: Span 307D; concurrent registration in Span 308E is recommended. SECTION 01. SPANISH-AMERICAN SHORT NOVEL. Study of the twentieth-century short novel in Spanish America. Authors include Bombal, Bioy Casares, Hernández, Castellanos, Fuentes, García Márquez, Ferré, Valenzuela, del Río. SECTION 02.THE SPANISH SHORT STORY DURING THE PAST FIFTY YEARS. An explosion of story-tellers: the rise and fall and rebirth of a genre. This course reviews a half century of short fiction in Spain, emphasizing the works written since 1970. We will focus on the most significant, representative movements in relation to their historical and social contexts. Writers studied include Camilo José Cela, Miguel Delibes, Ignacio Aldecoa, Ana María Matute, Carmen Martín Gaite, Juan Benet, José María Merino, Luis Mateo Díez, Esther Tusquets, Cristina Fernández Cubas, Soledad Puértolas, Javier Marías, Antonio Muñoz Molina and Marina Mayoral. Paper, mid-term and final exams. SECTION 03. EARLY MODERN SPANISH TEXTS: WHOSE GOLDEN AGE DO THEY REPRESENT? This course studies a series of works from sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Spain canonized by later readers as classics of national Spanish literature, whose original audiences viewed them as comical, even subversive experiments that went beyond the limits of known literary forms to incorporate discourses of material experience, revealing the decadent underside of imperial Spain's so-called Golden Age. Includes the LAZARILLO DE TORMES, FUENTEOVEJUNA, selections from DON QUIJOTE, and other readings. Satisfies the 300-level literature survey requirement for the Spanish major and minor.
SPAN 3510 Business Spanish
Study of language and structures used in conducting business in the Hispanic world. Actual materials from various businesses--advertising, marketing, real estate, accounting--used. Particular stress on speaking and writing. Prereq: Span 308E, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3530 Medical Spanish
Designed for future medical professionals, this course will provide students with a complete vocabulary and cultural sensitivity necessary for treating Spanish-speaking patients. While the main focus is oral/aural, written exams, varied reading and some research are required. Volunteer work recommended for enrolled students. Advanced students will be given priority.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
SPAN 3550 Spanish for the Social Sciences
This is an advanced Spanish language course designed to develop conversational, writing and listening skills for students in the social sciences. Students will learn and use the language in a content-based format, guided by culturally sensitive readings, discussions and activities. Prereq: Spanish 307D or 302. In Spanish.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3600 Researching Cultures: Film and Dictatorship in Argentina and Chile
In this course, we will explore the methods by which filmmakers from the Southern Cone of Latin America used film to engage, document, and remember the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s.We will look at the development of protest cinema in the area, the use of documentary filmmaking and resistance, navigating censorship, and the use of film as a nation's memory as we study films for which directors and actors risked (and sometimes lost) their lives. We will accompany our study of film with historical readings, reports on human rights abuses, and theories on memory and trauma. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded written communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts & Sciences students. Prerequisite: Span 303 or Span 308D, and one (or preferably two) of the following: Span 341, Span 342, Span 343, Span 370, Span 380 or Debating Cultures. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3604 Researching Cultures: Making Latin America Popular
Despacito, futbol, telenovelas: All of these are forms of Latin American popular culture that are increasingly part of our everyday reality here in the United States. All are also inseparable from stories of inequality, ethnic tensions and celebrations, understandings of gender relations, and notions of hope that blend ideas of nation with cultural consumption. While popular culture in Latin America is often considered a contemporary phenomenon linked to the 20th century and the mass production of cultural goods -- film, books, and music -- it has deeper roots. We can trace these back to the 19th century, where people, cultural processes, and phenomena literally began making Latin America popular. This course will survey the emergence and variety of modern popular culture in Latin America, from the 1800s to the present. Readings may include best sellers, gaucho poetry, stories of urban life and folk heroes, and materials engaging themes from dictatorship to contemporary Latinx experiences. We will learn about the intersections between race, nation, and music; explore the emotional and political power of futbol, along with the intense gender divisions it reveals; and delve into the appeal of telenovelas across socioeconomic divides. Historical and anthropological essays will also guide us throughout the semester. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded written communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts & Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3605 Researching Cultures: Latin American Women Travelers
When we talk about adventurers, explorers, or travelers, we tend to imagine them embodied in a masculine figure. In this course, we will focus on the limits of this idea of travel, analyzing travel as a gendered and racialized experience. Throughout the semester, we will study different types of mobility, travel, and travel literature created by Latin American women from the 19th century to the present, debunking the stereotypes of female immobility and immanence. From the Peruvian rabonas to the Mexican Revolution's soldaderas, from pleasure trips to forced exiles, we will read and examine the writings of Flora Tristan, Clorinda Matto de Turner, Victoria Ocampo, Clarice Lispector, Circe Maia, Cristina Peri Rossi, Samanta Schweblin, Cristina Rivera Garza, and Valeria Luiselli, among others. These different travelogues will serve as the basis for discussing the complexities of gender, race and social class in relation to travel, nation and literature. We will also discuss different theoretical approaches, seeking to deepen and enrich our academic writing in the Spanish language. In this course, students will write two short compositions and a final research composition on the topic of their choice related to the course content. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded written communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts & Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3610 Researching Cultures: The Black Parade: Black Social Movements in Columbia & Peru, 1960s to Present
This course is a conceptual and thematic exploration of Black social movements in Colombia and Peru from the 1960s to present. Learners will explore topics such as Black Consciousness, Black Women's Rights, civil conflicts and drug conflicts, land rights, environmental justice, genocides against Black activists, Black Lives Matter, forced and quasi-voluntary displacements, as well as COVID-19, among others. The course not only highlights the widespread resistance by Blacks against systemic racism and inequality but also movements that celebrate Blackness and the curation of Black representation in countries that have intentionally made Black bodies invisible. Through an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach in an inclusive and co-collaborative environment, learners will analyze, understand, and juxtapose multiple (trans)national movements centering on the dimensions of race, gender, and class in order to productively discuss Afro-Latin American history, culture, and politics. Although this course is focused on writing, research and instructor feedback, learners will have the opportunity to engage bi-weekly with articles, videos, music, children's books, poetry, performances, films, and much more. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded written communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts & Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, ETH, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3611 Researching Cultures: Urban Iberian Cultures -- Barcelona and Madrid
In this course, we will explore the various urban cultures of two paradigmatic cities in the Iberian Peninsula: Barcelona and Madrid. This is a research-focused course that examines from interdisciplinary and collaborative perspectives the urban spaces and cultures that have shaped the life of the dwellers of these two key cities, both across time and with a focus on the contemporary moment. While the founding of the city of Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, dates back to the Roman empire (i.e., the first century BCE), the city of Madrid, the capital of Spain, was established during the 15th century around a small fortification developed during Al-Andalus, soon becoming the political center of the Spanish Empire during the 16th century. Through an examination of the urban development of both cities across time and the various contemporary urban spaces and cultures of the 21st century, this course will explore the ways in which writers (Jorge Carrion, Belen Gopegui, Julio Llamazares), musicians (Joan Manuel Serrat, Rosalia), visual artists (Pablo Picasso, Cristina Garcia Rodero, Angeles Santos Torroella), filmmakers (Jose Luis Guerin, Isabel Coixet, Chus Gutierrez) and architects (Juan de Villanueva, Antoni Gaudi) have reflected on and explored through their work in both cities. We will also explore the political and social relevance of both cities today as related to their own urban planning and development as well as their political relevance in both Catalonia and Spain as a whole. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded written communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts & Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3612 Researching Cultures: Afterlives, Ghosts, and Haunted Places
In this course, we will examine the historical, cultural and aesthetic implications of how different artists, filmmakers, and writers approach the afterlife in the Spanish-speaking world. We will explore experiences and emotions that can be deeply personal and intimate as well as shared and lived out in public. We will discuss how practices and beliefs vary widely across the Spanish-speaking world and explore how traditions and rituals are invented and how these change over time. While our readings will include a few works from earlier periods, most of the texts stem from the 20th and 21st centuries, allowing us also to examine a number of historical events and their depiction in history and memory. We will discuss the ways in which grief, mourning, and trauma relate to identity and belonging, and we will also pay close attention to coping mechanisms that range from forgetting to humor. The last section of the course will focus on a specific case study of public mourning and remembrance: the Spanish Civil War and its multiple afterlives. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded written communications component, and it is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts & Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3613 Researching Cultures: The Paradoxes of Contemporary Cuba: The Good, the Bad, and the In-Between
In the wake of such momentous events as president Obama's visit to Cuba (March 2016), Fidel Castro's death (November 2017) and the end of Raul Castro's presidency (April 2018), for many Americans the island has advanced from the category of a forbidden and exotic fruit to a full-fledged reality. Now is a good time to ask not only What is next for Cuba? but also What can we learn from Castro's revolutionary experiments? This course explores from interdisciplinary perspectives the paradoxes of Cuban lives on the island and in the diaspora-the good, the bad and the in-between-along with the intertwined histories of the United States and Cuba. Using a combination of literary texts (Carpentier, Cabrera Infante, Ponte, Bobes, Obejas, Morejón, Padura), films (Strawberry and Chocolate, Guantanamera, The Promise, The New Art of Making Ruins), artwork (Mendieta, Bruguera, Garaicoa), political speeches, and unique visual materials compiled by the instructor throughout her many research trips to Cuba, we will look at the island's contemporary reality through the lens of its colonial and postcolonial past. Topics include ethnic and gender identities, the history of slavery and plantation economy, the myths of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, African-Cuban spirituality, popular music, political oppression and dissent, and the interplay of migration and exile, along with multiple perspectives on everyday life (foreign tourism, food rationing, dual-currency economy, restoration of colonial Course description: Havana, education, and healthcare). Due to the interdisciplinary perspectives inherent to this course, students will have an opportunity to engage their knowledge of and interest in disciplines outside the humanities (including but not limited to: public health, law, political science, urban studies, anthropology) in the exploration of Cuba's past, present, and future. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded written communications component and is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3614 Researching Cultures: Iberian Feminisms
This course will examine the development and transformations of feminist thought in the Iberian Peninsula, from the Enlightenment to the present, considering a diverse array of literary and cultural production (narrative fiction, poetry, essay, press accounts, film and visual culture) by women. We will consider not only the challenges faced by women cultural producers, given their social, legal, and historical circumstances, but also the strategies they used to negotiate their participation in the public sphere as writers, intellectuals, social reformers and activists. We will explore, from an intersectional perspective, the unique perspectives these women brought to their work, as they address pressing social, political, and cultural issues pertaining to their place in society, such as citizenship, suffragism, equal rights, divorce, gender violence, personal and political freedom, racial justice, among others. We will consider works of Enlightenment thinkers such as Josefa Amar y Borbón, representing the beginnings of a modern feminist consciousness in Iberia; Romantic writers (Coronado, Gómez de Avellaneda), who, under the impact of liberalism, were key to shaping new models of subjectivity for women; nineteenth-century (proto)feminists and social reformers of the fin-de-siècle (Pardo Bazán, Gimeno de Flaquer, Arenal); early twentieth-century suffragists and freethinkers (Carmen de Burgos, Campoamor, Hildegart); and feminist writers and filmmakers of the post-Franco era (Montero, Riera, Bollaín, Taberna) and women representing the diverse diasporic communities of 21st-century Spain (El Hachmi, Bela-Lobedde, Mbomio Rubio, Quanzhou Wu). Course assignments will consist of short essays, a book report, and a final project. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3615 Researching Cultures: Leisure and Urban Entertainment in Latin America
How do we define leisure or free time? Who can experience it? Can we choose which activities to perform in our free time? By establishing a dynamic dialogue between leisure/free time and other notions such as play, labor, inequality, alienation, and consumption, we will approach Latin America's urban entertainment scene from the end of the nineteenth century to the present. Beginning with the incorporation of the region into the global economic networks, we will trace the trajectory of the concept of leisure/free time to reflect on socio-political issues such as migration, gender, race, and social class. We will examine historical landmarks alongside examples of urban entertainment: from street celebrations, mass media, and soccer games, to social networks and virtual platforms in a pandemic scenario. Even though this course is mainly focused on Argentina and Uruguay, we will also have the opportunity to study cases from other parts of Latin America. This course will have a strong, mandatory and graded written communications component and is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Students who have completed four or more Spanish surveys (including Researching Cultures and the ones mentioned before) may not take this class and must proceed to the 400-level.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3616 Researching Cultures: Imagining the Andes
Taking Peru and Bolivia as case studies, this course explores the Andean region's cultures by examining the interactions between global, national, and indigenous cultures. We will study six main topics: indigenous peoples and state-formation; peasant revolutions; internal and transnational migration; memory and political violence; racialization and coloniality; and extractive capitalism and indigenous thinking (Buen Vivir). We will explore these issues while learning about the region's major historical transformation between the 1900s and the present. Course materials include oral histories, myths, literature, film, photography, music, and social media. Authors studied include Jose Maria Arguedas, Claudia Llosa, Yuyachkani, Anibal Quijano, Jorge Sanjines, and Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui. This course fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar. In Spanish.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3617 Researching Cultures: Representations of Childhood in the Spanish-Speaking World
This course examines the construct of childhood in the Spanish-speaking world from an interdisciplinary perspective. We will explore the aesthetic, cultural, sociopolitical, and legal implications of a variety of media, about and/or for children. The course is divided into three thematic units. The first will delve into the pedagogical, nation-building and moral projects that underpin the development of children's literatures in the Hispanic world. The second focuses on children in the midst of crises, where we will turn our attention to issues of child labor, migration, poverty, public health, the environment, as well as economic and political crises that lay bare the inherent vulnerabilities of children. We will also familiarize ourselves with the work of a variety organizations that aim to mitigate child suffering and develop social awareness about the treatment and living conditions of children. The third unit centers around media and the child consumer, where we will explore the effects of social media, the advertising and marketing of food, games and toys, as well as a variety of other issues that affect children's emotional and psychosocial development. Some of the texts and films we will study include Ismaelillo and a selection of La edad de oro by José Martí, Cuentos pintados y morales by Rafael Pombo, Perico trepa por Chile by Alicia Morel, a selection of poems by Rubén Darío, Sólo un pie descalzo by Ana María Matute, Los herederos by Eugenio Polgovsky, Voces inocentes by Luis Mandoki and Entre nos by Gloria La Morte and Paola Mendoza. Additional materials include newspaper articles, podcasts and songs. This course fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar. In Spanish. 3 units.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3618 Researching Cultures: Cultural Revolutions in Central America
Central American region has been invisible and stigmatized as the most violent and unequal of the continent. Nevertheless, these seven countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panamá and Belice) have a complicated history of creativity and cultural struggles related to indigenous people, national identity, revolution, Cold War, postwar and peace times, and transnational migration. This course will explore some of these topics through the lenses of cultural revolutions in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, in the context of the Cold War. Attention will be given to the articulation of culture and politics. We will study a wide range of media products and performances, such as rock songs, painting, folkloric music, radio streaming, street theater, testimony genre, literature, and film. In addition, we will discuss the engagement of writers and public intellectuals such as Ernesto Cardenal, Daysi Zamora, Roque Dalton, and Gioconda Belli to the revolutionary process in Latin America and the interplay between political mass mobilization and radical resistance. This course fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar. In Spanish.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, HUM, IS
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3619 Researching Cultures: Graphic Latin America
This course examines the visual, affective and linguistic registers that graphic novels, comics and illustrations have used in Latin America to represent popular desire, enjoyment and resistance. We will challenge traditional perceptions of graphic formats as minor literature and we will delve into the relationship between popular consumption and structural changes in Latin American countries. Some of the questions that would lead the units are: Is there a specific storytelling attached to graphic narratives? What are the cognitive and perceptual challenges that graphic texts pose to the readers? What do we mean when we talk about Latin America Graphic Fiction? What does it mean to read massive texts? Can reception have a transformative power in Latin American societies? The genres analyzed include memoirs, political satire, parodies, science fiction and radical zines. This course fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Prereq. Spanish 303 or 308E, and one (or preferably two) of the following: 341, 342, 343, 370, 380 or Debating Cultures. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar. In Spanish. 3 units. This course fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3620 Researching Cultures: Politics of Melodrama in Latin America: From Serialized Novels to Telenovelas
This course explores the social and political history of melodrama in Latin America. We will discuss the role that melodrama has had within Latin American media following a long-term chronological approach that begins with nineteenth-century serialized novels (folletín) and ends with recent streaming television. As a language of emotions and familiarity, Latin American melodrama has been a key tool to reflect on the most important social and political issues, from mid-twentieth century populisms to globalization, from modernization to the human rights abuses of the 1970s' dictatorships. Thus, in this course we will delve into the political power of tears and smiles. The course will address the uses of melodrama in print media, radio, cinema, and television, in order to explore how the melodramatic imagination shaped the experience of modernity in the region and allowed Latin American audiences to deal with issues of class inequality, gender roles, sexuality, national identities, and racism. Course materials may include tango albums, 1940's Argentine and Mexican films, Cuban radionovela El derecho de nacer, Manuel Puig's novel El beso de la mujer araña [Kiss of the Spider Woman], as well as telenovelas from Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina. As part of the course, students will engage in active research on the interplay of politics and melodrama in contemporary Latin American media. This course fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar. In Spanish.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI BU: BA, HUM, IS EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3621 Researching Cultures: NOT a Piece of Cake: Culinary Crossroads of Latin American Cultures
This course explores from interdisciplinary perspectives the intersectional, transdisciplinary and cross-cultural dimensions of food in the Hispanic cultures of South and Central America, the Caribbean, and their respective (Latinx) diasporas. Using a combination of literary texts, artwork, testimonials, films, and scholarly articles, we will look at food, both as material commodity and metaphor, through the lens of Hispanic America's colonial and postcolonial past. Some topics include ethnic and gender identities, the history of enslavement and plantation economy (sugar, coffee), African-descendant and Indigenous spirituality as it pertains to food rituals, interplay of migration and exile in culinary transformations, along with multiple perspectives on everyday life (hunger, diets and dieting, food rationing, etc.). Due to the interdisciplinary perspectives inherent to this course, students will have an opportunity to engage their knowledge of and interest in disciplines outside the humanities (including but not limited to: sociology, psychology, public health, anthropology, global studies) in the exploration of food/gastronomy/culinary cultures, past, present, and future. This course has a substantial, mandatory and graded written communications component and is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Prereq. Spanish 303 and at least one Debating Cultures (32XX). Students who have taken more than four Spanish Debating/Researching classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar (4XX).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3622 Researching Cultures: The Stuff of Legends: Remembering and Recreating the Past in the Hispanic Wor
Researching Cultures: The Stuff of Legends: Remembering and Recreating the Past in the Hispanic World. In this course we will study various versions of some of the most memorable legends that populate the imagination of Hispanic people in both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. We will study these narratives as they have evolved through time, depending on the contexts and media on which they are told, and we will compare their written versions with their transformations into plays, movies, comics and artistic renderings. To inspire our discussions, we will use the support of some key theories both past and present about emotions, and how these can contribute to our ability to memorize and retrieve the stories we love to remember. This course has a substantial, mandatory, and graded written communications component and is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Prereq. Spanish 303 and at least one Debating Cultures (32XX). Students who have taken more than four Spanish Debating/Researching classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar (4XX).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3623 Researching Cultures: Decolonial Imaginaries in Latinx Cultures
Latinx-typically defined as the Latin American descendant and migrant populations settled in the US-is a hotly contested category and a fast-growing presence in US cultural and political life. In this course, we will examine cultural productions: literature, film, television, popular music, and more, to interrogate and attempt to understand the contours of Latinx experience. We will consider questions such as: what is the relationship of Latinx identity to language, migration, colonialism, labor, borders, race, ethnicity, and sexuality? How do race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexualities, citizenship, geography, and imperialism work with or push against Latinx identification? We will also consider the role of shared histories of coloniality in Latin America have on the formation of Latinx identity in the United States. Is there a shared decolonial impetus in Latinx cultural forms? Using an interdisciplinary lens, we will analyze how Latinx identities are imagined and produced through culture, and what they offer Latin American and US American cultural traditions as they push against multiple colonial orders. This course is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Prereq. Spanish 303 and at least one Debating Cultures (32XX). Students who have taken more than four Spanish Debating/Researching classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar (4XX).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3624 Researching Cultures: Afro-Central American Literature and Culture
While Afro-Latin Studies have flourished in other regions of Latin America, Afrodescendants and their contributions in Central America have been submerged in a deep mutism. Some countries, such as El Salvador, have gone as far as to officially deny the presence of Afrodescendants in the nation while others characterize Afro-Central Americans as an anomaly or as foreign. Nonetheless, Afro-Central Americans possess a long, rich and complex history within the region which although often denied, is very much present. This course introduces students to the contemporary literature and culture of people of African descent in Central America in their attempts to visibilize themselves, rescue their history and to properly represent their roots and culture. We will analyze how this history and culture is represented in the literature of authors such as Gerardo Maloney from Panama, Xiomara Cacho Caballero from Honduras, Isabel Estrada Colindres from Nicaragua, and Wingston Gonzalez from Guatemala, to name a few. In addition, students will also have the opportunity to engage with music, podcasts, art and films which feature and/or are produced by self-identifying Afro-Central Americans. This course has a substantial, mandatory and graded written communications component and is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Prereq. Spanish 303 and at least one Debating Cultures (32XX). Students who have taken more than four Spanish Debating/Researching classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar (4XX).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3625 Researching Cultures: Cumbia Culture in Latin America
This course explores the social impact of cumbia culture in Latin American lifestyles. Why has this music genre become a staple of Latin American countries? How does this music genre interact with the social, ethnic, and economical issues of the region(s)? By looking at cumbia as a transnational phenomenon, we will study how this genre interacted with different contexts and countries, such as Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and the United States. We will explore the multiple cultural practices related to this culture, including music production, visual imagery, identities, parties, and dance. Our material includes music, album covers, video footage, and films, starting from the sixties to the present. From these productions, students will develop research essays using academic sources and methodologies from the cultural discussions of the classes with the guidance of the instructor. This course will have a strong, mandatory, and graded written communications component and is taught in Spanish. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3626 Researching Cultures- Curatorial Mexico: Unfolding Heritage Through Curatorial Practice
This course will get us immersed in Mexico's rich cultural heritage through the perspective of curatorial practice as dispersed throughout its myriad museums, heritage sites, and everyday spaces. We will focus on curatorial discourse as a unique form of communication, a genre in itself that is often understated on the role it plays in shaping, shifting, and contesting cultural and social identities. We will analyze how curatorial language inhabits not only writing but visual culture, speech, heritage collections, gallery installations, and even architecture, fashion, and food. We will discuss how the instability of curatorial discourse reveals the instability and contradictions within cultural heritage itself, deceivingly presented constantly as a neutral, unchangeable, and unquestionable entity. The materials and reflections in this course will ponder on cultural heritage as inevitably curated, discern the forms and implications of such mediation, and study curatorial practice and the trade of the curator as a form of agency that should aim to be ethical, inclusive, collaborative, and always challenged and renewed. We will work with a wide variety of materials from the early 20th century to contemporary Mexico that range from gallery and museum texts to political speeches, mass-media dispatches, literary texts, scholarly research, critical essays, interviews, fiction, magazine articles, manifestos, fashion statements, food menus, and architecture. These will lead us to reflect on how curatorial practice is a dynamic tool for understanding, renewing, preserving, and sometimes defying cultural heritage and what it stands for at different times and for different people. *This course has a substantial, mandatory and graded written communications component and is taught in Spanish. It also fulfills the Writing Intensive (WI) requirement for Arts and Sciences students. Students who have taken more than four Spanish Debating/Researching classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar (4XX).
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 3650 Researching Cultures: Cultural Geographies of the Hispanic World
This course provides students with an overview of the cultural history of various regions of the Hispanic World, considering its global, transatlantic, hemispheric, national, and regional formations through print, visual, and sonic media and genres. Taking the multilayered tension between power and resistance as a conceptual framework, the course explores four key cultural geographies: the colonial space, the national space, the migrant space, and the natural space. Each cultural geography maps the oppositional forces that have shaped various regions of the Hispanic World since Western colonial expansion: colonialism and decolonial thinking, melting pot utopias and ethnic communities, revolution and the State, modernity, race, and gender identities, and extractivismo and ecological dissidence. Materials include films, songs, short stories, poetry, comics, and digital culture.This is a writing-intensive course. Students who have taken more than four Spanish culture or literature classes are not allowed in this course and must proceed to a Major Seminar.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 3660 Researching Cultures: Sociolinguistics of the Spanish-Speaking World
This course provides an introduction to the basic concepts in sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics focuses on the symbolic value of language as an expression of group identity based on region, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, age, or other ways of defining group affiliation. Notions such as speech community, sociolinguistic variable, phonological and syntactic variation, and field methods will be included. The course also surveys other related topics such as language in contact, bilingualism and Spanish in the United States, Spanish as a heritage language, language attitudes and language identity, and language and the law. We will focus on research examining the use of Spanish in Latin America, Spain, and the United States.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 3996 Spanish Elective: 3000-Level
This course is used for transcribing 3000 level SPAN elective units.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer
SPAN 3999 Independent Study
Prereq: permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 4000 Intensive Translation for Graduate Students I
Designed to help graduate students in the humanities, social and natural sciences fulfill their Ph.D. language requirement, this is the first part of a two-semester course sequence in reading and translating Spanish. Non-graduate students may enroll with permission of the department. Must be followed by Span 401.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
SPAN 4010 Intensive Translation for Graduate Students II
Designed to help graduate students in the humanities, social and natural sciences fulfill their Ph.D. language requirement, this is the second part of a two-semester course sequence in reading and translating Spanish. Non-graduate students may enroll with permission of the department. Credit for Span 400 is contingent on completion of Span 401.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Summer
SPAN 4050 Major Seminar
An undergraduate seminar. Topics vary. This is a writing-intensive course, which requires a minimum of 3 papers of approx. 4-5 pp. length, with rewrites; 50% of the grade must come from written work. In Spanish.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 4070 Seminar in Spain: Cultural Encounters
The Spanish, Latinos, and non-hispanic North American vis-vis the Other. Designed to study the historical and ideological bases of attitudes and mutual perceptions that inform these three cultures' understanding of each other. Analysis of literary and extra-literary representations of the three identities in question will teach students to think critically about the cultural, religious, and political foundations of intercultural perceptions. Washington University students' experiences living in Spain will provide a context for them to examine their own attitudes about hispanidad, as well as to learn about their own cultures (American, latino) as they are understood from abroad. Study of theoretical concepts of identity, ethnicity, minority, gender, culture, and intercultural communication will enable students to participate in practical discussions based on observation and experience with an objective, critical understanding of how they perceive and are perceived by others. Fulfills 400-level literature course requirement for the Spanish major. Prereq: Span 307D, Span 308E and two 300-level literature surveys or the equivalent in Spanish. Course taught in Madrid, Spain, through the Washington University Madrid Program.
Credit 3 units.
SPAN 4100 Major Seminar
In this course we will try to understand how some of the most famous Spanish short stories ever told have been used more than once not only to entertain their listeners and readers, but to drill certain messages and ideas in their minds. Many of the stories we will study were preserved through oral tradition, long before they were put into writing; others were not so old, but they all have something in common: they were chosen, used and preserved because they were useful and unforgettable. The two most important questions we will try to answer here, with the help of some recent discoveries in the fields of the neurosciences and the study of emotions, are the following: Why were they unforgettable? And how were the characteristics that made them unforgettable used to modify the minds of those who received them either orally or in written form? To answer these questions, we will analyze a selection of short stories taken from some of the most important collections of the Spanish Middle Ages: DISCIPLINA CLERICALIS, SENDEBAR, CALILA ET DIMNA, CATIGOS E DOCUMENTOS DEL REY DON SANCHO, EL CONDE LUCANOR, the LIBRO DE BUEN AMOR, the LIBRO DE LOS GATOS, and the LIBRO DE LOS EXEMPLOS POR A.B.C.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 4110 Spanish Grammar and Syntax
This course presents a detailed study of Spanish syntax. Different theories (including generative theory) as well as the relationship between (morpho) syntax and other linguistic subsystems are considered. Special attention is also given to Spanish/English contrasts of particular interest to language learners and teachers. Prerequisite: Any one Researching Cultures course
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 4160 Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics
An introduction to the scientific study of the Spanish language, this course focuses on each of the major linguistic subsystems, including the sound system (phonetics and phonology), word formation (morphology), formation of phrases and sentences (syntax), and the use of the language to convey meaning (semantics and pragmatics). At each level of analysis, selected comparisons are made between Spanish and English and between Spanish and other languages. The course also examines different historical, regional, and social varieties of Spanish and situations of Spanish in contact with other languages. Preceptorial for undergraduates only.
SPAN 4170 Spanish Phonetics, Phonology, and Dialectology
This course, conducted in Spanish, explores the linguistic varieties of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries from both a historical and a synchronic perspective. The course begins with a traditional look at Spanish phonetics and phonology, with all students memorizing and utilizing the International Phonetic Alphabet. Course readings and discussions extend beyond the descriptive and include a search for the sources of language variation within the Spanish speaking world. Particular attention is devoted to language contact and bilingualism. Students will read in areas such as history, sociolinguistics, dialectology, and sociology, as well as traditional linguistic studies, in designing their projects concerning phonetics, phonology and dialect diversification.
SPAN 4670 Grammar and Vocabulary Acquisition
This course examines theoretical and instructional implications of research on grammar and vocabulary acquisition. Topics include making form-meaning connections during language learning; developmental stages; the role of input and input processing; explicit and implicit methods of grammar instruction; pertinent factors in vocabulary acquisition, such a learning context and processing resource allocation; and comparisons of incidental and direct vocabulary instruction techniques. Major theories of language acquisition (e.g., nativism, emergentism) are critically examined in light of the research presented, and research findings are applied to instructional practices.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD BU: BA EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring
SPAN 4950 Honors
Students who meet the requirements work closely with a member of the faculty on an individual basis on a project of mutual interest. Emphasis on a tutorial on a regular basis. Prereq: permission of Director of Undergraduate Studies. Preregistration not permitted.
Credit 3 units.
Typical periods offered: Spring
SPAN 4951 Honors
Students who meet the requirements work closely with a member of the faculty on an individual basis on a project of mutual interest. Emphasis on a tutorial on a regular basis. Prereq: permission of Director of Undergraduate Studies. Preregistration not permitted. Pass/Fail.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall
SPAN 4995 Spanish Elective: 4000-Level
This course is for transcribing 4000- level SPAN elective units.
Credit 3 units. EN: H
Typical periods offered: Fall, Spring, Summer