Spanish Courses for Winter 2010

If you are looking for an Honors course, please scroll to the bottom of the page.

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Spanish 101.01

Introduction to Spanish; development of listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills; course conducted in Spanish. Visit the Spanish 101.01 Home page to access course syllabus: requirements, resources and weekly calendar.

Spanish 102.01

Continued study of Spanish; development of listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills; course conducted in Spanish. Visit the Spanish 102.01 Home page to access course syllabus: requirements, resources and weekly calendar.

Spanish 102.66

Intensive review of 101 and 102 vocabulary, structure, and skills needed for entry into 103; course conducted in Spanish. Visit the Spanish 102.66 Home page to access course syllabus: requirements, resources and weekly calendar.

Spanish 103.01

Continued study of Spanish; development of listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills; readings based on Spanish culture; course conducted in Spanish. Visit the Spanish 103.01 Home page to access course syllabus: requirements, resources and weekly calendar.

Spanish 103.66

Intensive review of 102 and 103, vocabulary, structure, and skills needed for entry into 104; course conducted in Spanish. Visit the Spanish 103.66 Home page to access course syllabus: requirements, resources and weekly calendar.

Spanish 104

Reading of Spanish short stories, plays, and novels with attention to literary appreciation; development of basic language skills; course conducted in Spanish. Visit the Spanish 104 Home page to access course syllabus: requirements, resources and weekly calendar.

Spanish 111

Intensive introduction to Spanish grammar, vocabulary, listening, speaking, reading, and writing; emphasis on communicative skills; equivalent to 103 and 104; course conducted in Spanish. U 10 Credit Hrs. (By permission of the instructor students with credit for 103.01 or 103.66 may register for the course and earn 5 credit hours. The grade is based on class work and attendance for the full quarter.) A minimum GPA of 2.5 is recommended.

Spanish 150

Introduction to the principal developments of the culture of Spain through literature, art, music, film, and folklore.

Spanish 240

This course deals with listening strategies and practice for development of literal, evaluative, and critical listening skills in Spanish. Students will study a variety of comprehension strategies and apply them to authentic audio and video texts. Visit the Spanish 240 Home page to access course syllabus: requirements, resources and weekly calendar.

Spanish 250

Spanish 250 is a developmental reading course designed to teach students appropriate strategies for reading Spanish as a second language and provide them with intensive reading practice on a variety of authentic texts, ranging from short journalistic texts (newspaper and magazine articles) to a longer literary text (short novel). Spanish 250 is designed to prepare undergraduate students for the reading demands of 400- and 600- level courses in Spanish and Spanish American literatures and cultures. Level of reading proficiency actually achieved by individual students will depend upon the learner's motivation, previous experience, and degree of engagement in course activities.
Visit the Spanish 250 Home page to access course syllabus: requirements, resources and weekly calendar.

Spanish 250N

Spanish 322

Introduction to Spanish art and its relationship to society, from Goya to Toral: a visual approach to culture.

Spanish 380

Introduction to Latin American film traditions; analysis of genres, filmmakers, and alternate aesthetics; focus on relation of film to social, political, and economic processes.

Spanish 401

This is an advanced course in Spanish grammar, which will prepare students for further work in Spanish, and will provide them especially with the background necessary for more advanced courses in Spanish linguistics. While much of the focus will be on continued mastery of the most difficult points of Spanish grammar, the course will also strive to present a novel perspective on grammar as a communicative tool, not as a monolithic set of rules to be memorized.

Spanish 403

The purpose of this course is to examine writing processes, and to develop and increase students' proficiency in written expression in Spanish. We will read models of a variety of genres and pattern compositions after them. Major projects include retrato, anuncio, cuento tradicional, entrevista, and ensayo literario.

Spanish 404

This course offers a comprehensive review of the pronunciation in Spanish. The fundamental principles of phonetic analysis are introduced in a simple and concise manner in order to show how Spanish sounds are produced, how they fall into patterns, and how they change in different environments. Major attention is devoted to practice with corrective exercises, introductory training in phonetic transcription and, to a lesser extent, the problems of teaching pronunciation. Throughout the course we will focus on the contrast between the Spanish and the English sound patterns and aspect intended to help students understand the major phonetic differences between both languages and at the same time as improve their Spanish pronunciation. The course will also include a brief introduction to Spanish syllable structure, stress, and intonational patterns. Finally, there will be a brief survey of the major differences in pronunciation between Peninsular and American dialects. The course will be open only to students with non-native pronunciation.

Spanish 404

This course offers a comprehensive review of the pronunciation in Spanish. The fundamental principles of phonetic analysis are introduced in a simple and concise manner in order to show how Spanish sounds are produced, how they fall into patterns, and how they change in different environments. Major attention is devoted to practice with corrective exercises, introductory training in phonetic transcription and, to a lesser extent, the problems of teaching pronunciation. Throughout the course we will focus on the contrast between the Spanish and the English sound patterns, an aspect intended to help students understand the major phonetic differences between both languages and at the same time as improve their Spanish pronunciation. The course will also include a brief introduction to Spanish syllable structure, stress, and intonational patterns. Finally, there will be a brief survey of the major differences in pronunciation between Peninsular and American dialects. The course will be open only to students with non-native pronunciation.

Spanish 406

This course is designed to present an overview of contemporary business practices in various Spanish-speaking regions, and to help equip students with the cultural and linguistic awareness, knowledge, and skills to transition toward their goals for employment within that context. Organized in part around basic business topics--including general business practices, management, and marketing--the curriculum also addresses those entry-level characteristics currently identified as desirable by corporate sectors seeking recruits for business assignments involving the Spanish-speaking world.

Spanish 430

This course is an introduction to the study of Hispanic Linguistics. The main purpose of the class will be to investigate the structure of Spanish (phonology, morphology, syntax), in order to discover the properties of language that linguists work with in order to model linguistic knowledge. The course will also consider aspects of Spanish dialects and the interaction between language and society in the Spanish-speaking world.

Spanish 450

This is the first literature/culture course most students will take and it constitutes a crucial link between previous courses in language and culture and upper-division courses in literature and culture. This course is not a historical survey, but rather an introduction to the various problems of reading different types (genres) of literary and cultural texts in the Spanish language. The curriculum includes Spanish-language writers from both Spain and Spanish America, and different types of cultural texts (including film) from the twentieth century, as well as a sampling of older texts.

Spanish 450

Spanish 520

This course presents a critical examination of modern Latin American literature (in English translation) paying close attention to its own literary and cultural traditions. The fact that we will be reading both linguistic and cultural "translations" of these discourses will be underscored. Likewise, a differential (with regard to both the US and Europe) role of the intellectual, much more closely connected to society and even to the state, will be taken into account. Similarly, identity-searching self-definitions of the real maravilloso and realismo mgico will be explored, rather than solely relying on metropolitan definitions of "magical realism," which over emphasize the "exotic," concentrate on stylistic matters, and are closely connected to market considerations. While many other issues will be addressed, the course will concentrate on exploring how Latin American works of fiction (mostly novels and short stories) a) relate to the realities they represent and in which they circulate, b) construct they own textuality, and c) question reality itself, most often by highlighting their own fictionality as well as the fictionality of the discourses of the "real," such as history, science and anthropology, to name a few.

Spanish 538

Survey of linguistic variation across the Spanish-speaking world, including geographical and social factors.

Spanish 552

Introductory critical study of major literary works from the 19th and 20th centuries in Spain.

Spanish 557

This course introduces some of the most important topics and literary trends within the field of Latino/a literature in the U.S., with an emphasis on writers of Chicano and Caribbean descent. The course is organized along a historical perspective that traces the folk and oral literary traditions of the Southwest and focuses on important developments in the last decades. Such a perspective is intersected by relevant theoretical, sociological, and cultural categories (identity; gender; diaspora; social class; cultural resistance, etc.) across the different national communities. While the course recognizes the increasing shifting of language from Spanish to English in recent Latino/a literature, as Latino/as have found more opportunities of publication in mainstream publishing houses, it explores the complex politics of language usage both in Spanish and English as well as in hybrid forms of linguistic expression (i.e. Spanglish). The reading selections include examples of the four major literary genres as well as a critical reading component to provide students of pertinent contextual information, and some theoretical and critical tools for their own critical analysis of this literature.

Spanish 560

Major elements in the culture of the peoples of Spanish America.

Spanish 567

This course seeks to explore, through different lenses, the fragmentation and renegotiation of Spanish cultural and political identity in tension with its peripheral “nations.” Since 1978, when the Spanish Constitution granted the status of “national historic communities” to Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia, and Andalusia, the idea of a homogeneous nation has been constantly challenged by the cultural and literary practices of each individual region. Through careful readings of selected texts, we will approach the struggle of the “peripheral nations” to define their own identities by creating ethnocentric myths, vindicating their languages, emphasizing popular traditions, etc. We will explore how literature, music, mass media, and other cultural representations (i.e. Internet sites), as tools, work in the construction of these national imaginaries. It is expected that each student will take a critical position about the difficulties that arise when talking about: 1) ONE Spanish nation, and 2) PERIPHERAL national identities.
This course will examine a variety of texts (short stories, novels, films, music, and Web pages) that best represent the continuous resistance to an “imposed” Spanish nationhood. Background readings on nation-formation theories and Spanish history as well as information on each region’s nationalist movements will be provided. In particular, we will examine the images of the nation represented in the cultural production of these regions. In our discussions, we will consider a series of key questions such as: What makes a nation? What elements constitute a national sentiment? How are these elements represented in literature and culture? Why do we speak of a fragmented Spain? Where do these authors position themselves in relation to these problems?

Spanish 581

Study of Spanish film; special attention is paid to the relationship between film and the society in which it is produced.

Spanish 603

Analysis of different prose styles and practice in writing fluent Spanish compositions.

Spanish 613

Éste es un curso de redacción o composición avanzada diseñado para mejorar las habilidades de escritura (y lectura) de aquellos estudiantes cuya primera lengua es, o ha sido en algún momento, el español y que han recibido (aunque sea de manera limitada) un entrenamiento más o menos formal en la gramática y la composición en español. El objetivo principal del curso es ayudar a los estudiantes a desarrollar sus habilidades para organizar y expresar sus ideas por escrito. Otras metas son, pero no están limitadas a, revisar la ortografía y conceptos y terminología fundamental de la gramática española, aprender a reconocer las características de la escritura formal en una variedad de textos en español (a través de lecturar crítica) y poder utilizar las estrategias aprendidas al escribir las composiciones asignadas. Así, los estudiantes se enfrentarán a una variedad de textos en español y se les requerirá que reconozcan las características formales de dichos textos para que luego, poniendo en práctica sus conocimientos, produzcan textos similares. Puesto que una parte central de escribir bien es saber editar nuestro propio trabajo y, algunas veces, aceptar las sugerencias de otros lectores, este curso se apoyará en el proceso de edición para poder reescribir. Con este fin se formarán grupos de lectura y edición que trabajarán juntos durante el curso fomentando así un sentimiento de identificación y unidad con otros hispanohablantes.

Spanish 630

Prototypes in Spanish Linguistic Analysis
In order to understand language, linguists collect data and categorize it. The value of the resulting insights depends, of course, on how they collect their data and how they categorize it. One particularly promising form of categorization is prototype theory, which was developed to explain human perception. Since language and perception develop simultaneously in humans, prototype theory has been applied successfully to linguistic analysis. In this course, we will study a number of applications of prototype theory to the description of Spanish phonology, morphology, syntax and the lexicon. This theoretical framework will allow us to look at Spanish grammar in a new way—which will be valuable for all students. Our approach will cast new light on such staples of Spanish instruction as pronouns, the "personal a," consonant deletion, fast-speech rules, idioms, loan words, and many other areas of the grammar.

Spanish 650

Intensive study of a major author, literary work, or theme; topic varies, for example: Cervantes or Spanish literature of the Civil War.

Spanish 660

Los jóvenes, en el cine y las culturas juveniles
Desde principios del siglo XX (si no antes), se ha concebido a los jóvenes como el “futuro de la sociedad” y, a la vez, como un sector “peligroso.” Esta tendencia discursiva se intensificó a partir de los años 50 cuando se aceleró el consumismo y otra vez a finales del siglo con los efectos de la globalización y la cultura digital. Este curso propone analizar los papeles que han tomado los jóvenes (como sector poblacional y como figura discursiva) a lo largo de las últimas décadas desde varios ángulos diferentes. Discutiremos la representación de los jóvenes en diferentes medios (esp. en la literatura y el cine); el papel de los jóvenes como audiencia y como mercado (por ejemplo, en cuanto la emergencia del “rock en español en los años 80); y, de menor grado, su papel como productores culturales. Siempre atentos a diferencias y similitudes entre diferentes épocas históricas y diferentes países, examinaremos las nociones de la contracultura y las subculturas en relación a los jóvenes y exploraremos el papel de los jóvenes en relación a diferentes procesos socio-históricos (la modernización, el neocolonialismo, la globalización) y diferentes “momentos” o “condiciones” socio-culturales (la modernidad, la posmodernidad).

Spanish 689

Spanish 689 is designed for undergraduate Spanish majors and minors, as well as other interested students, who wish to improve their oral language skills while learning about Hispanic culture in Ohio. The course format will consist of 2 two-hour classes and one three-hour class per week during the first five weeks of the winter quarter. Students will have the opportunity to hear guest speakers from the Hispanic communities of Ohio and take field trips to local points of interest. During the second half of the quarter, students will meet on an individual basis by appointment with the instructor. All students will meet together the final week to make presentations summarizing their activities. Students enrolled in Spanish 689 are required to participate in ten hours per week (100 hours total) of language use outside of class, in a mixture of situations that will include some service learning. They will document their activities in a journal to be handed in at the end of the course. In addition, students will complete an original project (to be presented in both oral and written form) on a theme related to the Hispanic experience in Ohio.

Spanish 753

Bodies, Emotions, Ideas in Action: From the Page to the Stage in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Theatre
We will do two things in this class:

1. We will read key, classic works in a variety of theatrical forms, to form an overview of developments in theatre from 1700-1850 approximately. This overview will cover –isms such as Neoclassicism & Romanticism; popular theatre (sainetes, diversiones populares); teatro de magia; and la comedia lacrimosa (or comedia sentimental). After taking this class, you should be well-equipped to build a timeline extending from Golden Age theatre on through to the beginning of modernity.
2. We will do an in-depth study of several of the plays, with a mind toward performing them in costume at the end of the quarter, and in so doing, realizing as fully as possible the implications of early modern theatrical text and performance for human understanding on all levels: visual, intellectual, physical, emotional, tactile/sensory.

Spanish 754

Spanish Theatre in the 20th and 21st Centuries
The course will center on the evolution of modern and postmodern Spanish theatre from approximately the start of the 20th century until the early 21st century. We will begin with the so-called bourgeois or commercial theatre of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Benavente, Arniches), and move through subsequent tendencies such as epic theatre and theatre of cruelty (Valle-Inclán), avant garde and poetical theatre (García Lorca), combat theatre of the Civil War (José Herrera Petere) and the difficult years of the Franco dictatorship (Buero Vallejo, Sastre, Martín Recuerda), including theatre of the absurd (Arrabal). We will then look at the emerging postmodernism of the period of democratic transition (Fernán Gómez, Alonso de Santos) and finish with more recent trends, especially the important current phenomenon of theatre written by women. This will include the most well-known woman dramatist of contemporary Spain (Paloma Pedrero), as well as short works by lesser known but significant recent woman authors (Yolanda Pallín, Yolando Dorado). Besides participating actively in all classes, students will be asked to prepare an oral presentation on an issue concerning one of the works being studied as well as a research paper on some aspect of modern or postmodern Spanish theatre. Take-home examinations will be included. The class will be given in Spanish.

Spanish 758

Biopolítica y necropolitica en la literatura latinoamericana
En este curso se leerán las contribuciones teóricas más importantes sobre el “paradigma biopolítico”. La biopolítica consiste en las decisiones que el Estado soberano toma para proteger la vida de ciertos seres humanos. Sin embargo, se olvida que también tiene una necropolítica para otros. Es decir toma medidas para matarlos con el uso de ley. Si bien el antecedente más lejano es la reflexión de Aristóteles sobre las relaciones estrechas entre biología y política, el curso enfocará los aportes de Giorgio Agamben, Roberto Espósito, Michel Foucault, Achille Mbembe, Antonio Negri, Walter Mignolo y Aníbal Quijano. Simultáneamente, interpretaremos un conjunto de obras literarias, incluidas en la lista de lecturas, que destacan por su contenido biopolítico. Se discutirán en las diez semanas del ciclo las narrativas de Nelly Campobello, José María Arguedas, Diamela Eltit y Pedro Lemebel.

Spanish 830

Forum presentation of research in Hispanic linguistics; introduction to professional issues in workshop format. Visit the Hispanic linguistics Colloquium page to access the calendar.

Spanish 832

Investigation of theoretical concepts in syntax, semantics, and pragmatics and how they have been applied to the analysis of the Spanish language.

Spanish 834

Investigation of theoretical concepts in phonetics, phonology, and morphology and how they have been applied to the analysis of the Spanish language.

Spanish 838

Study of selected topics in Spanish sociolinguistics, for example: syntactic variation, discourse analysis.

Spanish 840

Forum for presentation of research in Hispanic Literatures and Cultures; introduction to professional issues in workshop format. Visit the Latin American Literatures and Cultures Colloquium page to access the calendar.

Spanish 851

Detailed exploration of advanced issues in Medieval Spanish literature.

Spanish 855

La ciudad letrada
In Spain’s American colonies, cities quickly became the center of not only political and economic activity but literary and intellectual culture, as evidenced by the early establishment of a printing press (1535) and university (1553) in Mexico City. In this course, we will read from the poetry, prose, and drama written primarily in and about two important colonial cities: the stately viceregal capital of Mexico City and the unruly mining “boom town” of Potosí. Aside from comparing the cultural production and urban self-representation of these two cities (among others), we will examine recent critical debates about creole identity and the “barroco de Indias,” taking Angel Rama’s influential La ciudad letrada (1983) as a point of departure. Authors to be studied include Bernardo de Balbuena, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, Juan del Valle y Caviedes, Bartolomé Arzáns de Orsúa y Vela and Alonso Carrió de la Vandera.

Spanish 882

Semiotic Approaches to Literature, Audiovisual Arts and the Media
The semiotic movement of the 60s and 70s represented a valuable attempt for a comprehensive theory of language, culture and the arts. Nevertheless, semiotics seemed to be widely discredited in later years. After the dust of the theory wars has somewhat settled, some questions remain in high order concerning this interdisciplinary field of studies.

Is the semiotic movement still alive (or could it be claimed as yet another casualty of the above) and if so under what conditions?
Has the repudiation of the most formalistic versions of semiotics and its conflict with deconstruction meant the abandoning of its original project?
Is a general theory of signs really necessary?
Are comprehensive approaches to language, culture and the arts still possible?
Is there a proper syntax or semantics of the artistic text?
Are cognitive approaches the solution?
What do we understand when we understand a movie or a book?

This seminar will examine the controversy surrounding semiotics and the continued effort to systematize interdisciplinary knowledge about interpretive practices and signification processes in dialogue with linguistic, cognitive and social theories. We will discuss some of their applications to visual culture, and literature, so the course will have a theoretical and a practical component.

Spanish H401

Spanish H403

Spanish H450

Spanish H530

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language and it seeks to answer questions such as: what does it mean to know a language? i.e., what kind of knowledge does a native speaker have about his/her language? and, what are the main characteristics of human language?
This course offers an introduction to the main concepts and methods of linguistic analysis, applied to the study of three main areas in the linguistic structure of Spanish: (i) its sound system (phonetics and phonology) (ii) word formation (morphology) and (iii) sentence structure (syntax). This course includes exercises to develop the students' linguistic awareness, by carrying out linguistic analysis of the phonetic, phonological, morphological and syntactic structures of Spanish.

Spanish H565

En este curso se estudiará el renacimiento de las literaturas en lenguas amerindias que viene ocurriendo en los últimos veinte años en América Latina. Serán temas de reflexión del curso, el uso de la literatura como instrumento de gestiones culturales de los movimientos mayas,nahuas y quechuas que buscan el reconocimiento de sus derechos como ciudadanos. También se analizará cómo en la literatura se reivindican identidades culturales y sociales de origen precolombino con el propósito de defenderse del racismo que los ha mantenido en una situación de exclusión y miseria De este modo las novelas, cuentos, poemas y obras de teatro leídas en clase, forman parte de un continuum que se extiende a épocas precolombinas y coloniales. Para ver estas relaciones de continuidad con el pasado se leerán textos claves como el Popol Vuh y Dioses y hombres de Huarachiri y literaturas indígenas en ediciones bilingües. Por último, se verá que las identidades mayas, nahuas y quechuas contemporáneas han cambiado por efecto de procesos de migración, educación y ascenso social.
Para el trabajo final los estudiantes pueden trabajar obras literarias no leídas en clase, material audiovisual que circulan en videos, DVD o en la red.

This course will be followed by an optional ten day study tour to Peru immediately following winter quarter. Students will visit various indigenous Inca sites and gain an understanding of how the indigenous cultures have shaped today’s society in Peru by visiting Machupicchu, Ollantaytambo, Moray, Chinchero, Cusco, along with many other sites of cultural and historical significance. For more information, please visit: http://oia.osu.edu/programs/by-country/841-peru

Spanish H680

Intensive study of major topics in Hispanic literature, culture or linguistics, with emphasis on developing research skills; topic varies.