Spring 2019 Seminar Descriptions
PORT 5110, SEM: Survey of Brazilian Literature
Professor Marcelo Schincariol M,W,F 2:00-2:50 pm
This course promotes a theoretical discussion on the notion of “literatura marginal” and its repercussions in the processes of literary production, circulation, and reception. It focuses on the Brazilian fiction produced in the 20th and the 21st centuries, involving the works of the so-called “vozes da periferia”, such as Paulo Lins, Ferréz e Sacolinha.
SPAN 5140/7140, SEM: Gender, Ethnicity, and Difference in Medieval Iberia and the Mediterranean
Professor Núria Silleras-Fernandez Thursdays 3:30-6:00 p.m.
This seminar will discuss gender, ethnicity, and difference constructed either as cultural, religious or racial in the context of Iberian literatures and culture, and to a lesser extent in connection with the Mediterranean. These topics would be framed in current discussions present in Iberian and Mediterranean studies. While some writings construed “ideal medieval society” as rigid, gender as binary, and religious difference as the defining factor in cultural prejudice, most texts reflected fluidity, elements of gender performativity, and extensive interaction between majority-minority groups that contributed to creating a well-defined and original literary production. We will study constructions of privilege and prejudice in the three main Iberian religious and cultural traditions – Christianity, Islam, and Judaism – and the paradoxes and contradictions that appear when analyzing themes such as gender, misogyny, excess, religiosity, knighthood, acceptability, unacceptability, love and sexuality, virtue, humor, authority and power. We will focus on genres and texts, both canonical and non-canonical, predominantly written in Spanish; however, in consideration of the linguistic diversity of Medieval Iberia we will also read works in other peninsular languages, as well as texts belonging to other literary traditions that are fundamental to understanding Iberian cultural production.
SPAN 5220/7220, SEM: Spanish Film: Beyond Almodóvar
Professor Nina Molinaro Wednesdays 3:30-6:00 p.m.
The course will be organized around the films of some of the most notable (and prolific) directors from Spain during the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. These directors will include (but not be limited to): Luis García Berlanga, Carlos Saura, Luis Buñuel, Víctor Érice, Pilar Miró, Julio Medem, Iciar Bollaín, Fernando Trueba, Isabel Coixet, and Alex de la Iglesia. With these directors (and their films) in mind, we will consider film history, film theory, film genre, and film hermeneutics throughout the semester. Along the way we will discuss ideology, gender, ethics, nation, performance, perspective, and visual language(s). The course is intended as an introduction to both film studies and Spanish film, as well as a gateway to advanced scholarship on national film trajectories and the aesthetics of visual culture.
SPAN 5300/7300, SEM: The Politics of Evangelization: The Church and Colonial Policy in Early Modern Peru
Professor Andrés Prieto Fridays 3:30-6:00 p.m.
Ever since Alexander VI’s Bull Inter Caetera (1493), the Spanish empire ostensibly based its claims of legitimacy on the evangelization of the American peoples. Church and Crown, although sometimes at odds regarding particular policies, shared a common interest in the Spanish presence in the continent. In this class, we will examine the crossover between religious indoctrination and the creation of colonial policy. Some of the questions we will try to answer are: How was a colonial subjectivity created? How was theology used to justify the subjugation of the native peoples? What new genres and intellectual disciplines came to be due to this crossover of imperial and religious policies?
SPAN 5320/7320 SEM: El gótico latinoamericano
Professor Juan Pablo Dabove Mondays 3:30-6:00 p.m.
El curso será una aproximación a las variedades del gótico en América Latina con énfasis en el período que va desde las postrimerías de la Guerra Fría a la actualidad, cuando el gótico, bajo diferentes nombres, se erige en una de las formas dominantes de la imaginación global, tanto en la ficción como fuera de ella. Sin embargo, estudiaremos también el linaje (impuro) del gótico latinoamericano, que hibrida diversas tradiciones culturales (europeas, estadounidenses, africanas, asiáticas) con una imaginación teratológica de larga data en el continente, y con ansiedades y aspiraciones privativas de la experiencia latinoamericana.
Trabajaremos sobre todo con textos literarios y películas, pero asimismo con novelas gráficas (dependiendo de la disponibilidad) y con ejemplos de artes visuales. Asimismo, haremos frecuentes referencias a cómo otras formas de discurso (político, periodístico) en América Latina contemporánea apelan, de manera constante pero inadvertida, a una constelación de temas y tropos que vienen de la imaginación gótica (invasión, contaminación, degeneración, conspiración, sustitución de identidades
SPAN 5430/7430, SEM: Seminar/Hispanic Linguistics. Topics in Usage-based Linguistics
Professor Esther Brown Tu, Th 2:00 p.m.-3:15 pm
This course serves as an introduction to usage-based approaches to phonology. We will contrast functionalist and cognitive perspectives with more formal descriptions of phonological rules and representation. We will examine what phonological phenomena can tell us about the nature and size of lexical units. An emphasis will be placed on exploring phonetic, experimental, and diachronic studies in order to understand the nature of phonological representation in memory. Whenever possible, data and examples will be taken from Spanish. Each student will complete original research on a (phonological) variable of their choice from a usage-based perspective.