Bridge and Introductory Courses
The following courses may be taken after completion of the language requirement through coursework or placement. Although there may be exceptions (courses taken simultaneously), they are intended to be taken in sequence. Enrollment via “L” signup is limited to 15 students. Additional sections are offered through the Columbia Spanish and Portuguese department. Descriptions of Columbia courses are available at http://www.college.columbia.edu/bulletin/depts/spanish.php?tab=courses. Bridge and introductory courses are prerequisites not only for the major/minor, but for all upper-level literature and culture courses.
Spanish W3300, Advanced Language through Content
(Replaces previous BC3004 and W3200—if you took any of these courses, do not sign up for 3300):
Content-based advanced study of selected aspects of grammar and vocabulary, aimed at increasing proficiency in speaking, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension, with a special emphasis on writing. Topic varies according to instructor.
Issues in Contemporary Spain (sec. 6)
Wadda Ríos-Font, TR 1:10-2:25
Through a variety of authentic materials--literary and nonfiction readings, documentary and fiction film, internet--focuses on the issues confronting contemporary Spain: terrorism, immigration, sex and gender equality, domestic violence, historical memory.
Cultura: An Online Cross-Cultural Dialogue (sec. 9)
Jesús Suárez García, TR 10-35-11:50
An online cross-cultural exchange with students from León, Spain, focusing on an exploration and comparison of the values, attitudes and assumptions of Spanish and US societies. Students communicate through forums, read cultural materials and discuss and analyze their findings. Development of advanced language skills
Translating Cultures: Advanced Spanish for Native Speakers (sec. 10)
Javier Pérez Zapatero, WF 11:00-12:15
Through special attention to translation theory and practice in the context of an examination of the issue of multiculturalism in New York, the course aims to increase critical skills, awareness of formal/informal registers, and command of academic writing structures among native speakers with varying degrees of previous language instruction. (Please note that heritage/native speakers with little or no previous Spanish instruction should sign up for W1208).
Spanish W3330, Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Cultures
Information and skills needed to interpret a wide variety of cultural objects produced in Spain and Spanish America: literary, filmic, artistic, architectural, urban, etc. Focus on interpretation as an activity and as the principal operation though which culturally sited meaning is created and analyzed. Among the categories and topics discussed will be history, national and popular cultures, literature (high/low), cultural institutions, migration, and globalization. This course also continues work on speaking, listening, and reading comprehension, with a special emphasis on writing, begun in W3300.
Section 2 Maja Horn TR 2:40-3:55
Section 5 Amy Wright MW 4:10-5:25
Please note that the introductory surveys below are taught this semester exclusively at Columbia:
Spanish 3349, Hispanic Cultures I (Islamic Spain through the Colonial Period)
Provides students with an overview of the cultural history of the Hispanic world, from eighth-century Islamic and Christian Spain and the pre-Hispanic Americas through the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period until about 1700, covering texts and cultural artifacts from both Spain and the Americas.
Spanish 3350, Hispanic Cultures II (Enlightenment through the Present)
A survey of cultural production of Spain and Spanish America from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century, focusing on how the 19th-Century rupture of the political ties between Spain and the new nations opened new spaces for cultural exchange and for the articulation of cultural, national and linguistic identity.
Upper-Level Courses (conducted in Spanish)
The above bridge and introductory courses, or their equivalents as per instructor approval, are prerequisites for upper-level courses. In the case of Spanish minors, only one of Spanish 3300 or 3330 is required (though students are encouraged to take both). Enrollment through “L” signup limited to 15 students. Students may also take upper-level courses through the Columbia Spanish and Portuguese department http://www.college.columbia.edu/bulletin/depts/spanish.php?tab=courses.
BC3655 – The Films of Luis Buñuel and the Spanish Literary Tradition
Isabel Estrada, TR 5:40-6:55
A journey through the works of the renowned Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel and the literary movements from which he drew inspiration. We will establish a dialogue between his films and Spanish artistic trends such as surrealism, the picaresque, esperpento, and realism. Authors include Garcia Lorca, Valle Inclán, Pérez Galdós.
BC3671 - Spanish Literature since 1975: The Postmodern Discourse
Isabel Estrada, TR 4:10-5:25
A close reading of some of the most significant works and trends of post-Franco Spain in the light of postmodern theories. Readings will include works by Martín-Gaite, Vázquez Montalbán, Montserrat Roig, Lourdes Ortiz, J.J. Millás, Ana Rosetti, Paloma Pedrero, Antonio Gala, Almudena Grandes.
BC 3447 - Mysteries, Manuscripts, and Secret Societies: Twentieth Century Rewritings of the Nineteenth-Century Spanish Novel
Amy Wright, MW 5:40-6:55
A look at the recasting of Spain’s nineteenth century and its novels through contemporary rewritings of the detective, historical fiction, and mystery-thriller genres. Recent works will be read alongside original nineteenth-century texts that they imitate and parody, to explore this trend’s significance in the context of modern Spanish literature and culture.
Courses in English
W3265 – Latin American Literature in Translation
Alfred MacAdam, MW 10:35-11:50
A study of contemporary Latin American narrative; its origins and apotheosis. Readings include Machado de Assis, Borges, García Marquez, Puig, and others.
Courses taught by Barnard SLAC faculty in other departments:
AFTH BC 3150- Race and Performance in the Caribbean
Maja Horn
Please consult Directory of Classes for time
This course analyzes the shifting place and perception of Afro-Caribbean performance in Caribbean societies. Taking a cross-cultural approach we examine performance through the lens of ethnography, dance, music and literary criticism.
CPLS W4400 – New World Novella
(Columbia course for advanced undergraduates and graduates)
Alfred MacAdam
Please consult Directory of Classes for time
The novella in the New World during the 19th and 20th centuries: a comparative reading of novellas from Latin America and North America. The course seeks to define the novella as a literary genre and show that it is the interface between literature and ideas, that it is a forum where the intellectual concerns of an age find artistic expression. While all novellas are obsessed with historical issues, the New World novella is especially concerned with the problematic relationships among the peoples of this hemisphere. Though race is far from the only subject addressed by the texts in the course, it constitutes a recurring theme throughout the readings.
CPLS BC 3149 - Urchins, Adulteresses, and Orphans: The Specter of the Other in Nineteenth-Century Bourgeois Literature
Amy Wright
Please consult Directory of Classes for time
Exploration of the 19th-century bourgeois fascination --as evidenced in narrative texts produced and consumed by that class--with marginalized figures from the fringes of acceptable society. Texts consist mainly of novel/short stories featuring protagonists from the poor urban massess, transgressive females such as the adulteress and the prostitute, and the lineage-less figure so popular in the 19th-century narrative, the orphan outcast.
CPLS BC 3125 - Opera and Literature/Opera as Literature
James Crapotta
Please consult Directory of Classes for time
What is an operatic text and how do we "read" it? An examination of the changing relationship between text and music in opera; operatic transformations of literature; opera's representation in literature; critical readings of opera (psychoanalytic, feminist, queer). Works by Monteverdi, Gluck, Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Strauss, Debussy, and Britten.
