Diego del Río Arrillaga

This first half of a yearlong course is focused on the self in a broader social context for students who are beginning the study of Spanish or have had minimal exposure to the language. The course offers the equivalent of conventional beginning and intermediate language study. The first semester's work comprises an introduction to Spanish as a spoken and written language. The work includes practice in understanding and using the spoken language. Written exercises and reading materials serve to reinforce communicative skills, build vocabulary and enhance discussion of the individual and community. This course includes required practice sessions with a teaching assistant, which are scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Students enrolled in this course are automatically added to SPAN 112Y for the spring semester. No prerequisite. Offered every year.

This second half of a yearlong course is a continuation of SPAN 111Y. The second semester consists of continued study of the fundamentals of Spanish, while incorporating literary and cultural materials to develop techniques of reading, cultural awareness and mastery of the spoken and written language. The work includes practice in understanding and using the spoken language. Written exercises and reading materials serve to reinforce communicative skills, build vocabulary and enhance discussion of the individual and community. This course includes required practice sessions with a teaching assistant, which are scheduled at the beginning of the semester. Prerequisite: SPAN 111Y or equivalent. Offered every year.

This second half of the yearlong intermediate-level language course builds on the concepts and skills addressed in the first semester, with a continued focus on language and culture for students who are interested in developing their ability to speak, read, write and understand Spanish. Students are exposed to more complex Spanish grammar while also expanding their vocabulary in context, using authentic materials similar to those of the first semester (including short novels, stories, essays, newspaper articles, films, television series, and songs). Students produce more advanced analytic and creative writing assignments, and are asked to actively discuss a range of challenging topics in class with increased proficiency (compared to fall semester). Like SPAN 213Y, this course includes required practice sessions with a teaching assistant, though the days and times for these may be different from the fall semester. Prerequisite: SPAN 213Y or equivalent. Offered every year.

This course uses literature and film to give advanced students the opportunity to strengthen their ability to write analytically and creatively in Spanish. The course also strongly emphasizes speaking and reading in Spanish. Works from various literary genres and selected Spanish-language films are among the materials on which class discussion and writing assignments are centered. To deploy this content, we use digital technology that supports the acquisition of advanced vocabulary, the development of reading comprehension and writing. A grammar review, focused mainly on typical areas of difficulty, may also be included. Prerequisite: SPAN 213Y-214Y or equivalent. Offered every year.

Traditionally, Latin American and Iberian literatures are taught separately. However, in this course students are given the opportunity to study and analyze the similarities and rich connections between Spain and Latin America's artistic expressions (literature and visual arts) of the 19th and 20th centuries in order to better understand the overall evolution of artistic trends on both sides of the Atlantic. In this way, students not only can observe the wide network of influential collaborations and conflicts among several intellectuals and artists of the Spanish-speaking world, but also have the chance to explore many works by great authors of Spain and Latin America in a single course, such as Miguel de Unamuno, Rubén Darío, Jorge Luis Borges, Salvador Dalí, Federico García Lorca, Luis Buñuel, Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz. The course is recommended for Spanish and international studies majors. Prerequisite: SPAN 321 or equivalent. Generally offered every three years.

This course focuses on the work of several Spanish writers, film directors and painters who fled Spain because of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and immigrated to different countries in Latin America. We analyze their works before exile, during the first years living in exile, and later works (published either in exile or back in Spain). In this way, students have the opportunity to study how the experience of exile — living in Latin America and being in constant contact with Latin American culture and intellectuals—affected their creations. By following this methodology, the course gives students a profound understanding of the phenomenon of exile and how this particular group of Spanish artists set themselves apart from those who stayed in Spain or went to other countries around the globe. In addition, this course offers a digital humanities optional component, which gives students the opportunity to learn how to use mapping software. Prerequisite: SPAN 321 or equivalent.

For José Ortega y Gasset, the most influential Spanish philosopher of the 20th century, art could become truly humanized only to the degree that it moved, paradoxically, away from all things human toward the more figurative, psychological realm of aesthetic expression. As such, this artistic impulse promised to reveal previously unimaginable truths about the essence as well as the evasion of lived realities. Ortega y Gasset's thinking therefore serves as a point of departure for this course, which seeks both to understand modernism in Spain (and elsewhere) and to push its parameters beyond the Modernist movement. Indeed, the premise for our approach as a class is that modernism can best be understood as modernisms, as a spectrum of revolutionary forms of representation across time. We thus look to identify iterations of (de)humanization that transcend the historical period in which Ortega y Gasset wrote, while also asking why certain dramatic shifts could ever reach such newfound extremes only in the wake of the first World War. The course draws from writers as early as Cervantes and interweaves the Romantics, Miguel de Unamuno and his contemporaries, the Generation of 27, and those beyond. Consequently, literary genres to be covered include the short story, the novel, theater, poetry and the essay. We also read philosophical treatises on aesthetics, explore surrealist cinema and discuss the works of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí and many other visual artists of the day. Ultimately, our goal is to ask, and perhaps answer, why we choose to turn away in order to see better the world in which we live. Prerequisite: SPAN 321 or equivalent. Generally offered every three years.