Upper Level Courses

(Pre-requisite: Spanish 240, 242, 246 or instructor’s consent)

Spanish 320 – Literary Currents of Spain I  (4 credits, AL): This course offers an introduction to the literature written in Spanish in the Iberian Peninsula during the Pre-modern period, roughly between 1200-1700. Students will read a selection of canonical texts (short-stories, theatre plays, poetry), and will discuss them in relation to the context in which they were produced (aesthetic trends, audience, historical events, and socio-historical conditions). This class fulfills the AL General Education requirement. 

Spanish 321 – Literary Currents of Spain II (4 credits, AL): Introduction to Spanish literature from 1700 to the present; emphasis on literary currents and their relation to culture and history of the period. Representative drama, poetry, and narrative. This class fulfills the AL General Education requirement.  

Spanish 322 – Introduction to Spanish American Literature (4 credits, HS/DG):  Introduction to the literature of Spanish America from the beginnings to the end of the Romantic period. Emphasis on literary currents and their relation to history and culture of the period. Representative poetry, narrative, drama. This class fulfills the ALDG General Education requirement.  

Spanish 323 – Spanish American Literature (4 credits, AL/DG): This class offers students an overview of the literature of Spanish America from the end of the Romantic period to the present. Emphasis on literary currents and their relation to history and culture of the period. Representative poetry, narrative, drama.This class fulfills the ALDG General Education requirement.  

Spanish 324 – Introduction to Latino/a Literature (4 credits, AL/DU): In this course students will think critically about the various "wild tongues" that have defined U.S. Latinx literature and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries. Our analysis will center on issues of power as they are experienced by diverse U.S. Latinx populations. Specifically, we will focus on Latinx writers, performers, and scholars that push the boundaries of acceptable gender, sexuality, and racialization within U.S. Latinx cultures, focusing specifically on Caribbean and Chicanx populations in the United States. This class fulfills the ALDU General Education requirement.  

Spanish 330 – Food and Famine in Spanish Literature (3 credits): In this course students will examine the representation of food in literature, media and art while they are introduced to the critical analysis of texts and films through short papers. Topics studied include the introduction of new ingredients, banquets, food shortage, eating out, and the ties of food to national identity in Spanish, Basque, Galician and Catalan cultures. This course’s emphasis is in contemporary food culture, but will include examples from older societies.

Spanish 350 – Translation Today  (3 credits): This course offers students extensive practice in Spanish-English and English-Spanish translation of a wide range of texts and materials: literary, legal, medical, business, commercial, and more. Students build upon their knowledge of both Spanish and English and gain the ability to produce fluent, accurate, and effective translations between the two languages.

Spanish 351 – Hispanic New York  (4 credits):  This course will provide a panoramic survey of the literature produced in New York by Hispanic writers as well as literary representations of New York in the Hispanic imaginary in a variety of genres (poetry, novel, memoir, and travel writing). From the late nineteenth century to the present, we will focus on key moments in this diverse corpus of literature and explore topics such as crisis, immigration, community, tourism, exile, language and translation, and artistic relations among several national groups. 

Spanish 356 – Spanish for Medical Professions (3 credits): This course is specifically designed to meet the needs of students interested in health care professions to increase fluency in the language through a variety of written and oral practices.

Spanish 357 – Spanish for the Service Professions (3 credits): An advanced class designed for students of Spanish. It seeks to improve the students’ understanding of the language and culture of working in service-oriented professions, such as hospitality & tourism, health services, education, legal services, and financial services. Students pursue an in-depth study of concepts related to intercultural communication in English- and Spanish-speaking communities, and develop a variety of written and oral texts in Spanish relevant to their specific area of professional interest.

Spanish 367 – Hispanic Children's Literature (3 credits): Oral and literary traditions in Hispanic children's literature. Emphasis on Latin America and the Latino communities in the United States.

Spanish 378 – Spanish Phonetics  (3 credits):  Language laboratory included. Sound system of Spanish, improvement of pronunciation, preparation in phonetics for future teachers. Readings on Spanish phonetics. Language lab work with videos and audio cassettes. 

Spanish 382 – Spanish in the US (4 credits, SB/DU): In this course, we will explore Spanish in the United States from a range of perspectives. We will apply what is known about the socio-linguistic situations of Spanish-speaking communities throughout the United States. as we strive to learn about the Spanish-speaking community in Holyoke, Mass. (a Spanish-speaking community that has not been described by linguists). The course includes a service-learning component such that students will work as tutors with Spanish-English bilinguals in Holyoke.

Spanish 384- Iberian Cinemas (3 credits): This class offers a survey of the film productions of the Spanish state. Through a selection of over 20 films, this class will follow the evolution of Spanish society and culture from dictatorship to democracy. It will address the development of Spanish cinema with an emphasis on different cinematic genres and film schools (for instance Basque cinema or Catalan cinema), and auteurs (Bu?uel, Saura, Luna, Almodovar, Coixet, Bollain, etc.). It will concentrate on topics such as the representation of Fascism, immigration, gender relations, gender-based violence, and national identity, and it will tackle the use of film techniques through close readings of specific film sequences. Films will be shown in their original versions (in Spanish, Catalan, Euskera, Galician, or English) with English subtitles.

Spanish 386 - Latin American Cinema (3 credits): This course is an introduction to the rich and diverse cinemas of Latin America. We will explore the historical, cultural, and political contexts in which these films were produced, and analyze how they reflect and shape the social and political realities of their respective countries. Through screenings, readings, and discussions, we will examine the unique aesthetic and narrative strategies employed by Latin American filmmakers, and consider the ways in which they challenge dominant cinematic conventions. The course will trace the emergence of cinema in Latin America in the early 20th century, by exploring the ways in which film was used as a tool for propaganda, education, and nation-building. It will examine the various movements and genres that have emerged throughout Latin America's cinematic history, including the New Latin American Cinema, the Third Cinema, and the contemporary Latin American film industry. Through the analysis of key films, we will consider how these movements have engaged with questions of identity, history, memory, and social justice.

Catalan 397B - Barcelona and the Catalan Culture (taught in Spanish—applies towards Spanish major, 3 credits): This course offers an interdisciplinary overview of the city of Barcelona and Catalan Culture, encompassing the most salient aspects of its society, languages, literature, cinema, art, music and traditions. The course allows students to familiarize themselves with key aspects related to the modern making of the city and at the the same time, serves as an introduction to Catalan literature, art, and film. Students will broaden their perception of the cultural diversity of contemporary Spain as they watch movies, study artworks, and read a variety of texts by Catalan writers, historians, artists, and urban planners. *Taught in Spanish.

Spanish 397/Portuguese 397 - Multiple Linguistic Worlds: On Multilingualism and Translation in Spanish & Portuguese Writing (cross-listed, 3 credits):  The main objective of this course is to investigate how questions of multilingualism and translation emerge in Spanish and Portuguese American writings.  By studying a number of texts representing language encounters in multilingual communities we will attempt to identify the distinctive linguistic elements of these texts and, very importantly, the role of cultural and linguistic translation within this body of writing. The course will introduce the students to a multidisciplinary approach that combines sociolinguistics, translation theory, and discourse analysis in order to explore a wide range of genres such as memoir, prose, personal essays, and diary entries produced by the Spanish and Portuguese American diaspora. 

Spanish 397MC - Introduction to Latin American "Minicuento" (3 credits):  This course introduces students to a literary genre characterized as being one of the most succinct, challenging, and iconoclast. Students learn how Latin American authors have recreated and renewed a long-standing literary tradition through the use of extreme literary and rhetorical means, including formal perfection, humor, and social satire. The course will introduce important authors of the genre, including Monterroso, Shua, Campobello, Cortázar, and Sequera, among others. This course requires consistent and active participation by students, who will be evaluated with a variety of methods, including oral presentations, reports, reviews, exams, and a final paper.