Spanish Major Courses – Fall 2023

All courses are taught in Spanish.

For an overview of all Spanish courses, see this presentation.

Spanish 250: Family and Gender Roles in Spain: 1900 to Present
Prerequisite: SPAN 232 or placement into SPAN 250 or SPAN 251
GE: FOL-S & WRI / OLE CORE: WLC & WAC)
Prof. Gwen Barnes-Karol, T 8:00-9:25 / Th 8:00-9:20

In this course, you’ll explore Spain’s “revolución familiar” – dramatic changes in family structures and gender roles, the rights of women and members of the LGBTQ+ community, and relationships between generations. While some of these changes may seem to parallel those that have occurred in other countries (including the U.S.), the way they came about in Spain is unique. Together we’ll examine the history of families and gender roles from the early 1900s to the present day through a variety of “cultural texts” – informational texts about trends in society at large (from videos to official documents) as well as narratives that capture the human experiences of individuals and families: both stories of the lives of real people and a historical novel that creatively portrays a society in transition. In the process, we will work on developing our academic language skills in Spanish, especially through writing with the use of textual evidence. The course includes participation in three out-of-class conversation groups.

Key course materials: Novel, Historia de una maestra (Josefina R. Aldecoa); films an videos,  packet of readings from a variety of sources

Offered Fall and Spring.

Prerequisite: SPAN 232 or placement into SPAN 250 or SPAN 251
SPAN 250 or SPAN 251 required for the Spanish major (only one of these two courses can count for the major). Note: SPAN 250 (equivalent to SPAN 251) is the first course in the Spanish major but is open to any student who has completed SPAN 232 or placed into the 250-level. 250-level courses cannot be repeated, and students cannot count both 250 and 251 for the Spanish major. Either SPAN 250 or 251 counts as the prerequisite for 270-level courses and above.

SPAN 250 or SPAN 251 are required for the Spanish and Latin American Studies majors.

Counts Toward Majors: Gender & Sexuality Studies, Latin American Studies, Performance, Political Science, and Women’s and Gender Studies 

Counts Toward Concentrations: Family Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, International Relations, Management Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies

Spanish 251: Gender & Race in Latin America
Prerequisite: SPAN 232 or placement into SPAN 250 or SPAN 251
GE: FOL-S & WRI / OLE CORE: WLC & WAC
Section A: Prof. Jonathan O’Conner, MWF 11:50-12:45
Section B: Prof. Maggie Broner, MWF 12:55-1:50.

This course focuses on gender and race in Latin America and explores gender roles, femicide, intersectionality, activism, and Latin America’s deep-rooted history of activism and resistance to oppression. To capture a wide range of experiences and voices, we work with short stories, articles, podcasts, films, songs, and poems from across Latin America. We include objective sources that focus on providing information, as well as subjective sources that narrate human experiences—people’s stories. In the process, we also work on developing our academic language skills in Spanish, especially through writing with the use of textual evidence. Includes participation in 3 out-of-class conversation groups. Taught in Spanish. Offered Fall and Spring. 

Counts toward Gender & Sexuality Studies, RACE, and Latin American Studies majors and concentrations.

Note: SPAN 251 (equivalent to SPAN 250) is the first course in the Spanish major but is open to any student who has completed SPAN 232 or placed into the 250 level. 250-level courses cannot be repeated. Either SPAN 250 or 251 counts as the prerequisite for 270-level courses and above.

Spanish 275: Exploring Hispanic Literature. Topic: The Spanish Civil War through Literature
Prerequisite: SPAN 250 or SPAN 251
GE: ALS-L / OLE CORE: CRE)
Prof. Gwen Barnes-Karol  T 11:45-1:10 / Th 12:45-2:05

You’ve read works of literature in Spanish in culture classes at St. Olaf – Historia de una maestra, Cenizas del Izalco, a selection of short stories, or perhaps even the sci-fi thriller La piel fría. Now you’re ready for the next step—reading literary works not just as cultural documents, but also as “literature.”

In this course, we’ll explore the creative process that underlies selected literary works in Spanish from four genres (poetry, short stories, a novel, and a play) by analyzing the how different authors make use of a variety of elements to produce works of imagination to share with their readers/audiences. Our specific point of departure in this edition of the course will be a historical event – the Spanish Civil (1936-39). An internal conflict that took on international importance in the 1930s and is now considered to be the prelude to WWII, the Spanish Civil War quickly sparked artistic responses by Spaniards (Picasso’s 1937 painting Guernica) and foreigners alike (Ernest Hemingway’s 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, made in to an Academy Award-winning film in 1943). The war continues to be the seminal event in 20th-century Spanish history and even today inspires novelists, playwrights, movie directors, and graphic novelists as the country wrestles to process its painful history.

We’ll analyze the works below with regard to the specific creative elements their authors use to respond to the war and in relation to their historical and artistic context:

• Poetry: War-time poems written by famous literary figures of the day as well as by everyday Spanish citizens that express their reactions to the war in real time (in conjunction with poster art from the period);
• Short stories: selected microstories from the 1938 collection Valor y miedo by Arturo Barea that highlight the human dimension of war-time life in Madrid and in the countryside;
• Novel: Réquiem por un campesino español, by Ramón J. Sender, a novel originally written in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and published in Mexico because it was banned by the Franco regime, about how war impacts human bonds of friendship; and
• Theater: Fernando Fernán-Gómez’s Las bicicletas son para el verano, an award-winning play by one of 20th-century Spain’s foremost actors/playwrights, that explores the interactions among neighbors in a Madrid apartment building as they share hopes, dreams, worries, sorrows, fears, and food.

The course also requires viewing films outside of class and two approved “comunidad de práctica” activities (for example, la Mesa avanzada, or Casa Hispánica/Presente/Somos events).

This course is required for the Spanish major. Offered Fall and Spring.

Counts toward Latin American Studies, Performance, and Political Science majors and International Relations and Latin American Studies concentrations.

Note: SPAN 275 cannot be repeated.

Spanish 276:  Spanish as a First and Second Language
Prerequisite: SPAN 250 or SPAN 251
Prof. Maggie Broner, MWF 2:00-2:55

¿Qué significa hablar bien una lengua? ¿Qué lenguas tienen poder en Estados Unidos y el mundo hispanohablante? ¿Por qué es el español una lengua minoritaria en los Estados Unidos? ¿Por qué se enseña el español como una lengua extranjera y no como una segunda lengua en los Estados Unidos? ¿Por qué los libros de texto de español introducen el uso de “vosotros” pero no “vos”? ¿Qué es Spanglish y quién lo habla?

This course will critically explores these, and other, questions related to the acquisition and use of Spanish as first, Heritage, and second language in a social context. The course introduces the cognitive and social processes involved in learning, acquiring, and using Spanish as a second language.  In addition, SPAN 276 explores Spanish as a first and Heritage language through the study of the different varieties of Spanish spoken in the Spanish-speaking world, with particular emphasis on Spanish and English bilingualism in the U.S.. The questions also invite us to look at the intersections between language, power, and identity. In order to do all this, this course will introduce some foundational notions from the fields of Second Language Acquisition, Hispanic Linguistics and sociolinguistics.

Tentative reading list:

• Packet of journal articles and book chapters (available through the Bookstore)
• Mi mundo adoraro by Supreme Justice Sonia Sotomayor (available through the Bookstore)
• Materiales para Span 276 (course handouts available through the Bookstore)

This course is required for the Spanish major

Counts for Linguistic Studies concentration

Counts for RACE

Spanish 313: Literature and Society in Spain, Topic – What Is a Meaningful Life? 
Prerequisite: SPAN 250 or SPAN 251; and SPAN 275
GE: ALS-L
Prof. León Narváez, MWF 9:05-10:00

What is a meaningful life? How do human beings vary in their understanding of that life? What do they seem to communicate as to the nature of a meaningful life? What do Spanish writers of the past convey about the possibility of leading a life that has meaning? There is a general focus in our society on happiness and ‘the pursuit of happiness’. How does happiness relate to having a life of meaning?

As we consider these questions and others, we will read some of the works that mattered to me when I was a teenager and in my twenties. We will explore together how they had an impact on my life, how they influenced my view of the meaningful life, as well as your understanding of these works. I will have the opportunity to consider again the importance of literature in my life and for you to consider its importance, if any, in yours.

What we will read may include: 

• Lazarillo de Tormes, a novel by an unknown author
• selections from El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, a novel by Miguel de Cervantes
• Don Juan Tenorio, a play by José Zorrilla
• Pepita Jiménez, a novel by Juan Valera
• essays written by José Mariano de Larra and Azorín
• San Manuel Bueno, Mártir, a novel written by Miguel de Unamuno
• poetry written by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Federico García Lorca, and others
• Historia de una escalera, a play by Antonio Buero Vallejo

Either SPAN 313 or SPAN 314 is required for the Spanish major

Can count as a 300-elective if you’ve already taken 313 or 314 with a different topic

Counts as a “focus on Spain” course

Spanish 399: Seminar in Literature –  “Literature and Dictatorship in the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile & Uruguay)”
Prerequisite: SPAN 250 or SPAN 251 and at least one 270-level course
GE curriculum: WRI; OLE Core: WIM
Prof. Ariel Strichartz, T 1:20-2:45 / Th 2:15-3:35

Perhaps you have heard of los desaparecidos, have seen images of the Madres de Plaza de Mayo marching in front of the Casa Rosada with photographs of their loved ones, or are familiar with the stories of Argentines, Chileans, and Uruguayans who were forced into exile. Indeed, the military dictatorships that emerged in Latin America’s Southern Cone in the 1970s and 1980s were characterized by their systematic violation of human rights and by their generalized intolerance for any public expression critiquing the regime in power. Nevertheless, writers have continued to turn to literature as a means of actively responding to the historical circumstances brought about by the military dictatorships in question. With this premise, this course will explore the following questions through analysis of novels, plays, and essays from Argentina, Chile and Uruguay:

• What are the possibilities for artistic and cultural expression under the centralizing and often violent control of authoritarian regimes?
• When faced with extreme censorship, what strategies have writers developed in order to challenge the official version of events put forth by an authoritarian regime?
• Are there literary tools capable of expressing horror, fear and pain? How might these tools differ from one literary genre to the next?
• In the wake of authoritarianism, how does artistic activity “inhabit” the past rather than avoid it? What are the possibilities and limitations of literature for carrying out such a project?
• In what ways does literature in exile differ in theme and literary strategy from works by authors who remain in their countries during periods of repression?
• Under dictatorship, what is the role of the reader and/or spectator? What do they need to infer in order to make sense of a work?
• Do the fear and distrust created by state-sponsored repression eliminate the possibility for human solidarity and intimacy?
• In what ways does violent authoritarianism impact national identity?

Tentative readings include the following:
NOVELS

• Marta Traba (Argentina, 1981). Conversación al sur.
• Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay, 1984). La nave de los locos.
• Manuel Puig (Argentina, 1976). El beso de la mujer araña.

PLAYS

• Eduardo Rovner (Argentina). Concierto de aniversario.
• Mario Benedetti (Uruguay). Pedro y el capitán.
• Ariel Dorfman (Argentina/Chile). La muerte y la doncella

Counts as a 300-level elective for the Spanish major