Department of Spanish and Portuguese

Various topics.

CASE requirements vary.

Note: S498 requires permission from the department, contact Jennifer Howard at howard21@iu.edu

Note: There are seven sections/topics.

HISP-S 498  READINGS FOR HONORS    (3 credits)                Literature

Prerequisites: One course from S324, S328, S331, S333, S334

Note: This course is combined with HISP-S 408 (28635)

This course carries CASE AH distribution credit.

This course requires permission from the department. Students must have applied to the department's honors program and be approved before enrolling.

HISP-S 498  #28830  11:10A-12:25P   MW    JH A105     Prof. Rhi Johnson

Description of HISP-S 408:

Topic: Iberian Modernities
This class will use the work of Francisco de Goya y Lucientes —one the most important artists in history— to explore the idea of modernity. Our work will be based in creating dialogues between collections of Goya’s work like the Caprichos and the Disparates, the Tauromaquia, the witches he painted for the duchess of Osuna, and the Black Paintings with literary and visual cultural productions from other moments in cultural history. In order to explore the ways that our world finds its roots in Goya’s, we will explore themes like ecocriticism and the role of animals in society; social satire and critiques of education, medicine, and social expectations around gender and relationships; and the friction between superstition, belief, and science. Course material will include readings drawn from a mix of visual and written texts (the latter being literature, history, and social commentary or editorials from various periods). Assessment is based in active preparation and participation in discussions, close readings of visual and written texts, and exams and creative projects. Please contact Dr. Johnson with any inquiries: rhirjohn@iu.edu.
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HISP-S 498  READINGS FOR HONORS   (3 credits)        Culture

Prerequisite: One of HISP-S 324, HISP-S 328, HISP-S 331, HISP-S 333, or HISP-S 334

Note: This class meets with HISP-S 411 (28639)

This class carries COLL (CASE) N&M Breadth of Inquiry credit.

This course requires permission from the department. Students must have applied to the department's honors program and be approved before enrolling.

HISP-S 498    #28673  8:00A-9:15A    TR      GA 0005       Prof. Edgar Illas

Description for HISP-S 411:

Topic: SPAIN: The Cultural Context
This course studies the globalization of Spain by examining the links between culture, politics and the economy in the contemporary period, beginning with the Civil War (1936-1939) but especially focusing on the post-Franco years (1975 to present). We will analyze literary works, movies, and architectural icons to understand the cultural challenges and social tensions of the process of globalization—or maybe Americanization—of the country. We will relate this process to the economic re-structuring of today’s Spain in its three main modes: as a key destination for global tourism (including study abroad programs!); as a site of investments of multinational companies; and as destination for many non-European immigrants needed as cheap labor. This re-structuring has caused serious territorial disputes over state power; we will study the terrorist violence in the Basque Country and the movement for secession in Catalonia. The goal of the course is to explore how the various cultures of Spain express some of the triumphs and the contradictions of the global world.
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HISP-S 498  READINGS FOR HONORS       (3 credits)            Literature

Prerequisites: One course from S324, S328, S331, S333, S334

This course carries CASE A&H credit.

This course requires permission from the department. Students must have applied to the department's honors program and be approved before enrolling.

Note: S498 is combined with HISP-S 422 (12709)      

HISP-S 498  #13248   2:20P-3:35P   TR     BH 314       Prof. Jonathan Risner

Description of HISP-S 422:

Topic: Hispanic Cinema: Contemporary Horror Cinema in Latin America and Spain
This course will focus on contemporary horror cinema made in Spain and Latin American countries. We will begin by focusing on definitions of horror and apply them to consider what horror is and is not in cinema and short stories. We will then progress to consider different subgenres of horror cinema, including the slasher, zombie films, vampire films, found footage, body horror, and art horror. The course will draw on different critical theories to examine the movies as well as take into account the conditions of production and distribution in Spain and distinct Latin American countries. Students will do regular homework assignments, write two exams, write a paper, and possibly make a short horror film in groups. The course will be conducted in Spanish.
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HISP-S 498 READINGS FOR HONORS   (3 credits)                 Linguistics

Prerequisite: HISP-S 326; or equivalent
Note: This class meets with HISP-S 427 (8370)

This course requires permission from the department. Students must have applied to the department's honors program and be approved before enrolling.

HISP-S 498   #28684   12:45P-2:00P     MW      LH 120      Prof. Patricia Amaral

Description for HISP-S 427:

Topic: The Structure of Spanish
In this course, we will study the grammatical structure of Spanish, particularly the structure of words (morphology) and the rules that allow us to combine words to create sentences (syntax). After studying the properties of lexical categories (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, etc.), we will focus on the properties of phrases (noun phrase, verb phrase, prepositional phrase, etc.) and their functions within a sentence. Next, we will study the types of simple and complex sentences. Our approach in this course is descriptive and includes the study of morphological and syntactic variation found in Spanish dialects. Additionally, a historical perspective on many morphological and syntactic topics will be presented, allowing students to understand the reasons behind the variation in Spanish and the relationship between Spanish and other Romance languages.
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HISP-S 498  READINGS FOR HONORS     (3 credits)          Linguistics
Prerequisites: HISP-S 326 or consent of the department.

Note: This course meets with HISP-S 429 (12708)

This course carries CASE N&M credit.

This course requires permission from the department. Students must have applied to the department's honors program and be approved before enrolling.

HISP-S 498  #13249  2:20P-3:35P   MW     SY 212        Prof. César Félix-Brasdefer

Description for HISP-S 429:

Topic: Pragmatics: Language in context (Spanish Sociolinguistics and Pragmatics)
The objective of this course is to examine language use in context (pragmatics) and sociolinguistic variation across regions in Latin America and Spain, including linguistic and social influence of indigenous languages spoken in Latin American in modern Spanish. The first part of the course covers the foundational concepts of pragmatics: meaning, context, speech acts, politeness/impoliteness, and discourse analysis. This course will look at grammatical concepts (conditional, subjunctive, negation, preterit/imperfect, word order, etc.) from a pragmatic perspective using data from native and non-native speakers. The second part of the course applies these notions to pragmatic and sociolinguistic variation by examining the effect of social factors (e.g. region, age, social class) on communicative language use. We will analyze data in Spanish from different sources such as colloquial conversation, institutional discourse, and controlled settings using oral and written questionnaires. Finally, students will learn the principles for writing a research paper.
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HISP-S 498  READINGS FOR HONORS  (3 credits)          Linguistics                 

Prerequisite: HISP-S 326 or Consent of the Department

This course requires permission from the department. Students must have applied to the department's honors program and be approved before enrolling.

Note: This course meets with S430 (28636)

This course carries CASE N&M credit.

HISP-S 498   #28728    12:45P-2:00P    MW     BH 237      Prof. M. Gabriela Puscama

Description of S430:

Topic: The Acquisition of Spanish
This course presents an overview of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories, with an emphasis on Spanish learning. First, we will critically analyze some key theories and concepts within the field and how they impact current beliefs and teaching practices. We will also discuss empirical studies, learn about research design, and analyze oral and written productions of Spanish learners. Through theoretical discussion and hands-on research, we will learn about the components of second language that may be challenging for learners to acquire. These will include phonetic, morphological, syntactic, lexicosemantic, and pragmatic features, among others. The course will cover different learning situations, including classroom-based, immersive experience, and technology-mediated learning. Students will be evaluated based on their engagement in class discussions, assignments, written exams, and a final group project.

Course objectives

Through engagement in critical discussions and assignments, students in this course will:

• gain an understanding of theories of second language acquisition;
• analyze and summarize the main points of empirical and theoretical papers;
• learn to recognize the main difficulties for L1 English-L2 Spanish learners;
• study and analyze oral and written production of Spanish learners;
• reflect on their own learning experience;
• design and conduct a research project on Spanish second language acquisition.

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HISP-S 498    READINGS FOR HONORS       (3 credits)        Literature
Prerequisite: HISP-S 328

Note: This class meets with HISP-S 472 (28827)

This course requires permission from the department. Students must have applied to the department's honors program and be approved before enrolling.

HISP-S 498   #28832    9:35A-10:50A   TR     GA 0013      Prof. Deborah Cohn

Description for HISP-S 472:

Topic: Democracy and Dictatorship
This course studies representations of dictatorship, post-dictatorship, democracy and efforts to democratize, and revolutions and their institutionalization in Spanish American and Latinx literature and film from the 1960s through the present. We will explore the goals of the Cuban Revolution of 1959, how it sparked hopes of establishing political and cultural autonomy throughout Spanish America, and how it also was repressive. We will also examine social(ist) movements, democratization efforts, and dictatorships elsewhere in the Caribbean, the Southern Cone, Mexico, and Central America in the 1960s and 1970s. We will, additionally, examine how the revolutionary activism and democratizing efforts of the 1960s and 1970s were entwined in broader, transnational movements, including student movements, anti-establishment protests and counterculture, as well as swayed by official U.S. Cold War support of dictatorships and efforts to “modernize” in order to contain the spread of Communism.

Focusing on literary and film texts as well as political and historical works, we will examine representations and critiques of: the Cuban Revolution, its goals, impact, repression, and long-term trajectory; the dictatorships in and counterrevolutionary measures of the Spanish American states (often supported by U.S. Cold War policies) in their efforts to stem the spread of Communism; the collusion of U.S.-style democracy with dictatorships throughout the region; protest movements and other efforts to democratize; the violence of dictatorship movements; and more. We will also analyze how gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity affect and are affected by these phenomena. We will examine texts within their national contexts and also focus our attention on their transnational dimension, that is, their relationships to other nations and their struggles in the Caribbean, Spanish America, and the U.S., and the diasporas that they prompted. We will examine the ways that content and structure/techniques work together in artistic texts to convey themes, and we will explore how texts engage with—reflect, respond to, and, often, seek to change—their historical, cultural, social, and/or political contexts.