Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

BASQ 39220. Espacio y memoria en el cine español. 100 Units.

This course aims to present, through the detailed analysis and discussion of a selection of films and documentaries, a critical examination of the relation between the representation of space and the recovery of traumatic memory in contemporary culture, with particular attention to the various perspectives (and conflicts) that emerge from the plurinational and multilingual configuration of the Spanish State. The course is also intended to provide a basic vocabulary (in Spanish) and strategies for the critical analysis of film.

Instructor(s): Mario Santana     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 39220, CATA 39220

CATA 33333. Reading Catalan for Research Purposes. 100 Units.

This fast-paced course prepares students to read and do research using texts in Catalan. Students will work on grammar, vocabulary and reading skills, and they will also get introduced to some translation strategies. Part of the texts students will work on will be academic texts in their respective areas of research. This course may fulfill the graduate language requirement in some departments.

Prerequisite(s): Familiarity with a Romance language is highly recommended.
Note(s): Not Offered in 24-25.
Equivalent Course(s): CATA 23333

CATA 36525. Literatura política en el Barroco: Espacios, géneros y lenguas de la propaganda en el mundo ibérico. 100 Units.

A la pregunta, ¿qué se leía en la Edad Moderna?, la respuesta suele ser: Cervantes. Ciertamente su difusión es innegable, pero las lecturas también fueron muchas otras y no siempre responden a lo que hoy entendemos por literatura de creación: relaciones de sucesos, romances, coplas, sermones, pronósticos, etc., se leían y/o escuchaban en la intimidad del hogar o en la calle, en formato libro, pliego suelto, expuestas en una pared, etc. El curso se ocupa de la literatura política y propagandística en el Barroco, entendiendo la literatura como sinónimo de cultura escrita, por un lado, y la literatura política y propagandística, por otro, como aquella que sirve de vehículo para la opinión en un contexto de guerra. Aunque cualquier decisión en el ámbito público tiene un componente político, se debe considerar la propaganda como aquella destinada a diseminar una ideología de legitimación (o deslegitimación) bélica en un contexto de confrontación territorial (entre coronas y/o entre territorios), aunque se base en elementos que en principio pueden parecer diferentes (religión, lengua, tradiciones, etc.). En esta asignatura vamos a: definir el género, identificar cuáles son estos textos, estudiarlos en su contexto y dilucidar su importancia en la transmisión de mensajes orientados ideológicamente. Se partirá principalmente de las obras que generaron varios conflictos bélicos en la Península y se trabajará con textos en todas las lenguas vernáculas peninsulares y en latín.

Instructor(s): Eulàlia Miralles Jori     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 36525, SPAN 26525, CATA 26525

CATA 39220. Espacio y memoria en el cine español. 100 Units.

This course aims to present, through the detailed analysis and discussion of a selection of films and documentaries, a critical examination of the relation between the representation of space and the recovery of traumatic memory in contemporary culture, with particular attention to the various perspectives (and conflicts) that emerge from the plurinational and multilingual configuration of the Spanish State. The course is also intended to provide a basic vocabulary (in Spanish) and strategies for the critical analysis of film.

Instructor(s): Mario Santana     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 39220, BASQ 39220

CATA 42100. Reading & Research. 100 Units.

Independent study with an individual faculty member.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter

FREN 31700. Le Roman de la Rose. 100 Units.

The "Roman de la Rose" (mid-13th century), a sprawling, encyclopedic summa composed by two separate authors, was arguably the single most influential vernacular text of the Middle Ages. Whether they hated or admired it, subsequent writers could not escape the long shadow cast by this magisterial œuvre. And, as Kate Soper's recent opera adaptation of the "Rose" demonstrates, this labyrinthine work remains a source of creative inspiration. In this course we will read the "Rose" together. Each student will choose a critical lens (e.g. gender and sexuality, animal and/or ecocritical studies, ethics and philosophy, reception studies, manuscript studies, text & image, etc.) to structure their engagement with the text, and together we will collaborate to chart a rich and diverse set of interpretive paths through this complex work.

Instructor(s): Daisy Delogu     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): For French majors/minors, FREN 20500, 20503 or a previous literature course taught in French.
Note(s): All registered students will attend the cours magistral (taught in English). In addition, all registered students will select and attend either the French discussion section, or the critical theory section. Students are welcome to attend both.
Equivalent Course(s): MDVL 21700, FREN 21700, GNSE 27300, FNDL 21700, GNSE 37300

FREN 33333. Reading French for Research Purposes. 100 Units.

Reading French for Research Purposes prepares students to read and do research using scholarly texts in French. Students will build on their fundamental knowledge of French grammar and the most common vocabulary terms used in scholarly writing, while developing reading comprehension skills and working intensively with academic texts in their areas of research specialty. Students who perform well in FREN 33333/23333 will be able to synthesize key points, arguments and evidence in scholarly texts into their own research. The course also includes practice of skills necessary to pass the Academic Reading Comprehension Assessment (ARCA) in French, administered by the Office for Language Assessment (OLA). Undergraduate students have the option of taking the ARCA, or completing a final assignment in which they identify, cite, and describe the relevance of multiple French secondary texts in their discipline or to a specific project. Note: this course can be counted on a case-by-case basis and with approval from the French Undergraduate Adviser.

Instructor(s): Staff
Prerequisite(s): PQ for 23333: FREN 10300 or 13333, placement into FREN 20100, or instructor consent. PQ for 33333: FREN 10300 or 13333, placement into FREN 20100, or the equivalent of one year college-level introductory French.
Note(s): No auditors permitted. If course is full, or total enrollment is less than enrollment limit & you can't register, attend on 1st day. Registered students who don't attend on 1st day may lose spot.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 23333

FREN 34555. Ecological Explorations of the Francophone World. 100 Units.

The environmental humanities - that is, the study of nature through humanistic disciplines such as literature and history - has long been dominated by texts and theories from privileged sections of Europe and North America. However, alternative understandings of our natural world, including the role of living beings within it, have always existed. In this course, we will explore how contemporary francophone literature can renew, expand and complicate our perceptions of the oceans, deserts, mangroves and forests that surround us. Particular attention will be paid to questions of race, gender, language and indigeneity; course material may include theoretical texts, fiction, poetry, songs, podcasts, film, graphic novels and social media material.

Instructor(s): Nikhita Obeegadoo     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): For students seeking French credit, FREN 20500 or equivalent.
Note(s): Taught in English or French, based on course composition
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 24555, CEGU 34555, RDIN 34555, RDIN 24555, CEGU 24555

FREN 35910. Racine. 100 Units.

Racine's tragedies are often considered the culminating achievement of French classicism. Most famous for his powerful re-imaginings of Greek myth (Phèdre, Andromaque), his tragic universe nevertheless ranged considerably wider, from ancient Jewish queens to a contemporary Ottoman harem. We will consider the roots (from Euripides to Corneille) of his theatrical practice as well as its immense influence on future writers (from Voltaire to Proust, Beckett, and Genet).

Instructor(s): L. Norman     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): At least one French literature course, 21700 or higher.
Note(s): Course taught in French. All work in French for students seeking FREN credit; written work may be in English for those taking course for TAPS or FNDL credit.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 25910, FNDL 25910, TAPS 35910, TAPS 28476

FREN 36333. La poésie maghrébine d'expression française. 100 Units.

Depuis son émergence vers le milieu des années 1930, la poésie maghrébine d'expression française a accompagné les bouleversements politiques dans les trois pays du Maghreb et influencé la production romanesque des écrivains maghrébins. Dans les années 1960, des expériences collectives majeures - telles que la revue Souffles au Maroc - placent la poésie au centre du projet de renouvellement culturel dans la région. A la suite de ces dynamiques de groupes, les poètes maghrébins développent des œuvres poétiques ancrées dans leurs expériences individuelles mais désormais ouvertes sur le monde. Des thématiques récurrentes telles que l'exil, l'errance, le désir de révolte et la quête de la liberté mobilisent des techniques poétiques aussi variées que la violence linguistique, le dialogue avec les mythes ou encore l'utilisation des ressources de l'oralité. En étudiant un corpus d'œuvres poétiques choisies du Maroc (Abdellatif Laâbi, Tahar Ben Jellou, Rachida Madani, Saïda Menebhi), de l'Algérie (Jean Sénac, Kateb Yacine, Assia Djebar) et de la Tunisie (Albert Memmi, Amina Saïd, Tahar Bekri), ce cours présente une introduction générale à la poésie maghrébine d'expression française. On analysera en particulier les formes, les procédés et les motifs poétiques permettant d'appréhender la figure du poète, sa représentation de la patrie, son discours politique ou encore son univers de représentations sensorielles et symboliques.

Instructor(s): K. Lyamlahy     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): FREN 20500 or 20503 for undergraduates.
Note(s): Taught in French.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 26333

FREN 36680. Literary Games: Oulipo and Onward. 100 Units.

Does constraint foster creativity? Can wordplay carry political meaning? Is formal innovation divorced from lyrical expression? How do experimental literary movements respond to their sociopolitical moments and local contexts, and how do they transform when they travel across geographical and linguistic borders? We will consider these questions via the work of the longest-lived French literary group, the Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle or Workshop for Potential Literature), examining its origins as a quasi-secret society in 1960 and its expansion into an internationally visible and multilingual collective (with members from Italy, Spain, Argentina, and the US). We will investigate debates about inspiration and authorship, copying and plagiarism, collective creation, multilingualism, constraint and translation, and the viability of the lyric subject. While considering antecedents (Edgar Allan Poe, Raymond Roussel), our readings will explore several generations of Oulipians (Raymond Queneau, Georges Perec, Italo Calvino, Michèle Métail, Anne Garréta, Frédéric Forte), and conclude with some very contemporary Oulipo-inspired writing from around the world (Christian Bök, Urayoán Noel, Mónica de la Torre, K. Silem Mohammed). Alongside critical essays, students will carry out short experiments with constraint and procedure, as well as translation exercises; and they will have the opportunity for dialogue with acclaimed writers and scholars who will visit our seminar.

Instructor(s): Rachel Galvin and Alison James     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Open to advanced undergraduates. Students who are taking the class for French credit will complete some readings and writings in French.
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 36680, ENGL 26680, CMLT 26680, FREN 26680, ENGL 36680

FREN 38900. La Princesse de Clèves and the Genesis of the Modern Novel. 100 Units.

Madame de La Fayette's 1678 novel represents a turning point in the international development of the psychological novel and historical fiction. Set in a Renaissance past of courtly international intrigue, the novel plumbs its characters' interiorized struggles with erotic desire, marriage, and adultery, forging a path for later novelists such as Flaubert, George Eliot, and Tolstoy. We will examine debates about its literary form and moral impact, as well as around gender and women's writing, placing the novel in a transnational context (Spanish, Italian, and English romances, drama, and moral philosophy) and its later reception, including film adaptations and its role in heated contemporary controversies around the place of the humanities in society. Students are encouraged to undertake individual comparative research projects in relation to the novel. Course taught in English but reading ability in French required.

Instructor(s): Larry Norman      Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor required for undergrads; those seeking FREN credit must have completed at least one French literature course, 21700 or higher.
Note(s): All work in French for students seeking FREN credit; written work may be in English for others.
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 29405, CMLT 28990, FREN 28900, CMLT 38990

FREN 42100. Readings And Research: French. 100 Units.

Independent study with an individual faculty member.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter

FREN 45000. Second-Generation Maghrebis in France: Immigration, Identity, and Belonging. 100 Units.

France is home to the largest Muslim population in Western Europe, of which the majority is of North African descent. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Maghrebi immigrants were subject to various forms of discrimination and violence. In recent years, ongoing debates on immigration and citizenship have shed light on the enduring legacies of French imperialism, along with the widely held perception of France's failure to effectively integrate its African and Muslim minorities. This course explores how narrative works by second-generation Maghrebis respond to these debates by addressing questions about collective memory, socioeconomic inequalities, police brutality, intergenerational relationships, and the banlieue environment. Authors studied may include Mehdi Charef, Azouz Begag, Leïla Sebbar, Faïza Guène, and Kaoutar Harchi.

Instructor(s): Khalid Lyamlahy     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 45000

FREN 46000. Beyond the Blanks of History: When Women of Color Reclaim the Narrative. 100 Units.

History" is skewed and incomplete. It leaves out as much as it reveals. As they relegate past suffering to oblivion, historical omissions perpetuate the violence that they seek to hide. And this violence is often felt on multiple levels by women of color who find themselves imbricated within (neo)colonial, patriarchal, heteronormative, classist and ableist societal structures. In this course, we will situate ourselves at the intersection of literature, history and gender studies. We will explore the following questions together: Faced with the blind spots of history, how can literature function as an alternative archive that draws attention to the invisibilized stories of women of color? Simultaneously, how does literature sensitize us to the impossibility of fully knowing the past, no matter how hard we try? Course material may include theoretical texts, fiction, poetry, songs, podcasts, film, graphic novels and social media material. Potential examples include Saidiya Hartman's "Venus in Two Acts" (2008), Gina Prince-Bythewood's The Woman King (2022), Gaiutra Bahadur's Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture (2013), Nathacha Appanah's La Mémoire Délavée (2023), Lia Brozgal's Absent the Archive: Cultural Traces of a Massacre in Paris, 17 October 1961 (2022), Marie Clements' Bones of Crows (2022), and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine's poetry.

Instructor(s): Nikhita Obeegadoo     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Advanced undergraduates with appropriate experience in the subject may petition for admission.
Note(s): Taught in English. All course material will be available in English, though students are encouraged to engage with original materials. Work may be submitted in English, French or Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 46000, CMLT 46100, GNSE 46001

ITAL 32888. Narrative Frescos in Early Modern Italy. 100 Units.

In this course we will observe different ways to tell a story through painting, and we will analyze strategies used by artists in early modern Italy to describe space and time in visual terms. Students will engage with different artists, from Giotto to Raphael and Pellegrino Tibaldi, and different cultural and geographic contexts, from Padua and Bologna to Florence, Venice, and Rome, over the span of about three centuries.Students will explore a wide range of visual examples and textual sources on various subject matters, from poetry to history, from the Bible to vernacular accounts about saints, from mythology to contemporary chronicles, in order to investigate what kind of stories were told on the walls of halls and courts of honor, private rooms, or public spaces, aiming at understanding why each of them was chosen. Complex projects such as narrative mural and ceiling paintings usually involved a tight collaboration among artists, patrons, and iconographic consultants, all figures with whom students will become familiar. We will also analyse the theory behind the comparison of poetry and painting ("ut pictura poesis", "as is painting so is poetry") by investigating the meaning and the reception of this ancient concept in early modern times, and its implications on the social role of the artist. Students will investigate the significance of narrative frescos in early modern times, while also asking questions about their value and impact today.

Instructor(s): F. Caneparo     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 32816, ARTH 22816, ITAL 22888

ITAL 32900. Vico's New Science. 100 Units.

This course offers a close reading of Giambattista Vico's masterpiece, "The New Science" (1744) - a work that sets out to refute "all opinions hitherto held about the principles of humanity." Vico, who is acknowledged as the most resolute scourge of any form of rationalism, breathed new life into rhetoric, imagination, poetry, metaphor, history, and philology in order to promote in his readers that originary "wonder" and "pathos" which sets human beings on the search for truth. However, Vico argues, the truths that are most available and interesting to us are the ones humanity "authored" by means of its culture and history-creating activities. For this reason the study of myth and folklore as well as archeology, anthropology, and ethnology must all play a role in the rediscovery of man. "The New Science" builds an "alternative philosophy" for a new age and reads like a "novel of formation" recounting the (hi)story of the entire human race and our divine ancestors. In Vico, a prophetic spirit, one recognizes the fulfillment of the Renaissance, the spokesperson of a particular Enlightenment, the precursor of the Kantian revolution, and the forefather of the philosophy of history (Herder, Hegel, and Marx). "The New Science" remained a strong source of inspiration in the twentieth century (Cassirer, Gadamer, Berlin, Joyce, Beckett, etc.) and may prove relevant in disclosing our own responsibilities in postmodernity.

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): FNDL 21408, ITAL 22900, CMLT 32501, CMLT 22501

ITAL 33101. Early Italian Lyric: Dante and His Rivals. 100 Units.

An intense reading of Dante's early experiment in autobiography, self-commentary, and self-anthologizing. The "Vita Nova" is an essential text for readers of Dante's Commedia since the poet constantly refers back to it, and we will read it keeping in mind this dialogue. However, our primary focus will be to examine the "Vita Nova" in the context of contemporaneous literary practices. How does Dante engage with the philosophical and aesthetic debates of his time? We will use "Vita Nova" to gain entry into the larger world of early Italian poetry (Guittone, Guinizzelli, Cavalcanti, and others) and we will examine his contribution to the courtly love tradition.

Instructor(s): H. Justin Steinberg     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 24-25
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 23101, MDVL 23101

ITAL 33333. Reading Italian for Research Purposes. 100 Units.

Reading Italian for Research Purposes prepares students to read and do research using scholarly texts in Italian. Students will build on their fundamental knowledge of Italian grammar and the most common vocabulary terms used in scholarly writing, while developing reading comprehension skills and working intensively with academic texts in their areas of research specialty. Students who perform well in ITAL 23333/33333 will be able to comprehend difficult scholarly texts and begin using them in their own research. The course also includes practice of skills necessary to pass the Academic Reading Comprehension Assessment (ARCA) in Italian, administered by the Office for Language Assessment (OLA).

Instructor(s): Staff
Prerequisite(s): PQ for 23333: ITAL 10200 or ITAL 122, or placement in ITAL 10300, or consent of instructor. PQ for 33333: While there is currently no strict prerequisite for ITAL 33333, one year of introductory Italian or the equivalent is highly recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 23333

ITAL 33502. Boccaccio's Decameron. 100 Units.

One of the most important and influential works of the middle ages-and a lot funnier than the "Divine Comedy." Written in the midst of the social disruption caused by the Black Death (1348), the "Decameron" may have held readers attention for centuries because of its bawdiness, but it is also a profound exploration into the basis of faith and the meaning of death, the status of language, the construction of social hierarchy and social order, and the nature of crisis and historical change. Framed by a storytelling contest between seven young ladies and three young men who have left the city to avoid the plague, the one hundred stories of Boccaccio's "Decameron" form a structural masterpiece that anticipates the Renaissance epics, Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," and the modern short story. Students will be encouraged to further explore in individual projects the many topics raised by the text, including (and in addition to the themes mentioned above) magic, the visual arts, mercantile culture, travel and discovery, and new religious practices.

Instructor(s): H. Justin Steinberg     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): MDVL 23502, ITAL 23502, FNDL 21714

ITAL 34920. Primo Levi. 100 Units.

Witness, novelist, essayist, translator, linguist, chemist, and even entomologist. Primo Levi is a polyhedral author, and this course revisits his work in all its facets. We will privilege the most hybrid of his texts: The Search for Roots, an anthology that collects the author's favorite readings--a book assembled through the books of the others, but which represents Levi's most authentic portrait. By using this work as an entry point into Levi's universe, we will later explore his other texts, addressing issues such as the unsettling relationship between survival and testimony, the "sinful" choice of fiction, the oblique path towards autobiography, and the paradoxes of witnessing by proxy.

Instructor(s): Maria Anna Mariani     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Open to advanced undergrads with consent of instructor.
Note(s): Taught in Italian.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 24920, JWSC 24920, FNDL 24920

ITAL 35550. Machiavelli: Politics and Theater. 100 Units.

Arguably the most debated political theorist of all time due to The Prince, Machiavelli genuinely aspired to be remembered for his creative prowess. He explored various literary genres, such as short stories, dialogues, satirical poetry, letter writing, and, notably, theater, where he demonstrated mastery with The Mandrake, an exemplary Renaissance comedy. This course aims to reintegrate these two aspects of Machiavelli: the serious politician and the facetious performer, a Janus-faced figure who serves as a precursor of both Hobbes and Montaigne. We will revive the image of this "Renaissance man," and, through him, shed light on his era and fellow humanists by restoring their intellectual unity of prescription and laughter. Indeed, we will discover that Machiavelli encourages us not to take things, including him and ourselves, too seriously! Taught in English.

Instructor(s): Rocco Rubini     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 38481, CMLT 35550, FNDL 29305, CMLT 25550, ITAL 25550, TAPS 28481

ITAL 35800. Childhood and Fairy Tale in Bachelard, Benjamin, and Agamben. 100 Units.

'The child' is a complex and fascinating notion that plays a crucial role in the writings of some of the major twentieth-century thinkers. The child is often linked to 'fairy tale,' as if one concept couldn't exist without the other. What constitutes a fairy tale, what is the difference between fairy tale, myth, and allegory, and who is the real narrator and listener of fairy tales are questions that can only be addressed through a second, fundamental query: What is 'the child'? What does 'the child' represent? What role does the imagination play in the formation of 'the child'? These issues are especially significant in the writings of Gaston Bachelard, Walter Benjamin, and Giorgio Agamben. Readings will include: Bachelard, "Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos"; Bachelard, "Air and Dreams. An Essay on the Imagination of Movement"; Bachelard, "The Flame of a Candle"; Benjamin, One-Way Street; Benjamin, "The Fireside Saga"; Benjamin, "Berlin Childhood around 1900"; Benjamin "Goethe's Elective Affinities,"; Benjamin, "The Storyteller"; Agamben, "Infancy and History"; Agamben, "Profanations"; Agamben, "Pulcinella or Entertainment for Children"; Agamben, "Pinocchio". We will also read an ample selection of classic fairy tales from Giambattista Basile ("The Tale of Tales"), the seventeenth-century French conteuses, The Brothers Grimm, Clemens Brentano, and Collodi's "Pinocchio." Taught in English.

Instructor(s): Armando Maggi     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): CMLT 25810, ITAL 25800, CMLT 35810

ITAL 37125. Fiction, Nonfiction & Microhistory. 100 Units.

The course will focus on one of the most important trends of Italian/European literature, that of creative nonfiction, and its connection(s) with microhistory as it has been theorized by, among others, Carlo Ginzburg. In doing so, we will first touch upon several narratological issues - e.g. whether it is possible to clearly distinguish between fiction and nonfiction writing - and reflect upon the problematic epistemological status of historiographical writing. We will furthermore analyze different nonfiction novels from Europe (J. Cercas, "Soldiers of Salamin"; E. Carrère, "The Adversary"; R. Saviano, "Gomorrah"), focusing on the similarities and differences between contemporary European nonfictional writings and the American tradition of New Journalism and the nonfiction novel.

Instructor(s): Raffaello Palumbo Mosca     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates must be in their third or fourth year.
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): ITAL 27125

ITAL 42100. Readings And Research: Italian. 100 Units.

Independent study with an individual faculty member.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter

PORT 35000. The Amazon: Literature, Culture, Environment. 100 Units.

From colonial travelers to contemporary popular culture, the Amazonian forest has been a source of endless fascination, greed and, more recently, ecological concern. The numerous actors that have been shaping the region, including artists, writers, scientists, anthropologists, indigenous peoples, and the extractive industry, among others, bring a multifaceted view of this region that has been described as the paradise on earth as much as a green hell. This course offers an overview of Amazonian history, cultures, and environmental issues that spans from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. What are the major topics, works, and polemics surrounding the ways the Amazon has been depicted and imagined? How can the region's history help us understand the state of environmental policies and indigenous rights today? What can we learn about the Amazon from literature and film? What is the future of the Amazon in the context of Brazil's current political climate? From an interdisciplinary perspective, we will cover topics such as indigenous cultures and epistemologies, deforestation, travel writing, modern and contemporary literature, music, photography, and film, among others. Authors may include Claudia Andujar, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Euclides da Cunha, Susanna Hecht, Davi Kopenawa, the project Video in the Villages, among others.

Instructor(s): Victoria Saramago     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in English. Materials available in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 25005, LACS 35005, SPAN 35555, ENST 25000, PORT 25000, SIGN 26059, SPAN 25555, CEGU 25000

PORT 42100. Reading And Research. 100 Units.

Independent study with an individual faculty member.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter

RLLT 34500. Digital Approaches to Text Analysis: opening new paths for textual scholarship. 100 Units.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students of literature, and more generally the humanities, to digital humanities methodologies for the study of text. Among the various digital approaches which will be introduced in class are concordances (retrieving occurrences of words), semantic similarity detection (finding similar passages across texts), sentiment analysis, stylometry (analysis of literary style), and topic modeling (automatic classification of texts). The course will highlight how these approaches to text can provide new avenues of research, such as tracing intellectual influence over the longue durée, or uncovering the distinguishing stylistic features of an author, work, or literary movement. Students need no prior knowledge of such methods, and the course will aim at providing the basics of computer programming in Python to give students the necessary tooling to conduct a digital humanities project. The source material for the course will be drawn from literary sources, and students will be free (and encouraged) to use texts which are relevant to their own research interests.

Instructor(s): Clovis Gladstone
Note(s): Students will need to bring a laptop to class.
Equivalent Course(s): RLLT 24500

RLLT 47000. Professional Academic Writing. 100 Units.

This course is open to all RLL students and will be run as a workshop. The primary goal is to work on the Qualifying Paper with the objective of producing a piece of work that might, with subsequent revision, be submitted to an academic journal for publication. This course is also appropriate for anyone who wants to work on a dissertation proposal or chapter. We will cover all aspects of professional writing, from abstracts and grant proposals to revising manuscripts after readers' reports.

Instructor(s): Armando Maggi     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): Open only to RLL students.
Note(s): Taught in English.

RLLT 48000. Job Market Preparation. 100 Units.

Advanced RLL graduate students will prepare and polish materials needed for applying to jobs: cover letter, CV, dissertation abstract, research statement, teaching statement, and diversity statement. In addition we will discuss best practices for first-round interviews and campus visits. The course is strongly recommended for students in their fifth and sixth years but open to other students.

Instructor(s): Miguel Martínez     Terms Offered: Spring

RLLT 48800. Foreign Language Acquisition, Research and Teaching. 100 Units.

This course provides students with a foundation in foreign language acquisition and sociolinguistic research pertinent to foreign language teaching, introduces current teaching methodologies and technologies, and discusses their usefulness in the classroom.

Instructor(s): Ana Lima     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Designed primarily with RLL students in mind but open to others.

SPAN 32266. Witchcraft and the Cultural Imagination. 100 Units.

This seminar takes as its focal point the vast range of conceptual, material, and visual artifacts that are produced by, and indeed help to construct, this enduring fascination with the figure of the witch, from the medieval past to the present. We will examine case studies from premodern Europe to Colonial North America to Indonesia, scrutinizing texts, films, and works of art. Rather than offering a standard history of witchcraft, we will explore the intersections of gender, labor, and representation that the figure of the witch makes specially available for study. Witchcraft constitutes a multifaceted phenomenon that aims to alter reality and the self through the use of various techniques, transmitted both orally and in writing. These techniques have often appeared culturally marked in terms of gender and belief. Witchcraft has for centuries been the business of women in societies where very few avenues existed for women to develop any sort of business.

Instructor(s): T. Golan, N. Mourelle     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Students must attend first class to confirm enrollment.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 22266, ARTH 32266, GNSE 22288, GNSE 32288, ARTH 22266

SPAN 33333. Reading Spanish for Research Purposes. 100 Units.

Reading Spanish for Research Purposes prepares students to read and do research using scholarly texts in Spanish. Students will build on their fundamental knowledge of Spanish grammar and the most common vocabulary terms used in scholarly writing, while developing reading comprehension skills and working intensively with academic texts in their areas of research specialty. Students who perform well in SPAN 23333/33333 will be able to comprehend difficult scholarly texts and begin using them in their own research. The course also includes practice of skills necessary to pass the Academic Reading Comprehension Assessment (ARCA) in Spanish, administered by the Office for Language Assessment (OLA). Undergraduate students have the option of taking the ARCA, or completing another final assignment to complete the course. Note: This course may fulfill the graduate language requirement in some departments.

Instructor(s): Staff
Prerequisite(s): PQ for 23333: SPAN 10200, 12001 or 14100, placement in SPAN 10300, or instructor consent. PQ for 33333: While there is currently no strict prerequisite for SPAN 33333, one year of introductory Spanish or the equivalent is highly recommended.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 23333

SPAN 33710. Text/Image/Territory in Nineteenth-Century Latin America. 100 Units.

A partir de una serie de casos emblemáticos, en este seminario investigaremos las relaciones entre producción literaria, cultura visual y la formación de imaginarios territoriales en Hispanoamérica durante el siglo XIX. Nuestro objetivo no es tan solo examinar los principios y procedimientos estéticos e ideológicos mediante los cuales la nación pudo ser concebida como una unidad geográfica, con fronteras discernibles y características propias-ello principalmente en torno a la figura del "paisaje". También nos interesa examiner otros modos de espacialización que, si bien no del todo ajenos a la máquina simbólica del estado nacional, son sin embargo irreductibles a ella. Entre estos se encuentran, por ejemplo, las epistemologías cartográficas asociadas a las exploraciones científicas que se dispararon hacia todo lo largo y ancho del continente desde finales del siglo XVIII-y vinculadas al discurso de la Historia Natural-o simbolizaciones relativas a la idea de la propiedad privada sobre la tierra y sus medios de explotación y desarrollo (particularmente, para nuestro caso, al régimen de la propiedad esclavista con sus pretensiones de "excepción" y soberanía ante la ingerencia estatal).

Instructor(s): Agnes Lugo-Ortiz     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 33710

SPAN 34299. Cervantes's Don Quixote. 100 Units.

In this course we will read Cervantes's "Don Quixote" (1605, 1615), paying attention to narrative aesthetics, language, generic traditions, the politics of the novel, and the history of interpretation, among other aspects. While largely based on close textual analysis, our reading will be informed by thorough contextualization within the social, cultural, and intellectual history of early modern Spain, as well as by a select set of critical and theoretical approaches to the novel.

Instructor(s): Miguel Martínez     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in Spanish.

SPAN 34770. Sex, Crime and Horror in Argentine Literature. 100 Units.

This course examines the historical evolution of Argentine literature, cinema, and the visual arts through the study of three thematic currents that significantly influenced Argentina's cultural and socio-political experience with nation-building, modernization, and democracy: sex, crime, and horror. The primary objective of the course is to foster a critical exploration of how foundational works of Romanticism and Realism in the Río de la Plata, the Noir genre, and the Gothic tradition accounted for decisive changes in the social fabric of the country. Students will assess the role of sexuality, crime, and horror stories in the representation of momentous events in Argentine history, spanning from the revolutionary era in the nineteenth century to the contemporary period. Topics include the Wars of Independence, gaucho literature, indigenous resistance, the great migratory flows, the rise of the middle classes, Peronismo, Youth culture, military dictatorships, human rights violations, LGBT movements, and economic precarity in neoliberal times. Works by Esteban Echeverría, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Juana Manuela Gorriti, José Hernández, Lucio V. and Eduarda Mansilla, Eugenio Cambaceres, Leopoldo Lugones, Roberto Arlt, Jorge Luis Borges, Juan José Saer, Antonio Di Benedetto, Olga Orozco, Alejandra Pizarnik, Juan Gelman, Andrés Rivera, Silvina Ocampo, Horacio Quiroga, Rodolfo Walsh, Manuel Puig, Ricardo Piglia, Mariana Enríquez, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, María Luisa Bemberg,

Instructor(s): Carlos Halaburda      Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Reading proficiency in Spanish required.
Note(s): Class discussions and reading materials in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 24770, GNSE 34771, RDIN 34770, LACS 24770, LACS 34770, SPAN 24770, RDIN 24770

SPAN 35555. The Amazon: Literature, Culture, Environment. 100 Units.

From colonial travelers to contemporary popular culture, the Amazonian forest has been a source of endless fascination, greed and, more recently, ecological concern. The numerous actors that have been shaping the region, including artists, writers, scientists, anthropologists, indigenous peoples, and the extractive industry, among others, bring a multifaceted view of this region that has been described as the paradise on earth as much as a green hell. This course offers an overview of Amazonian history, cultures, and environmental issues that spans from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. What are the major topics, works, and polemics surrounding the ways the Amazon has been depicted and imagined? How can the region's history help us understand the state of environmental policies and indigenous rights today? What can we learn about the Amazon from literature and film? What is the future of the Amazon in the context of Brazil's current political climate? From an interdisciplinary perspective, we will cover topics such as indigenous cultures and epistemologies, deforestation, travel writing, modern and contemporary literature, music, photography, and film, among others. Authors may include Claudia Andujar, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Euclides da Cunha, Susanna Hecht, Davi Kopenawa, the project Video in the Villages, among others.

Instructor(s): Victoria Saramago     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in English. Materials available in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 25005, LACS 35005, ENST 25000, PORT 25000, SIGN 26059, SPAN 25555, PORT 35000, CEGU 25000

SPAN 35660. US Imperialism and Cultural Practice in Latin America. 100 Units.

This course examines the ways histories of US intervention in Latin America have been engaged in cultural practice. We assess the history of US intervention by reading primary documents alongside cultural artifacts including film, performance and visual art, song, music, and poetry. The course begins with the Cuban revolution and ends with the ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico.

Instructor(s): D. Roper     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 25660, LACS 35660, SPAN 25660

SPAN 35770. Radical Readings: Latin American/Latinx. 100 Units.

Since the 1970s, writers, artists, activists, and cultural critics based in Latin America and in the United States have produced radical writings to respond to concrete social and political circumstances. These writings ring especially relevant today, in our current, turbulent times. The course studies the rich, transformative tradition of radical, contemporary Latin American and Latinx thought. It studies earlier interventions by the likes of Paulo Freire and traces and resonance of these earlier writings in contemporary interventions by critics like Suely Rolnik. We read writings by Freire, Rolnik, Roberto Jacoby, Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga, Ailton Krenak, Verónica Gago, and others, with an emphasis on 1) the context of production of each writing, 2) the form and shape each author gives to their written thought and, 3) the impact and resonance of these writings in our present moment. The course is also an experiment that seeks to confront the powers of engagement and understanding unleashed in long, uninterrupted stretches of reading.

Instructor(s): Sergio Delgado Moya     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Reading proficiency in Spanish required.
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 25570, LACS 35570, SPAN 25770

SPAN 36525. Literatura política en el Barroco: Espacios, géneros y lenguas de la propaganda en el mundo ibérico. 100 Units.

A la pregunta, ¿qué se leía en la Edad Moderna?, la respuesta suele ser: Cervantes. Ciertamente su difusión es innegable, pero las lecturas también fueron muchas otras y no siempre responden a lo que hoy entendemos por literatura de creación: relaciones de sucesos, romances, coplas, sermones, pronósticos, etc., se leían y/o escuchaban en la intimidad del hogar o en la calle, en formato libro, pliego suelto, expuestas en una pared, etc. El curso se ocupa de la literatura política y propagandística en el Barroco, entendiendo la literatura como sinónimo de cultura escrita, por un lado, y la literatura política y propagandística, por otro, como aquella que sirve de vehículo para la opinión en un contexto de guerra. Aunque cualquier decisión en el ámbito público tiene un componente político, se debe considerar la propaganda como aquella destinada a diseminar una ideología de legitimación (o deslegitimación) bélica en un contexto de confrontación territorial (entre coronas y/o entre territorios), aunque se base en elementos que en principio pueden parecer diferentes (religión, lengua, tradiciones, etc.). En esta asignatura vamos a: definir el género, identificar cuáles son estos textos, estudiarlos en su contexto y dilucidar su importancia en la transmisión de mensajes orientados ideológicamente. Se partirá principalmente de las obras que generaron varios conflictos bélicos en la Península y se trabajará con textos en todas las lenguas vernáculas peninsulares y en latín.

Instructor(s): Eulàlia Miralles Jori     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 26525, CATA 26525, CATA 36525

SPAN 36780. Caribbean Music, Performance, and Popular Culture in the Age of Precarity: 1990 to the Present. 100 Units.

This course explores the concept of precarity and its influence on artistic and cultural expressions within contemporary Caribbean popular culture, primarily from the 1990s to the present day. Precarity is broadly defined as the feeling or experience of instability resulting from various social, economic, political, and environmental factors, including structural adjustments, climate change (such as hurricanes and earthquakes), and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, among others. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of art in shaping popular responses to precarity, including significant events like mass protests, the Black Lives Matter and George Floyd protests, uprisings against the deportation of Haitians in the Dominican Republic, as well as interrelated international movements like #LifeinLeggings and #Metoo. The course delves into how Caribbean performance and popular music have engaged with these issues, with a focus on music genres like dancehall, wylers, soca, reggaetón, and the individual artistic works of Caribbean artists such as LaVaughn Belle, Helen Ceballos, Joiri Minaya, and others. These artists use their work to explore themes of precarity and to envision potential alternatives to the contemporary challenges of insecurity, touching on issues related to gender, sexuality, and race.

Instructor(s): Jessica Baker and Danielle Roper     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 36780, SPAN 26780, MUSI 26780, RDIN 26780, MUSI 36780

SPAN 38810. Empire, Slavery & Salvation: Writing Difference in the Colonial Americas. 100 Units.

This course explores portrayals of human difference in literature, travel writing, painting, and autobiography from Spain, England, and the Americas. Students will become versed in debates surrounding the emergence of human distinctions based on religion, race, and ethnicity in the early modern era. Understanding these debates and the history surrounding them is crucial to participating in informed discussion, research, and activism regarding issues of race, empire, and colonialism across time and space.

Instructor(s): Larissa Brewer-García     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): The course will be conducted in English, but advanced reading knowledge of Spanish is necessary.
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 38810, CMLT 38810

SPAN 39220. Espacio y memoria en el cine español. 100 Units.

This course aims to present, through the detailed analysis and discussion of a selection of films and documentaries, a critical examination of the relation between the representation of space and the recovery of traumatic memory in contemporary culture, with particular attention to the various perspectives (and conflicts) that emerge from the plurinational and multilingual configuration of the Spanish State. The course is also intended to provide a basic vocabulary (in Spanish) and strategies for the critical analysis of film.

Instructor(s): Mario Santana     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): CATA 39220, BASQ 39220

SPAN 42100. Rdgs/Rsch: Spanish. 100 Units.

Independent study with an individual faculty member.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter

SPAN 43333. Waiting for the End of the World. 100 Units.

From the beginning of its recorded history, humanity has always been equally fascinated and terrified with the representation of its own finitude. This class explores some of the cultural forms that the imagination of this finitude has inspired in religious, socio-political, and aesthetic terms, focusing on apocalyptic productions coming from the Iberian Middle Ages, such as Julian de Toledo, Beatus de Liebana, Gonzalo de Berceo, or Ramon Llull. Our goal will be to confront the nightmarish scenarios that different forms of society imagined for their ending. In doing so, we will discover that such scenarios for the end of the world, or, at least, the end of the world as humans conceive it, reveal deeply rooted forms of ideological violence, social exclusion, and fear of a chaotic and unpredictable universe. Ultimately, these forms of imagining the end of the world are the proof that it is inherent to the human condition to imagine itself as the center of its own universe, while suspecting that this exceptionality is nothing but wishful thinking.

Instructor(s): Noel Blanco Mourelle     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Class discussions and reading materials in Spanish.

SPAN 43900. Queerness and Disability in Latin American Literature and Culture, 1880-1930. 100 Units.

With the rise of Latin American modernity, LGBTQ and crip populations were portrayed in literature, medical science, and visual culture as deviant. The discursive mechanisms to produce truths about bodies as normative or perverse, real or unreal, fit or disabled not only achieved authority in medicine, but also in numerous platforms where ableist heteronormativity was sedimented as a hegemonic way of life. Literature, theater, museums, the modern press, and the visual arts became semiotic territories for the production of racial, gender, sex, and psychophysical difference. But queer/crip/trans* and critical race theory have offered tools to critique the sexual hegemony and ableism of such patriarchal-colonial mindset. This graduate course introduces students to such debates in new Latin American critical studies, with a global perspective. Focusing on the cultural production of modern Latin America and the Caribbean, students will investigate and critique the somatic constructions of the so-called "deviant" in excerpts from novels, plays, chronicles, early films, and clinical studies. Texts by José Tomás de Cuéllar, Luis Montané Dardé, Leonidio Ribeiro, Eduardo Castrejón, Adolfo Caminha, Augusto D'Halmar, Rómulo Gallegos, José González Castillo, Elías Castelnuovo, Teresa de La Parra, Bernardo Arias Trujillo, Francisco de Veyga, Ofelia Rodríguez Acosta, among others.

Instructor(s): Carlos Halaburda     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): The course will be taught in Spanish and English.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 43901, RDIN 43900, LACS 43900

SPAN 45000. Latin American Environmental Humanities. 100 Units.

The environmental humanities have emerged in the past couple of decades as a crucial field to understand the multifaceted history of environmental thought and culture around the world as well as to grapple with the intractable challenges wrought by the current environmental crisis. In Latin America, the field has flourished in dialogue with Anglophone ecocriticism at the same time as it has expanded its thematic, theoretical, a critical reach. This course provides an overview of the environmental humanities in the context of Latin American literature and culture. We will delve into key concepts and problems in the field, from the debates on the Anthropocene and alternative terms to the cultural history of forests and deserts, subfields such as ecofeminism, plant studies, animal studies and energy humanities, as well as concepts particularly productive in the region such as (post)extractivism and multinaturalism. This course will combine primary sources, including works of literature, cinema and visual arts, with a robust attention to influential scholarship on the field.

Instructor(s): Victoria Saramago     Terms Offered: Spring
Note(s): Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 45000