Graduate Studies

Graduate Course Descriptions: Fall 2009

Portuguese
Literatures in Spanish
Hispanic Linguistics

Portuguese

 

P500    Literatures of the Portuguese- Speaking World I

Professor Darlene Sadlier
email: sadlier@indiana.edu

TR 4:00pm – 5:15pm/section# 27765/3cr./HU 111

The first of a two-part survey of literature in Portuguese, this course will cover works written from the medieval period through romanticism in Brazil and Portugal. The emergence of an African and African/Brazilian literature will also be discussed. Representative literary authors and works serve as the basis for interdisciplinary and cross-cultural commentary of important social, political and historical issues, including imperialism and overseas expansion, nation building and revolution.

Course offered jointly with P400 and P498.

P581    Contemporary Brazilian Literature
Topic: Approaching the Nation, Claiming the Self

Professor Luciana Namorato
email: lnamorat

TR 1:00pm – 2:15pm/section# 27766/3 cr./KH 200

In this course, we will read twentieth- and twenty-first-century Brazilian novels, poems, and short-stories. We will discuss intersections of artistic modernism and shifting concepts of nationalism and regionalism in the first half of the twentieth century. We will also examine constructions of feminine authorship and narrative voices in the works of Clarice Lispector and Ana Cristina Cesar. We will conclude by reviewing major literary trends in the last 30 years, for example, dialogues between literature and the mass media, rewritings of gender, new approaches to memory, and the detective novel. Authors to be studied include Lima Barreto, Oswald de Andrade, José Lins do Rego, Guimarães Rosa, and Rubem Fonseca. Students will write a research paper, and a final exam.

Literatures in Spanish

 

S504    Bibliography and Methods of Research

Professor Melissa Dinverno
email: mdinvern

TR 9:30a – 10:45a/section# 27880/3 cr./WH 118
           
This course aims to introduce graduate students at both M.A. and PhD levels to the essentials of conducting and presenting research in the profession of literary studies.  The course will include sections on how to develop a research project (including building different types of bibliographies), the basic components of writing literary criticism (conducting textual analysis, dealing with secondary literary criticism, and engaging theoretical work), distinguishing between and developing the varied forms in which research is presented (conference abstracts and presentations, articles, chapters/larger projects, etc.), and grant-writing as a step in the research process.  In addition to course readings on most of these topics, we will analyze examples in order to get a better sense of each type of writing, how it relates to others, and how to move a project from one to another.  Beyond class meetings, we will likely meet with IU librarians as we map the bibliographic resources available for developing research.  Course assignments will be mainly task-based (giving a presentation, writing a conference abstract, an annotated bibliography, a grant proposal, a bibliography rationale, etc.) and will likely include several short papers.

S528    Spanish Literature of the 16th- & 17th- Centuries

Professor Steven Wagschal
Email: swagscha@indiana.edu  

TR 11:15a – 12:30p/section# 27884/3 cr./WH 118

This graduate survey of early modern prose, poetry and theater, explores the dynamics of power, gender and genre in selected canonical texts by Garcilaso, Lope de Rueda, Góngora, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Quevedo, María de Zayas, Calderón and others (with the notable exception of Don Quixote, due to time constraints).

Requirements: There will be one exam and two papers (one short, one longer). At least one of the papers will employ methods of textual analysis known as “close reading.” Students will also give short presentations on critical articles and/or concepts.  Finally, active class participation and preparation are important components of the course.

Note: If you have not yet read Don Quixote, it would be a good idea to do so before the semester begins, because it is a major point of reference in the study of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature.

Evaluation:

Exam 20%
Papers (15%, 25%)  40%
Class participation 20%
Oral Presentation(s)  20%

S638    Topics in 18th- & 19th-Century Spanish Literature
Topic: The Problematic Emergence of Bourgeois Culture in 19th-Century Spain: Culture, Theory, Criticism

Professor Maryellen Bieder
email: bieder@indiana.edu

W 4:00p – 6:30p/section# 27886/3 cr./BH 335

A close reading and class discussion of the two masterpieces of 19th-century Spanish realism Fortunata y Jacinta and La Regenta, plus a novel by Emilia Pardo Bazán, Memorias de un solterón in the context of current theories of cultural criticism, Spanish nationalism, and recent critical approaches to each novel. These novels track the shifting class formations from landed aristocracy and provincial middle class, through gradations of urban middle classes to the new urban administrative, commercial and entrepreneurial classes and the newly created titles of nobility. Emphasis on the historico-cultural context, forms of cultural production, and gender construction.

Core critical readings will be available as scanned attachments or through e-reserves.
One 15-20 page final essay with footnotes and bibliography using current MLA format.
The following editions are the ones we will use in class.

BOOKS         

1884-1885. La Regenta. 2 tomos. Leopoldo Alas. Castalia: Clásicos Castalia,@ 2000. Edición de Gonzalo Sobejano

1886-1887. Fortunata y Jacinta. 2 tomos. Benito Pérez Galdós. Cátedra:  Letras Hispánicas,@ 2006. Edición de Francisco Caudet

1896. Memorias de un solterón, Emilia Pardo Bazán. Cátedra,  Letras Hispánicas.@ Edición de María Ángeles Ayala                                               

S695    Graduate Colloquium
Topic: New Latin American Cinema

Professor Darlene Sadlier
email: sadlier

TR 2:30p – 3:45p/section 27887/3 cr./JH A107

Film Showing: T 6:30p – 9:00p/BH 135

Dating back to the 1950s, Latin American “New Cinema” has created the basic rationale and the practical strategies for what is sometimes called “Third Cinema”–a type of filmmaking that defines itself in opposition to both Hollywood commercialism and European aestheticism. The New Cinema movement produced numerous important films and theoretical writings, and strongly influenced media production throughout the world. Since the mid-1970s, film critics everywhere have acknowledged that it represents one the most innovative developments in the contemporary media, at least as significant historically as Italian Neo-realism or the French New Wave.

This course will be devoted to major films and writings associated with New Cinema and to the works of a new generation of filmmakers in Latin America, whose growing international success has been compared to the acclaim achieved earlier by New Cinema directors. Taught in English, the course is interdisciplinary and cross-cultural in nature, emphasizing socio-economic and political issues that gave rise to a specific movement or trends.

Knowledge of Spanish and Portuguese is desirable but not required. Assignments include two exams and a short research paper. 

Course offered jointly with LTAM 420/520.

S708    Seminar in Hispanic Studies
Topic: Modernismo (1880-1920s)

Professor Alejandro Mejías-López
email: amejiasl

R 5:30p – 8:00p/section# 11720/3 cr./BH 335

Originating in Spanish America around 1880, Modernismo was a groundbreaking literary and intellectual movement that radically transformed literary expression in Spanish in both Latin America and Spain.  This graduate seminar aims to offer an in-depth look at this movement in its different manifestations:  poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and theater.   Topics covered in class will include: modernismo vs. other contemporary aesthetics (realism, parnassianism, symbolism, decadentism, etc.);  modernismo and the development of Western modernity;  modernismo and postcolonialism; modernismo as a transatlantic movement; and the relationship between modernismo and the so-called ¨Anglo-European¨ modernism. 

We will read and discuss both canonical and lesser known works by both Latin American and Spanish modernistas:  José Martí, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera, Julián del Casal, José Asunción Silva, Rubén Darío, Amado Nervo, Leopoldo Lugones, Delmira Agustini, Carlos Reyles, Manuel Díaz Rodríguez, Enrique Larreta, Aurora Cáceres, Enrique Gómez Carrillo, Salvador Rueda, Ramón del Valle Inclán, Miguel de Unamuno, Pío Baroja, Azorín, Antonio y Manuel Machado, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Jacinto Benavente, and Gabriel Miró. 

This seminar will be conducted entirely in Spanish.  Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions, write an annotated bibliography, and produce a final 20-page research paper.

 

Hispanic Linguistics

 

S508    Introduction to Hispanic Pragmatics

Professor César Félix-Brasdefer
email: cfelixbr

TR 1:00pm – 2:15pm /section# 27881/3 cr./BH 335

Pragmatics is broadly defined as the study of language in social interaction and of the social contexts in which linguistic action takes place. It examines the intentions of language users and how discourse is interpreted by hearers. After examining the basic concepts of pragmatics, the main components of the field will be reviewed, including speech act theory, deixis, presupposition, implicature, and different theories that account for the study of ‘meaning’. Following this critical review, the course will analyze how pragmatics relates to other areas of linguistics such as semantics, phonology, and syntax. The last component of the course examines pragmatic concepts within the fields of discourse analysis and variational pragmatics.

Course offered jointly with SLST T500.

S515    The Acquisition of Spanish as a Second Language
La adquisición del español como segundo idioma

Professor Kimberly Geeslin
email: kgeeslin

T 4:00p – 6:30p/section# 27883/3 cr./Location TBA

This course provides an introduction to the wealth of empirical research focusing on the acquisition of Spanish as a second language. Being introductory, the course begins with an analysis of early research on error analysis and traces the development of second language acquisition theory through the morpheme acquisition studies, studies on Interlanguage development and research on language processing (input and output). In addition to answering the question, How has the field of Spanish second language acquisition developed and evolved over the years, this course focuses on the paths of acquisition of non-native linguistic systems. In order to address both progress in second language acquisition theory, and the current knowledge of the development of non-native Spanish, this course is organized according to grammatical topics that have been identified as particular challenges for English-speakers. Each individual construct is analyzed in terms of its historical context and contemporary findings.

Evaluation

Daily preparation and active participation in class discussions will be an essential component of this course. Students will complete graded homework Assignments and two exams, organized around the primary themes of the course, requiring synthesis of course discussions and class readings and application of theoretical constructs to the study of second language acquisition data. There will be a final project and a presentation of that research to the class at the end of the semester.

S612    Topics in Linguistic Variation and Language in Context
Topic: Current Issues in Spanish Sociolinguistic Variation

Professor Manuel Díaz-Campos
email: mdiazcam

TR 2:30p – 3:45p/section# 27885/3 cr./BH 232

This class is an advanced research-oriented course in language variation and change. Students will develop a research paper that focus on current issues of sociolinguistic variation depending of his/her interests. Theoretical discussion and practical exercises will be incorporated during the semester with the purpose of encouraging critical thinking and solving-problem skills. Some of the topics to be included are: 1) sample and data, 2) statistical analysis, 3) theoretical frameworks to study sociolinguistic variation, 4) Social factors, 5) Speech perception and attitudes, and 6) Acquisition of sociolinguistic competence. Class time will be divided in lecturing, class discussion, and solving problem exercises.

PREREQUISITE:  S513 or equivalent

GOALS:

After successful completion of this course, the student will: